Jericho: Da Projects
Why comment when I can just post my reply?
Several years back, Max proposed his theory that I always chase the new project and forget the current project I am working on. I probably rejected his theory, most likely just because it was his theory. A few years later, he pointed out this trend yet again. This time, I saw the wisdom of it.
It’s true, oh so very true. I am great at starting a project. I come up with a killer idea and I get all excited about it. I’ve got half of it planned out in my head in minutes – seriously. My brain is a quick thing; I can map out a project in a snap. I live for the start of a project. About the time I get about a quarter of the way into a project, the point where ideas must become plans for action if the project is to go on is about the point where I lose interest, or maybe I just lose focus. Either way, my brain is ever active and I will come up with some other, new, greater, cooler, better, shinier idea and off I go – leaving the just begun project on the pile with all the rest. And that pile is getting pretty big!
Want an example? You’re looking at it. Max challenged me to produce five hundred words a day until the end of the month. We’ve had a (farcical) pissing contest via email, we’ve both “laid our thing down” here on the blog – all in good fun. And, yet, it’s twenty to eleven and I am just now sitting down, attempting to bash out nearly two thousand words. I’ll be lucky to get five hundred. (269!)
Yet, we can also look at IWDC as a whole. We’re coming up on five years and I haven’t let this project go. There’s a lesson for me to learn here and it says a lot about me. IWDC is a project with no dead line, no set expectations. I don’t have to provide content on a daily basis, although I’d like to. I don’t have to do anything. If I don’t post, Max often does. If the site goes for weeks, heck, months without a post, we’ll see a complaint from Laura and maybe I’ll get a question from my wife. But, that’s it. So, when I get around to it, I post. I try to write something good, I put real effort, brain sweat, into my posts. But the longest posts out here are pretty short compared to stuff I do at work or to a full novel. I keep doing it because it’s fun and it gives me a sense of accomplishment.
Short. Reasonable timeline. Rewarding. My last boss, he saw this in me. He saw that if he could give me an unusual project with a quick return and it would draw a pat on the head, I’d dive right into it, no matter how weird. Case in point: one of our offices wanted to record a big meeting. The meeting was going to be in three offices, with a teleconference. They wanted cameras in at least two offices, a recording of the call and all of it edited together in one professional package that could be a training tool for those who missed the meeting and for future employees. First word out of my mouth was “pricey”. I was told something very unusual – price was no object.
I knew not how to proceed. What did I know about major video production? I’ll tell you what I know – zilch! The best part was that the person who requested this was out of our Los Angeles office. I’m in Seattle – why is someone that close to Hollywood asking me to do this?!?!
But, my boss was right: give me a quick, strange project and I’m all over it. I was out on Google looking up anything that looked good. I was on the phone. I made dozens of calls. I spoke to everyone from PBS to the Milwaukee Archdiocese – not kidding! Before I knew it, I had three producers sending me proposals. This was quick, too, I was told I didn’t have a ton of time. One of these producers happened to know one of the firm’s partners! So, I had a partner on the phone – guess what he wanted! If there was money, why shouldn’t it go to his old college buddy?
In the end, I told them the price and suddenly price was an object. They objected quite loudly and decided to drop the whole thing. But that’s not the point. The point is that if I can start and keep momentum, I can do some pretty awesome things.
Right now at work, my new boss has his whole team reading a book: Getting Things Done by David Allen. Interesting book. He has a rather simple set of ideas on how to organize things in order to achieve “stress-free productivity”. I’ll be honest; I’m liking his theories. I’ve started implementing them. Not just at work – one of his main arguments is that stress free productivity should be practiced in one’s personal life as well as in one’s career. If your home life is out of control, it will cause stress for you everywhere, not just at home.
Some of my recent stuff has come out of implementing his ideas. The album reviews, the writer’s resume, entering the NaNoWriMo – every one of these have been a “next action” on the project “Become a Freelance Writer”. I seriously have that listed as a project on my list, right next to “organize the California tickets” and “sell my house”. I’ve kinda hoped that my recent writing advances have been noticeable, but I guess a part of me would be happy if I were considered an overnight success because no one noticed how furiously I was working behind the scenes.
In all seriousness, this Allen guy’s stuff is simple and it works. I am freeing up some parts of my brain. And I really do see some paths forward. Before it was just a whole jumble of things in my head that I wanted to do, and I would pick the most interesting at the moment. Now, it’s a big list of things to do on paper and I have a free brain. I can pick and choose what gets done and when and know that I’m not ignoring another project, just that I’m choosing to do the one I’m doing. It’s liberating. If you get the chance, grab the book; I’m sure there are copies at the local used bookstore.
I just don’t want “Great Guy, Never Finished a Project” to be my epitaph. I have folders and folders of unfinished stories. The bad news is that I’m a failure as a writer; the good news is that I have plenty of useable ideas if I ever need them. I have started two on-line comic strips. Both of those died for the exact same reason – delivering daily content, no matter what it might be, is hard. I have life and I have work. I loved doing those strips, the creativity of it all. I wish I could find a way to do it everyday. The guys who can produce daily comic content go on to be guys making a living from doing that and that alone. Heck, I even started a webzine once; never saw it’s first issue. I allowed my own self-doubt to cloud my judgment. It died before it was born.
