T Is For... "Two Crappy Pages"

Target

Stop Aiming High & Lower Your Standards. Sounds Like Bad Advice? Think Again

Some unconventional wisdom on getting your creative juices flowing

Tim Ferriss has some unusual advice: if you want to be good at something, don't aim for the stars.  The secret is to aim much lower than that - even for the trash.

Why? It makes the task you are facing far less intimidating and easier-to-achieve. And it is that feeling of achievement that gets the creative juices flowing.

Feeling overwhelmed by a job-at-hand - i.e. living in a state of performance anxiety or creative paralysis - is a perfect breeding ground for creative block and procrastination to take root.

That feeling of overwhelm can often happen when we are thinking too big. We are setting impossibly high standards for ourselves,  placing obstacles in our path before we have even got started.

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It needs to be nipped in the bud straight away. And to do that, says Ferriss, the trick is to set a challenge that is idiot-proof.

For writers, says Ferriss, it would mean this: instead of setting yourself an incredibly high goal of writing 10 brilliant pages of prose in a single sitting, simply aim for "two crappy ones".

The latter is far easier to do, is liberating in its nature as you can literally write anything - and most importantly,  it will give you the feeling that you have achieved something.

It will be this feeling,  in itself, that will ultimately help get your creative wheels turning and the doors of productivity will be far more likely to open.

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