20
3. Stick to your schedule for one week.
Stop thinking about how hard it will be to follow a schedule for a month or a
year. Just follow it for this week. For the next 7 days, don’t let distractions get
in the way.
Setting a schedule doesn’t make you a professional, following it does. Don’t be a
writer, be writing. Don’t be a lifter, be lifting. For one week, do the things you
want to do without letting life get in the way. Next week, start again.
The Power of the Schedule
Ira Glass is the host of the popular radio show This American Life, which is
broadcast to 1.7 million listeners each week. This is the advice Glass gives to
anyone looking to interesting, creative work: “The most important thing you
can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline
so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. It
is only by going through a volume of work that … the work you’re making will
be as good as your ambitions.” [6]
If you want to do your best creative work, then don’t leave it up to choice. Don’t
wake up in the morning and think, “I hope I feel inspired to create something
today.” You need to take the decision-making out of it. Set a schedule for your
work. Genius arrives when you show up enough times to get the average ideas
out of the way.