One of my favorite projects that I have never finished, heck, that I’ve barely started, is my army. As you all know, I’m a gamer. Eight or so years ago, I bought a box set for a game called Warhammer 40,000, a.k.a. 40k. If you don’t know what it is and would like to know, go Google it, I won’t bore you with the details. In short, the game involves a bunch of small figures that one assembles and paints. Then, one challenges someone else to a war game. The box came with two starter armies, I talked a friend into painting up the second army and we would play when we were both ready. He went right to it, I didn’t. We played once, his figures were painted and mine had only a black basecoat. We played a second time and then mine went on a shelf. This friend went on to become something of a local big deal with the company that produces this game; he got other friends of mine interested in the game. My “army” sat on the shelf, unpainted and unplayed.
But the story, and my shame, only grows. These figures and the paint and the books are not cheap. I had already invested $150 or so dollars in this game. About six months ago, I got the urge to break these figures out again. Mind you, this is the third or forth time I’ve gotten this urge. But this time, I did it with gusto. I bought paint, the latest set of books and, you guessed it, more figures. All told, I’m about $300 into this game. Have I done any painting? Nope. Have I played the game? Nope. I’m sure Steph thinks I’m insane. She hasn’t given me any grief, but I bet she thinks this is a total waste of perfectly good money. The only hope for this “army” of mine is that it is currently listed as a “Someday” project on my new list of projects.
My hope is that as I age and as I try to improve myself, I will find ways to become better at starting, managing and finishing projects. As I read this book, I’m seeing a very simple truth: life is a project. We’re all project managers. We have resources and talent pools and dead lines. I want my projects to go smooth and produce great things that benefit you, me, heck, everyone! I want my friends to feel that they can rely on me. When I say I’m going to do something, it will get done. I want my wife to feel she can trust me with a simple task list – I’m pretty sure she doesn’t at this stage, with good reason. I’m tired of stuff not getting done. I feel better when stuff gets done.
I want to finish the NaNoWriMo. I want to write a real novel. I want to do all of the certifications I’ve been promising my employers I would pursue. I want to sell my house. I want to finish my degree. I want to write something publishable with Max. I want to paint my freakin’ army! I want to be a freelance writer. I want to be the guy that gets things done.
As a first step, I’m the guy that just laid down 1800+ words before midnight!
Several years back, Max proposed his theory that I always chase the new project and forget the current project I am working on. I probably rejected his theory, most likely just because it was his theory. A few years later, he pointed out this trend yet again. This time, I saw the wisdom of it.
It’s true, oh so very true. I am great at starting a project. I come up with a killer idea and I get all excited about it. I’ve got half of it planned out in my head in minutes – seriously. My brain is a quick thing; I can map out a project in a snap. I live for the start of a project. About the time I get about a quarter of the way into a project, the point where ideas must become plans for action if the project is to go on is about the point where I lose interest, or maybe I just lose focus. Either way, my brain is ever active and I will come up with some other, new, greater, cooler, better, shinier idea and off I go – leaving the just begun project on the pile with all the rest. And that pile is getting pretty big!
Want an example? You’re looking at it. Max challenged me to produce five hundred words a day until the end of the month. We’ve had a (farcical) pissing contest via email, we’ve both “laid our thing down” here on the blog – all in good fun. And, yet, it’s twenty to eleven and I am just now sitting down, attempting to bash out nearly two thousand words. I’ll be lucky to get five hundred. (269!)
Yet, we can also look at IWDC as a whole. We’re coming up on five years and I haven’t let this project go. There’s a lesson for me to learn here and it says a lot about me. IWDC is a project with no dead line, no set expectations. I don’t have to provide content on a daily basis, although I’d like to. I don’t have to do anything. If I don’t post, Max often does. If the site goes for weeks, heck, months without a post, we’ll see a complaint from Laura and maybe I’ll get a question from my wife. But, that’s it. So, when I get around to it, I post. I try to write something good, I put real effort, brain sweat, into my posts. But the longest posts out here are pretty short compared to stuff I do at work or to a full novel. I keep doing it because it’s fun and it gives me a sense of accomplishment.
Short. Reasonable timeline. Rewarding. My last boss, he saw this in me. He saw that if he could give me an unusual project with a quick return and it would draw a pat on the head, I’d dive right into it, no matter how weird. Case in point: one of our offices wanted to record a big meeting. The meeting was going to be in three offices, with a teleconference. They wanted cameras in at least two offices, a recording of the call and all of it edited together in one professional package that could be a training tool for those who missed the meeting and for future employees. First word out of my mouth was “pricey”. I was told something very unusual – price was no object.
I knew not how to proceed. What did I know about major video production? I’ll tell you what I know – zilch! The best part was that the person who requested this was out of our Los Angeles office. I’m in Seattle – why is someone that close to Hollywood asking me to do this?!?!
