You can do so much more. So what is getting in your way?
How to achieve more, better and faster– by leveraging your greatest innate human ability
After many years of research, trial, and error, I believe I’ve found the ultimate system for getting things done.
Some background first.
In my home I have several boxes filled with, mostly, old technology that I have planned to sell on eBay for many years. Like bitcoin, the value of those boxes keeps going down. Most of it is probably worth next to nothing now. (Anyone in the market for a Sony Discman Portable CD player?)
I also have several items in my attic that I bought on eBay. “Future projects.” One example- an original Bridgestone MB-1 mountain bike frame. I had lots of ideas on how to build it up. I bought that in 2007.
My largest collection of untouched items, however, sits in a software program called Things. It’s my giant collection of “to-do’s.”
Oh the hours I’ve spent planning, researching and thinking about HOW to do things. The BEST way to do them. The RIGHT TIME to do them. With the PERFECT tools to do them.
My friend Google, how often have we searched together to find the “best ways to…” or compared one thing “vs.” another? God help me, I have even typed the words “best practices.”
Have you read Getting Things Done by David Allen? I have. Multiple times. 7 habits of Highly Effective People? Yep. I have a way-too-big collection of books just like these.
Therein lies the problem. Instead of getting things done, I’ve spent years trying to figure out exactly the best way to get them done. It’s a sickness.
Imagine if I’d taken those hours and just applied them to actually doing. Not worrying about if I was doing it exactly “right” but just digging in and doing the work.
Start “over-doing” instead of “over-thinking”
This affliction is widespread in the marketing & advertising industry. I’ve experienced it (and contributed to it) for a long time.
Planning and strategy. Meeting about planning and strategy. Making decks. (Should we make them in PowerPoint, Keynote, Google or InDesign?) Thinking about process. Meeting about process. Making flowcharts about process (hmmm… is there a better flowchart software tool out there? Let me spend a couple hours googling that.)
The creative process is infected by this as well. Instead of creating, we often debate about when to create, how we should create it, or really, why are we even creating? It’s not time to create yet! (Spoiler alert: it’s always a good time to create.)
Many years ago, I spent well over a year attempting to create one TV commercial for a soda. Yes, a soda. Sugar water. I can’t even remember how many meetings we had. Strategy meetings. Research meetings. Creative meetings. Meetings in Chicago. Meetings in New York. Meetings about meetings. The end result? The commercial sucked. Shocking.
It’s the end result that matters. Not how you got to the end result.
We should spend a lot less time on worrying about how we make things.
We should stop trying so hard to shape the end result before we even begin.
Instead, let’s spend time more time and thought on what we make. On making.
Start doing. And adapt along the way.
This is what we’re made to do. We humans are at the top of the food chain primarily because of our incredibly to think creatively and adapt.
It’s the end result that matters. Stop worrying about how we make things. Stop trying to shape the end result before we even begin. Start doing. And adapt along the way.
Read this.
We are designed this way.
The system to end all systems
Yes, you do need a plan. But it doesn’t have to be much of one. It absolutely shouldn’t be much of one.
Here’s how you do it:
- Define an outcome– what are you trying to achieve? In your mind visualize the end goal. Generate a very fuzzy picture of the end product and define what success looks like.
- Who, if anyone, can help you achieve this? If someone can, figure out what you need to give them or tell them so you can effectively delegate.
- What tools do you need to achieve this? (Don’t get stuck here!)
Depending on the scale of what you’re creating, make this plan in a hour, a few hours or a day. Maybe two days. Then stop planning and start making. Do the work.
Forge ahead. Jump right in. Things will happen that we can’t possibly have planned for. Good things. New things.
This is the process: Create-Adapt-Create-Adapt. Repeat.
By doing the work the plan will often reveal itself. Nothing special comes from a linear process.
I guarantee you will find the answer through this process. You’ll do it faster, so much faster, than if you spent a ton of time trying to plan.
It ain’t mathematics; it’s jazz.
This quote above came from Co-President Colleen DeCourcy of Wieden & Kennedy (Nike’s global ad agency, if you’re not familiar with them). I just read it the a few days ago. She was speaking to how they operate as a company. It also is the exact essence of this process. No wonder they’re so good.
It’s not easy.
Often we’re subconsciously avoiding the inevitable hard work by over-planning. It’s fun to plan. And let’s face it, it’s easier.
There is no best way to do anything. Constantly seeking the best way to do something prevents you from doing anything.
Stop getting in your own way.
Start something, and as long as you keep working at it, I am 100% sure you’ll find what you’re looking for along the way.
About me: I’m a Partner/Creative Director at Teak in San Francisco. I’m from Colorado, moved to Chicago for 8 years then settled down in San Anselmo, California (the birthplace of mountain biking) with my wife to raise two amazing kids. I’m a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, Denver Broncos and Peet’s Coffee.
