I’ve been recording videos for the remake of my Procreate Animation class this week. I’ve been recording about 2 videos per day. Which is different to how I’ve done it in the past, which was to record as much as possible as quick as possible so that we could create the class as quick as possible.
The reason I started doing 2 hours per day is because this class overwhelmed me. I knew I had to follow my own advice and just start. With small steps. Every. Single. Day. I’ve realised that when something overwhelms me I procrastinate—for 2 years sometimes. I’m sure I’m not alone. This particular class overwhelmed me because the original has been taken by over 30k students, and because I haven’t made a class in over a year.
So I decided to spend about 2 hours every day working on this class. Whether that was writing curriculum, recording videos, or creating the graphics that go along with the class, I would spend roughly 2 hours. Setting this achievable goal every day has given my dopamine-hungry brain something to go after. It’s also reduced the pressure to perform on recording day. And my brain has stopped worrying about the bigness of the project. Basically, my brain now sees the project in 2 hour segments. I’m slowly inching toward the finish line in bite-size chunks.
Which brings me to another reason for this 2 hour rule. I know what happens when my ravenous dopamine-hungry brain sniffs the finish line: it’ll want to go all-in, full-on, 100%, until the project is finished. I don’t get much else done when I’m like this. I’m not present with my family, I stop responding to emails and texts, and I let other things slide—like eating healthy and sleeping. I don’t want to live like that. I want to be present, do my morning yoga, walk to work, and work on other creative projects—and not feel behind with everything once we’ve published the class.