The "Done in a Day" Rule

Cuz that sounds more interesting than "Daily Quotas"

It’s time for a Wednesbetter Nednesletter!

Do you know what the world needs right now? No, not more sustainable energy, empathy, healthier habits, and world peace.

We need to revisit the somewhat disturbing Miley Cyrus “Adore You” parody I did back in 2014 entitled “I Am Corn”. Yes, to reiterate… disturbing. But necessary. You have been warned.

Anyhoo, let’s talk about the thing that has to do with the title of this issue.

The Value of The Daily Donesies

Okay, okay, this idea is simple, but I feel like I have to keep relearning it. Everything is so much better when I set simple, actionable, easily definable DAILY goals.

This is VERY obvious for big businesses that make tangible products, but it becomes more elusive with health and especially with creative stuff, wherein the output is long-term and hard to measure.

I was reminded of the necessity for specific daily goals while editing the big, full-length documentary I’m supposed to be finishing by the end of March.

It was… shrug… slow going.

When you’re faced with an enormous creative project that will definitely take months to finish, it’s hard to even know what to work on.

It’s hard to know where to start, where to end, or even to feel like you’ve accomplished anything at all when the finish line is so far away.

Then it hit me. Do 2 minutes a day. Complete 2 minutes of documentary in the timeline every weekday.

I found a metric that can carry me through! (At least, I think so. Maybe I’ll have to adjust the time if it proves too hard, but then I’ll likely not finish by the end of March.)

This is useful because it gives me an obvious finish line for the day.

Doing this gives me a place to strive for if I’m lagging and, maybe even more important, a place to STOP before I burn out.

AND I’ll feel a sense of accomplishment rather than floating in the winds of confusion and disappointment.

I’m also doing something else that I think will be important. I’m picturing what it will feel like in the future. 1 week from now, if I stick to it, I should be at around 20 minutes of doc. That will still feel like very little. The task will be daunting.

Then 2 weeks will be 30 minutes. Yikes. So much more to do.

4 weeks: 40 minutes. 5 weeks: 50 minutes. etc. etc.

The point is, it’s gonna feel like a very slow burn for a while, but it compiles. I try to imagine how I’ll feel in 8 weeks when I have an almost fully completed documentary!

Whether it’s good or not is another story. But that’s always subjective, and I can always go back to fix things.

In fact, that’s also a problem that a daily goal fixes: my constant need to tinker with what I’ve already done!

I’m an editor at my core. I’m always going back and perfecting things as I make them. It makes the whole act of creating torturous.

But if I force myself to GET THE 2 DAMN MINUTES DONE, I can get myself out of that perfection cycle.

It’s actually what inspired and sustained the Wheezy Waiter channel back in the early days. I noticed my perfectionism was a problem, so I told myself I would make a whole video in one day, day after day, and then put it up. Whatever it was, it was.

And here we are.

The point is if you’re struggling to get something done, especially a LARGE project, figure out how you can break it down into tangible daily goals. Don’t make them too hard. In fact, try to make them easy, at least at first.

But maybe try to KEEP them easy as well. Stop when you say you should stop, even if you feel like working more. It’ll be better for your future self.

And now I’m gonna stop.

Craig

Stuff I’m Doing

• Working on a documentary about Japanese Green Bay Packer fans.

• Making shorts for the Two Guys Talking About Lettuce youtube channel. It’s a podcast I do with Greg Benson.

• Still reading Watership Down and loving it.

• Still quitting my smartphone and loving it. Not a huge fan of the Lightphone that I’m using, though. I might change it up.

• Just livin’ life, bro.