Deadlines

Permission To Suck

Garth Beyer

There are a few tasks a day, I imagine, that we absolutely need to do things right. There are some projects at work where there is simply no room for being wrong, especially if the shipping deadline is EOD.

That being said, each project or obligation we have to get right, we actually think to ourselves how it must be right, it must be perfect before we send it out. It becomes a constant reminder to do things slow and safely.

Oddly, though, a project where there is room for being wrong, we often don’t acknowledge that privilege and thus don’t exercise it, thus putting us at a disadvantage to those cashing out on the privilege of being wrong.

We ought to notice when there is room for wrong or, as I consider it, permission to suck because the path toward creative righteousness is made of moments of wrong, of failure, of suck. How?

Because regularly shipping work that sucks a bit or being off about a project direction – essentially being wrong about something, goes from feeling like death to being a bit of a nuisance to being a treasured opportunity.

 

Stay Positive & Recognize The Moments You’re Permitted To Suck (and cash out on them!)

Expanding Tasks

Expanding Tasks

Garth Beyer

Parkinson's Law

 

Tasks expand to the time allowed. That’s Parkinson’s law.

It certainly explains why deadlines are essential? Right? Partly.

Deadlines trigger you to thrash – that energy boost, that scramble to finish and ship something before it’s too late.

When you’re coming up with new year resolutions, consider shorter time frames and leverage your knowledge of Parkinson’s law and thrashing. Do you really want to take an entire year to complete something?

Thanks for reading and I hope to be part of your 2015.

 

Stay Positive & Cheers

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It’s Not Better Late Than Never

It’s Not Better Late Than Never

Garth Beyer

Show up early. Apply early. Get up early. Get there early. Send it early.

Sometimes you’ll get somewhere early and end up waiting.

Sometimes you’ll send the email early and not get a response until late.

More often than not, you’ll get a response, a connection, a reward for being early.

It’s been nearly three years since I wrote It PAYS To Be Early. Every experience I’ve had since then has reaffirmed my belief in there always being benefits to doing and showing up to things early. I’ve learned one more important thing.

The times I have been late… the trending result was the same as if I never showed up, never applied, never sent that email.

 

Stay Positive & Early Is Better Than Late And Never

The Gap Between You And An Artist

Garth Beyer

Have you ever noticed that some of your best work was done a day or maybe even hours before the deadline?

You waited (procrastinated?) until the deadline was right in front of you and thrashed to complete what you needed to.

While deadlines may suck (they are never far away enough), the thrashing that they provoke is paramount.

An artist in any industry is really no better than you or me. The gap between us isn’t skill, it’s not the number of followers they have and we don’t, it’s not even the connections they inherited and we have not. What creates the gap is that they thrash more often.

Thrashing is that rush of complete productivity we get before being forced to have something produced, finished, shipped.

Most acknowledge this with a term paper that’s due tomorrow afternoon or that personal statement you have to write by April 13th – that you start on April 11th.

The difference between you and an artist is that the artist makes thrashing a habit, it’s done daily, and most importantly, it’s done without a deadline.

What do you say we start closing that gap?

 

Stay Positive & You Can Start By Sharing Your Art On Here (comments section below)

Garth E. Beyer