And I got scared. Overwhelmed. My next thought: “You know, I’ve abandoned this project before. Like, five times. I can abandon it again.”

But then (and thankfully there is a “but” here) as I was walking home later that day, I was visited by the first of three epiphanies. (Hmm, this is starting to sound a little like Dickens’ Christmas Carol.)

Epiphany #1: Writing Beyond will be hard. Very. Hard.
Corollary #1: It’s still worth it.

As usually happens in these cases, supporting evidence quickly rallied to my side.

Exhibit A: After dinner, I was reading Seth Godin’s book Small Is the New Big and came across an essay on hard work. “It’s hard work to invent a new system, service, or process that’s remarkable,” he said, and it grabbed me by the collar and shook me, because that’s exactly what I’m trying to do with Beyond.

Exhibit B: My friend Janssen told me about an article on the perils of praising your children — if you tell a child they’re smart, it actually inspires them (despires them?) to underachieve, whereas if you tell them they’re a hard worker, they do better. That’s the story of my life, folks. People told me I was smart, and as a result, whenever I ran into something that I couldn’t coast through easily, I gave up almost immediately. I put too much trust in innate talent (which may or may not have been there at all) and almost completely ignored effort. This is a recipe for failure. Edison was right: it’s 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

We now turn to the epiphany of Creativity Present. As a brief bit of backstory, I’m about 15,000 words into the first draft of Tanglewood, my young adult fantasy novel. Last week I decided to put it on hold so I could focus on writing short stories, because they’re shorter and thus easier (in my mind, anyway). Then on Wednesday I was walking home and had yet another epiphanic visit:

Epiphany #2: Writing Tanglewood will be hard.
Corollary #2: It’s still worth it.

I’m sensing a theme here. I decided that yes, writing a novel is something I really want to do, and jumping ship now isn’t going to help my goal. So I’m going to write short stories after I finish the book.

The third epiphany, tall and cloaked, came yesterday — also while I was walking home. (Seriously, my best thinking time is while walking home from work. And in the shower.) As you may have noticed, I’m an artist (with a very, very lowercase ‘a’). I like making art. But I’m not very good at drawing, particularly at drawing anything that remotely resembles a human. And I’ve been stuck at the same level for a very long time.

Epiphany #3: Learning to draw will be hard.
Corollary #3: It’s still worth it.

In retrospect this all sounds completely obvious, but dang, I’ve wasted a lot of time avoiding hard work — and I didn’t even realize I was doing it. I’ve been evading the hard stuff by doing easier things, or by telling myself that I wasn’t cut out for art or that I shouldn’t spend my time programming when I really should be spending my time doing x, y, or z.

Bzzt.

Lesson Learned #1: Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it.
Lesson Learned #2: Worthwhile things take effort. Always.
Lesson Learned #3: Recognizing that it’ll be hard somehow makes it easier.
Lesson Learned #4: Doing things that stretch my skills is exhilarating.

So I’m going to forge onward with Beyond, keep writing Tanglewood, and practice drawing humans until they look real and not like hobgoblins with elephantitis.

And yes, I know I’m sort of bending the actual meaning of the word “corollary.” :)

The main difference is a “current projects” folder, which I’m calling sandbox/ and which lives in my Dropbox folder. Everything I’m working on goes in there, one subfolder per project. When I finish a project, I move its folder to the archives.

As I mentioned in my minimalist desktop post, I’ve cleaned off my desktop and switched to using an inbox/ folder, which lives in my home directory. All my downloads and other temp files (quick HTML prototypes, etc.) go there.

And finally, we have the archives, which are the standard Mac folders: Documents/, Pictures/, Movies/, and Music/. I’ve sorted Documents/ into general categories (Art/, Design/, Books/, Writing/, Receipts/, etc.) which contain finished projects/files.

That’s that. With the sandbox/ folder, I can see exactly what projects I’m working on at the moment and access those files no matter where I am. Oh, and did I mention the peace of mind of knowing that my current work is always backed up in a handful of different places? (My two computers, my external hard drives at both home and work, and the cloud. That’s five places. Mmm.)

I used to be a man of many todo lists. They were a badge of honor, a kind of nerd street cred that I took silly pride in. They were also out of control.

See, the whole point of a todo list is (a) getting it written down so it’s out of your head (freeing up mental RAM) and (b) reviewing the list so you actually do the stuff on it. With my twenty-plus lists, I was nailing the first part — oh, man, I was (and still am) so good at writing todo items down — but doing a spectacularly bad job at reviewing those lists. Things fell through the cracks. A growing sense of guilt would perch on my shoulders as I watched my piles of post-its and index cards grow, waiting for me to go through them.

And yes, there were piles. Post-its on my desks both at home and at work, index cards stashed in my Field Notes, and items all over the place on my computer — text files, Simplenote, Things, my Glider wiki, Todoist, you name it.

Then I learned a simple lesson: having a bazillion systems is almost as bad as not having any system at all.