But, my boss was right: give me a quick, strange project and I’m all over it. I was out on Google looking up anything that looked good. I was on the phone. I made dozens of calls. I spoke to everyone from PBS to the Milwaukee Archdiocese – not kidding! Before I knew it, I had three producers sending me proposals. This was quick, too, I was told I didn’t have a ton of time. One of these producers happened to know one of the firm’s partners! So, I had a partner on the phone – guess what he wanted! If there was money, why shouldn’t it go to his old college buddy?
In the end, I told them the price and suddenly price was an object. They objected quite loudly and decided to drop the whole thing. But that’s not the point. The point is that if I can start and keep momentum, I can do some pretty awesome things.
Right now at work, my new boss has his whole team reading a book: Getting Things Done by David Allen. Interesting book. He has a rather simple set of ideas on how to organize things in order to achieve “stress-free productivity”. I’ll be honest; I’m liking his theories. I’ve started implementing them. Not just at work – one of his main arguments is that stress free productivity should be practiced in one’s personal life as well as in one’s career. If your home life is out of control, it will cause stress for you everywhere, not just at home.
Some of my recent stuff has come out of implementing his ideas. The album reviews, the writer’s resume, entering the NaNoWriMo – every one of these have been a “next action” on the project “Become a Freelance Writer”. I seriously have that listed as a project on my list, right next to “organize the California tickets” and “sell my house”. I’ve kinda hoped that my recent writing advances have been noticeable, but I guess a part of me would be happy if I were considered an overnight success because no one noticed how furiously I was working behind the scenes.
In all seriousness, this Allen guy’s stuff is simple and it works. I am freeing up some parts of my brain. And I really do see some paths forward. Before it was just a whole jumble of things in my head that I wanted to do, and I would pick the most interesting at the moment. Now, it’s a big list of things to do on paper and I have a free brain. I can pick and choose what gets done and when and know that I’m not ignoring another project, just that I’m choosing to do the one I’m doing. It’s liberating. If you get the chance, grab the book; I’m sure there are copies at the local used bookstore.
I just don’t want “Great Guy, Never Finished a Project” to be my epitaph. I have folders and folders of unfinished stories. The bad news is that I’m a failure as a writer; the good news is that I have plenty of useable ideas if I ever need them. I have started two on-line comic strips. Both of those died for the exact same reason – delivering daily content, no matter what it might be, is hard. I have life and I have work. I loved doing those strips, the creativity of it all. I wish I could find a way to do it everyday. The guys who can produce daily comic content go on to be guys making a living from doing that and that alone. Heck, I even started a webzine once; never saw it’s first issue. I allowed my own self-doubt to cloud my judgment. It died before it was born.
One of my favorite projects that I have never finished, heck, that I’ve barely started, is my army. As you all know, I’m a gamer. Eight or so years ago, I bought a box set for a game called Warhammer 40,000, a.k.a. 40k. If you don’t know what it is and would like to know, go Google it, I won’t bore you with the details. In short, the game involves a bunch of small figures that one assembles and paints. Then, one challenges someone else to a war game. The box came with two starter armies, I talked a friend into painting up the second army and we would play when we were both ready. He went right to it, I didn’t. We played once, his figures were painted and mine had only a black basecoat. We played a second time and then mine went on a shelf. This friend went on to become something of a local big deal with the company that produces this game; he got other friends of mine interested in the game. My “army” sat on the shelf, unpainted and unplayed.
But the story, and my shame, only grows. These figures and the paint and the books are not cheap. I had already invested $150 or so dollars in this game. About six months ago, I got the urge to break these figures out again. Mind you, this is the third or forth time I’ve gotten this urge. But this time, I did it with gusto. I bought paint, the latest set of books and, you guessed it, more figures. All told, I’m about $300 into this game. Have I done any painting? Nope. Have I played the game? Nope. I’m sure Steph thinks I’m insane. She hasn’t given me any grief, but I bet she thinks this is a total waste of perfectly good money. The only hope for this “army” of mine is that it is currently listed as a “Someday” project on my new list of projects.
My hope is that as I age and as I try to improve myself, I will find ways to become better at starting, managing and finishing projects. As I read this book, I’m seeing a very simple truth: life is a project. We’re all project managers. We have resources and talent pools and dead lines. I want my projects to go smooth and produce great things that benefit you, me, heck, everyone! I want my friends to feel that they can rely on me. When I say I’m going to do something, it will get done. I want my wife to feel she can trust me with a simple task list – I’m pretty sure she doesn’t at this stage, with good reason. I’m tired of stuff not getting done. I feel better when stuff gets done.
I want to finish the NaNoWriMo. I want to write a real novel. I want to do all of the certifications I’ve been promising my employers I would pursue. I want to sell my house. I want to finish my degree. I want to write something publishable with Max. I want to paint my freakin’ army! I want to be a freelance writer. I want to be the guy that gets things done.
As a first step, I’m the guy that just laid down 1800+ words before midnight!
posted by Jericho Brown at 10/17/2006 11:58:00 PM
3 Comments:
Bitch! I went to bed thinking I was $10 richer.
Instead you exceeded my word count in less time.
Bitch!
And I stayed on one topic! :P
I stayed on one subject.
Just for that I am forwarding information on EKS to your boss.
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