Microtasking in More Time Now

Monkey recently read Dave Navarro's More Time Now manifesto - it's a good read, but only if you want the earth-shaking kick in the pants to stop wasting time and to take action to realize your goals. As Monkey + Seal constantly discuss, Dave's tone is a bit brusque, which works okay with Monkey, but is a bit of a turn-off with Seal. That said, there is one thing that we'd like to highlight that is one of Dave's best tips.

That is the idea of microtasking. When you have a large goal that seems rather large, it pays to find something small (almost embarrassingly small) to do every day. For example, if you want to change your current behavior of leaving huge piles of dishes in the sink, instead of saying to yourself "I'm going to wash all these dishes and never let the dishes go unwashed" you're setting yourself up for failure. It's the reason diets are so hard. You're basically going cold-turkey, which usually doesn't work for most people.

Instead, you need to take a graduated approach. If you want to break you bad habit, prioritize washing one dish every day. Or just a utensil. Something small. Do that for a week, and eventually, you'll turn it into a habit. Then, slowly and surely, you'll start doing a second fork, since you're already doing one. And then maybe a dish or two, since it's easy once you're already going. Eventually, you'll just start doing your dishes on autopilot, and burn through the stack no problemo.

To take this approach to art, Monkey has found that microtasking really works! He started out his "post art every day" in order to get in the habit of making art at a more consistent pace. Now, he finds it difficult when he's not making art. If you look at his personal blog, you see him start to post things like drawings on envelopes, or quick digital sketches. Now, while he doesn't always make the time to do a longer digital illustration, he's definitely producing more and more, and not everything is making it onto the blog.

My making "illustrating" a habit, Monkey is slowly but surely taking time away from surfing the web and playing Bejeweled Blitz and spending more time creating. He highly recommends it! Start small, and you'll end up changing everything.

7 Steps to Playing a Much Bigger Game

So Monkey has been on a bit of an entrepreneurial kick this past week, and as he types this, he's been feeling a twisting pang in his chest. Fortunately, it's not angina, but the feeling of a realization that is so profound and life-altering, that it is hard to put it into words. It's the feeling (Monkey imagines) of standing on a high-dive platform, really, really high up, with the (what looks like) a tiny tiny pool down beneath you. You start to bounce a bit to get into the swing of things, and then you realize that if you try to stop the bounce, you're totally going to lose your balance and fall. But if you just take a big jump, you're going to get enough spring to fling you through the air.

The trick is to just let gravity do its thing and move you along. To be a bit more personal, here's Monkey:

To be honest, this feeling is scary. I first thought "what the f is wrong with me?" but then I realized that it's the life-altering slap in the face that I needed. Being able to finally "get it" - that really my own fear is what has been holding me back all these years is both relieving as well as frightening. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but at the same time I feel exposed and vulnerable, as knowing that I've been hiding behind my fear and insecurities, I really have been at fault for holding myself back.

I've heard this many times, in many various forms, but the pdf. I just read touched something in me that just shook me to my core. Now, for a few quick disclaimers. 1. I was so f'ing in to this little mini e-book that I immediately signed up for the affiliate program, so if you ever buy something or anything, we'll get a cut of it. 2. Dave Navarro, the author who wrote "7 Steps to playing a much bigger game," might not be for everyone as he's definitely blunt and motivating in a "get your ass up and go" sort of way. However, if you, like me, need a bit of a heavy hand sometimes, then this is definitely for you.


Some of my fav quotes from the guide:

"Yeah, life is difficult. It really is. But it seems much more difficult than it really is because society is training you to think that it should be easy. Microwave popcorn, drive-throughs, magic pills and instant downloads have conditioned us to expect everything to be easy and push button and if it's not, then oh-crap-what-is-wrong-with-me-I-am-such-a-failure."

"Imagine: You know CPR well enough. Someone stops breathing, and what do you do? Do you start asking yourself if there are better CPR practitioners than you? Do you wonder if your certification came from a prestigious enough teacher? Or maybe you have no certification at all, someone just showed you how to do it (correctly)? Are you going to dredge up every loser feeling you've had about yourself and dwell on that while that person slips off into the great unknown?
Hell no. You're going to get on your knees, do that CPR thing, and save that person's life. Without a second thought. Because the situation calls for value, and you have value to offer."

Definitely a bit brusque, Dave's writing really hits home for me, though, and has inspired me to really start working past my fear and taking action, regardless if it ends up in failure or success, as either way, it won't really be that bad.

I highly recommend signing up for his free email newsletters in order to get downloadable access to all the free pdfs he has to offer - all of which come with little worksheets that will help you get on your way to stepping it up another notch.

Anyway, as I've been doing more and more reading, I'll definitely be posting more and more awesome other writers/bloggers/coaches/advice/etc. about making it as a creative and chasing the dream. But for reals, check out Dave's stuff, and let me know what you think - hopefully it'll give you the kick in the pants you need to get out there and change the world.