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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Derek Olsen, I just ate a frozen concrete with peanut butter cup and Reese’s pieces, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share when I’ve learned about completing large projects..
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Now, let’s get to today’s show.
What I Learned Yesterday:
I can be impatient. I want it all and I want it now, as the song by the band Queen goes.
I want everything in life to be easier than it really is and I want everything to take less time.
When I think about it, I’m not sure what I would do with all the extra time gained by things going faster. I mean, if I’m not already doing what I love then why am I doing all these other things? An easy fix would be to stop doing things that are wasting my time and just do things that I don’t consider a waste of time. (Whoa, kinda just blew my own mind there.)
So here’s where this idea hits home for me right now on a daily bases. I’m in the middle of writing another book right now. I’ve been kicking this idea around for over a year now. Book ideas can change shape a lot from inception to final published edition. This book has changed a lot over the last year.
Right now I am about half way through the first draft. For those who aren’t familiar with the writing process, that doesn’t mean I am half way through publishing the book. There is still editing, re-writing, more writing, more editing, more re-writing, a final read-through for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Then there is the formatting process, graphics and cover art, uploading, submission, and acceptance to the printer and finally, you are published. And after that comes marketing, article writing, interviews, guest posting, book tours, a release party and endless other book supporting activities.
As you probably already know, writing a book is a huge project that takes months and sometimes years from start to finish.
So how does someone who is impatient and wants things to go quickly deal with such a long process? I know how I handle it and it’s not very pretty.
Actually, I’ve gotten a lot better. It can be extremely intimidating to open a word doc with 16,000 words spread out over 90 pages. It’s like waking up everyday and looking out your window at the mountain you agreed to climb. Some days staying in bed feels like the better option.
I said I’ve gotten better, so what do I mean by that?
One thing I do is I remind myself every day that progress is progress. You don’t just sit down and crank out 25,000 words all at the same time and in the exact order that the final edition will be in. It doesn’t work that way. Just 500 words a day will get you a 25000 word first draft in 50 days. That pace would be a great accomplishment for any writer. Up that number to 1000 words a day and you could have your first draft complete in just under a month.
But sometimes looking at making progress this way isn’t enough. With a big project like writing a book, it remains un-done for so long it can start to fell like you aren’t making progress. How many things in life are left un-done for 12 months as part of the process? Not very many. It takes less time to have a baby.
I feel so much better about myself when I complete several shorter projects on a daily or weekly bases. Finishing projects makes me feel good. So having an un-finished project for months is tricky for me. Any project that takes any amount of time to complete remains un-finished for the majority of the time. A book just so happens to take a really long time to complete.
The biggest thing that has helped me be okay with working on an un-finished project for months at a time is this…
I don’t look at the project as being un-finished for 99% of the time. Thinking about it like that can really start to feel overwhelming. If it took me 12 months to get around to finishing most things I would feel lazy. But a book project demands that much time, you can’t compare it to something like mowing the yard, getting an oil change, or other projects that take far less time to complete.
I remind myself that if I just put in the hours and keep making forward progress that the book will eventually be finished. The time will pass. The work involved will be worth it.
I’m Derek Olsen and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
I’d like to give you a free book. It’s call 4 ½ Conversation Starters. T
his little e-book is perfect if you and your partner would like to get on the same page in the finance department of your marriage.
Visit derekandcarrie.com to get your free copy of 4 ½ Conversation Starters right now. And if you just can’t get enough, check out my other podcast called Better Conversations on Money and Marriage.
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