Productivity

Stick To What You Start

May 8, 2018 By Chey Rasmussen

Stop procrastinating, start gaining momentum: 3 truths to help you get started and keep going.

What brings you to this blog?

Maybe you’re a confused college student who’s interested in making a career out of art but you’re terrified of making the wrong choice.

Maybe you’ve graduated and you’re working the 9 to 5. You want to do your own awesome projects on the side but you’re just so tired after a full day of work.

Maybe you’re just getting started, trying your hardest to learn art. You’re feeling frustrated with your lack of progress and you’re not as consistent in your practice as you know you need to be.

Maybe you’ve got ideas you’re excited about, but you feel you’re not good enough to do them justice.

Before anything else I’ll say this:

It’s good that you’re trying to figure this out now. I’m glad you’re here.

In my previous article, I wrote about the possibility of changing the way we think. I call this “reprogramming” the brain. We each have a wealth of experiences, both good and bad, which shape our outlook and in turn shape our behavior. When we procrastinate our important creative projects, we’re usually letting ourselves be controlled by fear. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend reading that article because it forms the basis for the one you’re reading now.

Having a productive mindset when it comes to your creative endeavors will go a long way toward your lasting success and fulfillment. If you believe you will fail, you likely won’t even try. Adding to that, if you’re paralyzed by the thought of failure itself, this only compounds the issue. I’ve struggled with these unproductive mindsets in the past, and I know that they lead to a whole lot of inactivity and a whole bunch of projects scrapped before they get their chance to shine. This repeated failure to commit and follow through actually makes the problem even worse as we may begin to believe that we’re not even capable of finishing anything. We may start to think that we’re fundamentally flawed in some way. I’m sadly speaking from personal experience here. Life is too short and your potential is too great for all that mess, I say. Is it possible to change the way we think, or to reprogram our brains? YES! And to great effect.

Stop Procrastination – Reprogramming Your Mind

August 19, 2017 By Chey

The human mind is such a bizarre thing. It’s what allows us to think deeply about things, to make sense of the world around us, and to create. It’s pretty amazing for basically a hunk of fat. Without it we wouldn’t have any of the awesome works of art, stories, or products we enjoy. Without it we wouldn’t be able to enjoy or comprehend them at all even if we did have them somehow.

Clearly he’s less smart than I am, but he’s a handsome guy so we keep him around.

Speaking of which, sometimes my dog will sit and stare at the TV, and I often wonder how he makes sense of it. Based on the way he tilts his head back and forth, I have to imagine he has no idea in the world what’s going on. He certainly has never created anythinghimself besides a huge mess of shredded tissues, so there’s my case-in-point for the human brain being so great, I suppose. [Read more…] about Stop Procrastination – Reprogramming Your Mind

Train Your Focus, Get More Done In Less Time

August 19, 2017 By Chey

Sometimes I let the number get really high because I know it bothers my wife.

We live in a time where we’re always connected. A constant barrage of messages from friends, notifications from apps, and the hottest trending news dings, flashes, pops and otherwise yells for our valuable attention. That attention is a commodity advertisers pay top dollar to secure. In a time like 2017 it feels harder than ever before to get anything meaningful done. [Read more…] about Train Your Focus, Get More Done In Less Time

How I Used Habits to Jumpstart My Creativity

August 19, 2017 By Chey

Let’s talk about psychology.

For years, I had a ton of ideas for personal projects but had a hard time following through. Starting a new project always followed a similar cycle:

The Vicious Cycle

Get a new idea
Get really pumped on the idea, daydream about it, feverishly turn it around in my head ALL day
Get started on the project
Realize that this is going to actually be pretty difficult and take a lot of time and effort
Become less excited about it
Get a different idea that seems much more exciting

And so, the cycle would repeat. I very rarely got anything out there because of this. If you’re a creative person (and I dare say most people are in their own way) you likely can identify with this vicious cycle to some extent. Art block, writers’ block, fatigue, lack of confidence in our abilities, lack of drive or passion, and good old fashioned excuse-making get in the way of the things we want to bring to the world all the time. In my case, I decided I was tired of that mess.