Procrastination is Genius in disguise…
Or so The Organized Artist and Day 4 interview subject Sam Bennett claimed early on in Thursday Summit session. I appreciate anyone who joins together organization and artistic pursuits, bucking the stereotype that all artists are disorganized, flaky, and otherwise irresponsible. It’s pretty important, if you want to be a successful artist, that you have some sort of system that keeps things flowing smoothly!
Procrastination is one but one problematic trait of creatives (and others, of course, but we’re focusing on right-brainers at the moment), as is perfectionism. Bennett had a suggestion for dealing with that, as well, at least when it comes to goal setting. She suggests that we set goals in tiers: what I must do, what I’d like to do, and what would be amazing (the ‘drinks are on me’ level). That way, as long as we meet our level 1 goal we can accept the accomplishment and move on to whatever’s next.
I do this when I go to conventions, though I never really thought of it in this light. My must-do number is however many books I need to sell in order to break even for that event (usually around 16-18). My second goal at each convention is to empty a box, so we’re taking one less box of books home that we arrived with (average of 22-28 per box). My third tier goal shifts, depending on previous sales. The most books we’ve sold in a 3-day convention was 54, and that was an outlier of a show for us on several levels, so while it’d be great to beat that one day, it’s not always realistic. Instead, our highest “normal” show is in the 32 range, and any time we start approaching that number I get very, very happy!
Finally, she reminded my of a piece of advice I’ve given often, and even follow myself (most of the time), though I haven’t lately. You can do anything for 15 minutes. Setting aside 15 minutes for the projects that matter most, each day, every day, is a sure-fired way to actually Get It Done (also the title of her book). While I plan to spend way more than 15 minutes on The Crafty Branch’s business plan this weekend (my third-tier goal would be to finish it altogether, but I’d be thrilled with just organizing all the facts I have now and completing the playsheets–see what I did there?), making time for those 15 minutes during the week can be a bit more challenging.
This week has gone by so fast, already–only one more session before we’re halfway through–but there’s still another full week ahead. And you can still sign up for your free pass to the second half by clicking the image below. And if you want to catch up on the earlier sessions whose replays have started to expire, upgrading to the Booster pass gives you forever-access and other downloads, too. You still have time to upgrade to the Premium pass, which comes with hundreds of dollars worth of additional business-building resources, and the first of three coaching calls is Wednesday the 18th.