And so I decided to consolidate (one system to rule them all, one system to find them, one system to bring them all and in the darkness bind them, that sort of thing). I took a hard look at what I needed out of a todo list and came up with this list:

• Quick item entry
• Available everywhere
• Sortable into projects
• A daily prioritized “I need to do this soon” list

I almost started writing my own system, then realized that Things for the iPhone already did everything on my list, and it had the advantage of already being written. :) So I committed. I gave up post-its cold turkey and abandoned all my other todo list stashes.

And it worked.

So, whenever I realize I need to do something, I add it to Things. Each day I decide what I want to do that day and put those items on the “today” list, placing them in the order I’d like to do them in. And then I do them. It’s that simple.

What I’ve learned: keep the “today” list short, and only let concrete verbs in as items (next actions, basically). When I follow those two simple rules, things don’t get out of control. When I don’t, I end up ignoring the list and it’s as good as useless.

So now I have a single home for my todo items, a warm, cozy place where I can actually give them the attention they deserve. Because there’s only one place to check, I remember to check it daily (usually many times a day). And todo items don’t fall through the cracks anymore. I’m happy.

(Postscript: I keep my work todo items completely separate, in Things for Mac. It’s nice, but I still much prefer Things for iPhone, though.)

Update: If you want the wallpaper image I used here (which I made in Photoshop), you can get it from Flickr — I’ve posted it in 1920×1200 (which I use on my iMac) and 1440×900 (which I use on my MBP).

Less really is more here. This feels so much less cluttered and so much more productive than it did when my desktop was full of files.

What I did

I’ve turned off all desktop icons (no more using the desktop as a storage area), gotten rid of as many menubar status icons as I could (I’m keeping battery, clock, and Spotlight because I use them, but I haven’t yet figured out how to get rid of Dropbox or JustNotes), and trimmed my dock (which has been on autohide for a while now) so it’s just a list of apps that are running.

Also: I used the Secrets prefpane to move the default screen capture location from the desktop to ~/Documents/Screenshots. Works like a charm.

How I get by

To launch apps and get to folders, I use Quicksilver and Finder. I also have Visor, which lets me pull down a terminal at any time (I’m using Control-. for the shortcut) (I’m also using Control-< and Control-> to move between tabs in Visor).

The future

I wish I could autohide the menubar the same way I do the dock. (MenuShade looked like a solution until I realized it doesn’t work on Snow Leopard.)

I also want to figure out how to get rid of the menubar icons for Dropbox and JustNotes. Update: I used Dock Dodger to get rid of the JustNotes dock icon and set JustNotes to hide the menubar icon. (Thanks to Wade Shearer for the tip.) Second update: I found a screencast on hiding the Dropbox menubar icon. But I’m not sure anymore that I actually want to get rid of it — it’s useful for seeing if things are fully synced. Hmm. We’ll see.

I’ve thought about using GeekTool to put a clock straight on my desktop, but that really just goes against the whole minimalism philosophy. If I can get my menubar to autohide, then I don’t want to see anything on the desktop.

Next on my agenda: figure out a file organization scheme that actually works.

This time around the realization came via Cal Newport’s article on fixed-schedule productivity. Read it. Great stuff. I’m also digging the Zen Habits blog.

A while ago I realized that my life’s work is in books, and more recently I found that that’s in writing them and designing them. That’s what I’m made for. But is that what I spend most of my free time doing?

No. And that’s the problem.

From now on I’m not letting myself work on any side projects unless they have to do with books. I’m axing Donne (the to do list web app I had just started building), Beyond (my genealogy web app), the chord chart I was designing, and all other non-book projects. Instead, I’ll make do with existing tools.

For example, I was going to typeset a nice PDF of our Mormon Artist volunteer handbook, but I can just put the information up on the website. Much faster. Similarly, I was going to extend my Glider wiki for multiple users so we could use it for the magazine style guide, but I realized I could just use Google Sites and have it up immediately. Check.

Also, to keep myself from getting distracted too often, I’m going to do my best to limit my time on email, Twitter, and Google Reader. We’ll see how it goes.

My new plan is to have no more than one writing project and two book design projects going at any given time. Here’s what I’m working on:

Current writing project: Tanglewood. It’s coming along really well, too — I’ve woken up fifteen minutes early each morning to write and have managed to hit my 500-word quota every single day so far.

Current book design project #1: the D&C reader’s edition. I’m still reparagraphing it and have been dragging my heels, but I’m going to focus now and make it happen.

Current book design project #2: a short illustrated edition of Christina Rossetti’s poem “The Rainbow” (which is actually part of a longer poem). More on this soon.

Will I still be thinking and writing about web stuff? Sure. That’s my job, after all. But in my free time I’m focusing strictly on books. That’s the only way to get really, really good at making them.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. —Mark Twain (p. 239 of Getting Things Done)

Big projects are overwhelming, and overwhelm tends to stuckify us. No good. But small things are definitely doable. That’s the trick.

For example, writing a book is hugely intimidating. Books are long and complicated beasts, and the thought of writing that much and hoping it actually turns out good is very, very daunting. That’s why most people who want to write a book don’t end up writing one. It’s scary.

But writing, say, a paragraph? Anyone can write one, even on a bad day. And once you’ve written one paragraph, why not write another? It’s magic.

