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The Act of Creating vs. the Business of Creating · The Daily Writer

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome to episode 111 of the Born to Create podcast.
• 0:12
  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: We are in the middle of about a two-month series where I'm just answering listener questions here on the show.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've had a blast doing this, and hopefully you have enjoyed it as well.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Today's question is sent in by Michael Rogers, and Michael asks this What about juggling the act of creating with the business of creating?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: How do I live in that tension where I don't get so focused on one that I ignore the other?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Michael, this is a great question, and it's one that a lot of creatives and artists deal with.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is that we have to do both things.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have to create, and then we have to do the business side, which is things like administration, social media, invoicing, accounting, networking, and a hundred other things that comprise the business side of our creative work.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of years ago I heard Joanna Penn, who's from the Creative Penn website and podcast, talk about maker versus manager time.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she referenced an article by Paul Graham where he talked about this concept.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have a link in the show notes to this article, but you can go here if you just want to hear the URL.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's Paul Graham, that's P-A-U-L-G-R-A-H-A-M.com, Paul Graham.com slash makerschedule.html.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Basically what he talks about in this article is that we have to divide our time into these two categories, maker time and manager time.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that I try to do this personally is that at the beginning of every week, on Sunday evenings, typically, I sit down and I go through a process where I plan out my whole week.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I plan when I'm writing and creating, but I also plan when I'm going to do things like social media, do client work, editing my podcast, doing behind the scenes work on my website and reading and so forth.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now the key for me is that I plan out when I'm going to be spending this time on each of these things.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, I just block out time for each thing.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And my tendency is to spend way more time managing rather than making because there's endless administrative work to do.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, anytime you have any kind of an online business or you're working with clients or you have a website or you're creating content, there's just an endless stream of things to do.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: However, if we just do administrative work and we don't and we don't consistently create, then we'll eventually have nothing to administrate anyway.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to make sure to block out time and stick to our schedule if we want to create consistently.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And again, the key for me is planning out my week on Sunday evenings.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Even if I get off track or something unexpected happens, I still know where I am at any given time and I can adjust things accordingly.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I don't want to give you is the impression that I have this totally figured out and that every week goes exactly like I think.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, to be totally transparent with you, there are some weeks, more often than I'd like to admit, where I have this grand plan for all the things I'm going to accomplish and how the week is going to go, and then something happens and the week just becomes a train wreck, and I don't come anywhere close to getting all the things done that I'd like to get done.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: However, most weeks it's somewhere in the middle.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've never had a week that's gone totally perfect, but I've never had a week that's just totally like a horrible, horrible week if I've tried at least to plan out my week and have an idea of what I want to accomplish.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I deal with this.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um that system may or may not work for you.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: It does work for me because having a goal and having a plan for how how I want to tackle the week in terms of having maker time versus manager time, that is a that's a framework that I can really get behind because it's kind of simple and I like simple things.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, Michael, thanks so much for the question.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this is helpful.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'd encourage you to give this a shot for a few weeks and see how it goes and keep me posted.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, those are my thoughts, but I'd love to hear what you all think about this episode.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can do that by heading over to Apple Podcasts and leaving a rating and a review, or by leaving a comment on this episode at KentSanders.net slash one one.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that you were born to create and designed to make a difference.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: See you on the next episode.