This guest post is by Catherine Caine of cashandjoy.com.
There are people who can do the old slow-and-steady routine, but I am so not one of them.
When it comes to big creative endeavors, I’m a sprinter, not a marathoner: my new, best-ever-work physical product was created, start to finish, in one month. (That’s nothing! My first ever product was created over one weekend.)
Image by vestman, licensed under Creative Commons
Reduce all other commitments
Say, “Sounds great, but this is a busy month for me” to everything possible. This might include money-making opportunities, especially if they’re with draining clients or involve a lot of detail work.
“But … the money!” you say. It is very important! Absolutely. But it’s far better to turn down a bit of work (professionally) than to:
- turn up, do a distracted job, leave customers unimpressed
- have to push back the delivery six times because you underestimated how much time you could devote to the project
- get sick midway through because you’re neglecting your self-care to get the job done.
One of the keys to successful sprinting is to carry as little as possible. Over-burdened sprinting becomes desperate shuffle-jogging shortly thereafter.
Your memory is not to be trusted
Your brain is juggling as you create: the audience, the goals, the tone, the impact, the benefits, and a half-dozen more. Double-spirals, over-and-unders, your brain has it all covered.
Now imagine that I throw in a pile of confetti into your juggling. Disaster! While trying to keep track of the tiny bits of paper, the big balls fall everywhere.
To avoid having to juggle confetti, get...
