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Good Life Project

Serial Creation: Make Better Stuff Faster and Easier

Good Life Project

Jonathan Fields / Acast

Education, How To, Self-improvement, Business, Health & Fitness

4.63.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2016

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The process of creation breathes me. Always has, always will. I wake up every day thinking about what I am going to create, from business to art and health to relationships.

The bigger challenge for me has never been about having enough ideas, it's been about process. How do I get the most important things done AND pursue my creative quests in a way that both lets me create my best work and feel good along the way?

When it comes to completing these projects, I’ve long adhered to the principle of "parallel creation" and "batched" my time. I pursue anywhere from 3-10 major projects at the same time, then segment each day into distinct chunks dedicated to a specific task and projects (three hours to write, two hours to work on web development, one hour for fitness, etc.) and work away accordingly.

But after years of doing it this way, I’m starting to think this might not be the best approach.

A few months ago, I decided to experiment with a new strategy—serial creation.

Unlike parallel creation, serial creation isn't about batching your work during a working day. It's about zooming the lens out to 3 months, looking at what needs to happen with each major project in that window, then apportioning entire days or weeks to focus on one and only one project at a time, during that season.

No other projects. No distractions. No excuses.

I ran my first experiment like this while finishing the manuscript for my last book. The results were incredible. And, that's what I'm talking about on today's short and sweet GLP Riff.

It'll take me the better part of winter and spring to entirely transition from parallel to serial creation. But, it works so much better for me on every level, I'm committed to the goal.



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Fancy a fever tree in a glass with ice and rum.

0:06.0

You thought I was going to say gin, didn't you?

0:09.0

But I'm talking about fever tree ginger beer,

0:12.0

made from three gingers for that perfect blend of freshness, sweetness and spiciness,

0:18.0

delicious with rum or on its own.

0:21.0

Fever tree ginger beer mix with the best.

0:27.0

Mmm, that spices things up.

0:36.0

So I don't know if you're like me, but on any given, let's say three month window of time,

0:41.0

I probably have between five and ten really substantial and really important projects that I'm working on.

0:48.0

Now, this is above, you know, like the bazillion other minor things that are really less important

0:53.0

that may or may not actually have to get done, it may also be largely just massive distractions

0:58.0

from the stuff that really matters.

1:00.0

But there are five to ten things that really matter, that I have to do, that I want to do,

1:05.0

that are just awesome amazing projects.

1:08.0

So examples could be writing a book, designing a website, creating a program, developing a presentation.

1:16.0

These are just some of the things that might be in my basket.

1:19.0

And on a personal level too, it may be reclaiming my health, it may be getting fit,

1:23.0

it may be spending more time with friends and family.

1:26.0

Whatever it is for you or for me, there's something that I've been playing with that I thought might be really helpful

1:32.0

to you in terms of figuring out how to approach and how to invest your energies in the projects that really matter

1:41.0

to do two things.

1:42.0

One, allow you to do your best work to really do a high level creative work.

...

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