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Best Of: How to Make Your Creative Work a Priority · The Daily Writer

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome to episode 117 of the Born to Create Podcast.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Kent Sanders, and this is the show where we explore the mindset, habits, and skills to help you make a bigger impact in your life and creative work.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we are in a two-month series where I'm answering listener questions, and I love this question that was sent in today by Brian Mays.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is a topic that I think all of us have faced, so this is applicable not just to Brian, but to all of us as well.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: He asks a question about making your creative work a priority.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Brian writes, Priority is a challenge for me.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am creative in my day job, but I'd love to shift what I'm doing as a professional creative to something a bit more niche.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough finding time to roll with that and do the regular things as a professional day in and day out.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember doing much portrait drawing in the past year and I miss it.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: It just never feels as important.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, Brian, thanks so much for your question.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you sending it in.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm hearing is that you want to do more portrait drawing, but it hasn't been a priority on your schedule for the past year or so.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So then the question becomes how do I take creative work that's important to me and actually get it done?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna speak for my own experience here.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Many times in my life there's a disconnect between the things that I want to do and what I actually do.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I not doing the things that are important to me?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the breakdown in the system?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you what has really helped me over the last few months.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's a book called The Twelve Week Year by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in this book, those guys lay out a system to help you get more accomplished in twelve weeks than most people do in a full year.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got to tell you, the system really works.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Since starting this system, I have made more money doing freelance work than I ever have this year, and I've gotten healthier and I've gotten a lot clearer on my goals.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the cornerstone of this system for me is my weekly Sunday night review.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I sit down and I go through this past week, and I also plan my coming week.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I block out all the things I'm gonna do and I start with my most important goals.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, I put the things that are most important to me on my calendar first.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this is very key because many times we want to be creative, but other things get in the way.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Life happens, and I think we've all been there.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the main thing is creating a weekly plan and then just executing the plan.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: It helps to think of your planning like you're the CEO of your own life.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that doesn't sound very creative because we're like, oh, a CEO, that sounds very businessy and just kind of very boring and dull.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: But if we really want to make progress in our lives and our art, we have to make plans and then execute on those plans that we have created.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: For example, many people consider Stephen King to be immensely creative, but Stephen King also writes 2,000 words a day.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've read numerous articles and other things over the years that talk about his system of he just has a goal where he writes 2,000 words a day.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: He has a plan and then he executes on that plan.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what I have found is that when I schedule my creative time and I follow through on it and I take action, despite how I feel in the moment, then once I get into the process of creating, I really get into the flow of things.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm definitely gonna recommend this book, The 12 Week Year.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little short book.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's really, really powerful, probably one of the most helpful books I've read in the last five or six years or so.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the 12-week year system does take, I'm just gonna be honest and say, it took me a couple of quarters, it took me a few months to really felt like I had a handle on it and to adjust it to where it really worked for me.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I've got to tell you, this is a really, really good system, and a lot of people love this book, and it's for a good reason.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's because it really does work if you work the system.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, Brian, thank you so much for sending in your question.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this is helpful to you.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know how it goes.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear your experience with the 12-week year book and with that system if you decide to give it a shot.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey friends, those are my thoughts, but I'd love to hear what you think about this episode.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can do that by heading over to Apple Podcast and leaving a rating and a review for the show, or you can also do it by leaving a comment on this episode at KentSanders.net slash one one seven, where you'll also find the show notes.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, remember that you were born to create and designed to make a difference.