I’m just returning from an out-of-country trip, and I’m happy to be home and back into the flow. I’d be even happier if some of the stuff that piled up while I was gone finished itself up, but, alas, that’s not the way it works. That’s why it’s so important I create the focused time needed to get the stuff done that actually matters now.
Regardless of whether you’ve been out of the flow, though, you likely have a pile of stuff to work through, as well. There are frogs you haven’t swallowed yet or things you know are really valuable and important but you just haven’t gotten around to. Creative Giants always have multiple items that fall into both categories precisely because our work is never done, even before someone else gives us their work, too.
When are you going to create the focused time to start finishing those items up? No, really, when? More often than not, it’s not that Creative Giants don’t know what needs to be done, it’s that we get sidetracked by the Bright Shiny Object Syndrome and fail to create the focused time needed to make serious progress on real goals.
Since it’s hard for so many of us to create focused time, myself included, I’ve started something I’m calling Creative Giant Coworking Sessions. Join us for our first Creative Giant Coworking Session next Monday to convert those someday/maybe items to “started finishing today” items.
What Creative Giant Coworking Sessions Are All About
In case you missed our announcement last month, the Creative Giant Coworking Sessions are a 3-hour block of time where we come together virtually to actually get our work done. You probably don’t need more information or thinking about something as much as you need space and time to do what you know needs to be done.
You won’t just have a three hour chunk of time to figure out what to do with yourself, though: I’ll be guiding the work session. We’ll start with planning, then move to doing something important that you probably would otherwise put off, then move to doing something fun and future-oriented, and then wrap up by doing some more follow-on goal setting.
You’ll be paired with a buddy who’ll help hold the space with you. Yes, we’ll separate the Chatty Charlies from the Quiet Quincys.
The Types of Activities You Might Need Focused Time For
Here are some of the types of things you might want to work on:
- Finishing your taxes (Don’t kill the messenger!)
- Starting to develop a process so next year’s taxes aren’t done last minute next year
- Rewriting one of the pages on your website that you’ve been meaning to get to
- Reviewing your analytics
- Fleshing out the table of contents for that book you’ve been mulling over (for plotters) or just sitting down and writing the overview for it (for pantsers)
- Finishing a performance review for one of your teammates
- Writing the job description for one of your teammates
- Figuring out your strategic plan for the rest of the year
- Doing some email triage
- Invoicing your clients
- Chasing down clients and customers who haven’t paid you on time
- Writing a progress report for your supervisor
- Writing one of the people who owe you that progress report to tell them to get it to you
- Reviewing the progress report that was sent to you
- Scheduling appointments for the rest of the month so you don’t have to be at their office at 7:30am because everybody else got the good times
- Finishing your taxes (repeated intentionally)
- Working through your prospect and lead list to figure out who should actually be on your sales board and who’s turned cold
- Actually processing the Paper Stack of Doom rather than continually looking at it
- Finding a place for those books that have been grabbing your attention for the last three months
- Cleaning off your virtual desktop
- Backing up your critical files (which may mean you figuring out what’s critical)
- Sketching out or finishing posts or articles
- Creating some of the design mocks that you’ve been wanting to do or are avoiding doing
- Emailing the five friends you’ve been meaning to talk to for a while to see if they’d like to hang out sometime this month
- Researching and ordering a gift or preparing a surprise for your loved ones
- Figuring out what you want to do with that Amazon gift card you’ve been thinking about using for 3 months
- Reading a part of a book you’ve been meaning to get to
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Finishing the stuff that matters – whether it’s “work” or “play” – requires you to make space and time to get it done. (Click to share this – thanks!)
That’s what our coworking sessions are for. I hope to see you there in a few days.
Click here to learn more about how we help Creative Giants be productive.
it’s like you guys are reading my mind sometimes. I love this idea of getting together with other creative s and get things done ! what timezone are you in? I live in a small seaside town in Wales, I may be joining in the evening, which would work well as I usually spend Monday morning running around like a headless chicken following up on enquires, so this can be time to process x
I was reading your mind, Rosie. Didn’t you get the email I sent about that last week. ;p
We’re in Pacific Time (Los Angeles), which translates to 8:00pm your time if this time zone converter is right.
Come join us, headless-chicken style and all.
Charlie, this is a great answer to anyone (me!) wondering how the statement: “You’re not alone” when it comes to reassuring people that their problems with starting things online really becomes true for them.
These meet-ups are also a much needed resource to those of us blogging away without anyone within our social circle who understands what it is we’re really doing.