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. —Alma 37:6

Next actions have to be concrete. If they’re abstract, they won’t happen. “Write a genealogy web app” is too vague. Better: “Find a Python library to read GEDCOM files” or “Sketch out some possible source entry pages.” Those are solid, concrete, physical actions and they’re a bazillion times more likely to make something happen.

Another example: we needed to wash our car. For weeks I knew I needed to get it done, but nothing happened. I realized I was stuck, sat down for a moment and thought about it, and decided that I needed to find a car wash nearby. A few seconds later I found one on Google Maps nearby, called it to get their hours and prices, and got our car washed later that day.

This technique — deciding a single small, concrete action needed to do to push each project forward — is how I get things done.

Do it right now: take a project you’re stuck on and decide what the next physical action is that you need to do to move forward on the project. Write it down.

Doesn’t it feel good?

Chris Anderson

The tools of factory production, from electronics assembly to 3D printing, are now available to individuals, in batches as small as a single unit. Anybody with an idea and little bit of self-taught expertise can set assembly lines in China into motion with nothing more than some keystrokes on their laptop. A few days later, a prototype will be at their door, and if it all checks out, they can push a few more buttons and be in full production. They are a virtual microfactory, able to design and sell goods without any infrastructure or even inventory; everything is assembled and drop-shipped by the contractors, who can serve hundreds of such small customers simultaneously….

Peer production, open source, crowdsourcing, DIY and UGC — all these digital phenomena are starting to play out in the world of atoms, too. The Web was just the proof of concept. Now the revolution gets real.

This makes me giddy. He’s right — this is going to change the world in a huge way. Most of the stuff I make is purely digital, unless it’s a book or a magazine or a chart I get printed, and while that’s not a bad thing, it gets a little ethereal at times, just a bunch of bits floating in cyberspace. I’m excited to make it real and start creating some hold-it-in-your-hands bona fide objects. (Objects that weren’t previously possible, that is — tools and gadgets and the like.)

William C. Taylor

Imagine any and every field possible. There are so many brands, so many choices, so many claims, so much clutter, that the central challenge is for an organization or an individual is to rise above the fray. It’s not good enough anymore to be “pretty good” at everything. You have to be the most of something: the most elegant, the most colorful, the most responsive, the most accessible.

I’ll save my thoughts on this for the blog post I’ve got in the oven, but let me just say that I agree completely: quality is better than quantity.

Daniel Pink

Management is great if you want people to comply — to do specific things a certain way. But it stinks if you want people to engage — to think big or give the world something it didn’t know it was missing. For creative, complex, conceptual challenges — i.e, what most of us now do for a living — 40 years of research in behavioral science and human motivation says that self-direction works better. And that requires autonomy. Lots of it.

If we want engagement, and the mediocrity-busting results it produces, we have to make sure people have autonomy over the four most important aspects of their work:

• Task – What they do
• Time – When they do it
• Technique – How they do it
• Team – Whom they do it with

Hallelujah! This is music to my ears, and it rings so, so, so true. In my line of work, autonomy trumps management, period. If only there were more of it…

John Moore

A winning business understands that to gain a customer it must first be willing to lose a customer….

Costco wins customers by losing customers. Its membership model shuns consumers not willing to pay the yearly membership fee. Its broad but shallow merchandise mix turns off consumers wanting more choices. Costco makes deliberate sacrifices because its customers will also make deliberate sacrifices in exchange for lower prices.

Winning businesses have a common trait, an obvious and divisive point of view. Losing businesses also have a common trait, a boring personality alienating no one and thus, sparking passion from no one.

This goes along nicely with William Taylor’s essay. You can’t do everything, and if you try, you’ll be mediocre at best. Also, take risks. It’s the only way to succeed.

J.C. Hutchins

Most of us settle in, and settle for what we have. Rather than pursue, we accept. Our lives become unwitting celebrations of passivity: we undervalue our work and perceive ourselves as wage slaves (and so we phone it in at the day gig), we consume compulsively (but not create), we pine for better lives (but live vicariously through our televisions).

These corners we paint ourselves into, it’s no way to live. There’s no adventure here, no passion, no hunger for change. Remember that relentless optimism you once had? The goals you wished to achieve, before settling in? They’re still there. You need a nudge to find them; a little gumption.

You can start that business. You can lose that weight. You can quit smoking, and learn to garden, and write that book, and be a better parent, and be all the things you want to be…the thing this world needs you to be. It requires courage and faith, both of which you can muster. It requires effort — but this effortless life isn’t as satisfying as it seems, is it?

Declare war on passivity. Hush the inner voice that insists you’re over the hill, past your prime, unworthy of attaining those dreams. Disbelief is now the enemy, as is the notion of settling. Get hungry — hyena hungry. Get fired up. Find your backbone, and your wings.

Flap ’em. It’s the only way you’ll be able to fly.

Love it. Grab some gumption and go do cool, beautiful, wonderful things.

You can print it out, fold it up, and carry it in your pocket, or post it on your refrigerator or desk, or three-hole punch it (there’s room on the top margin for that) and put it in a binder. You do have to fill out the month, days, and days of the week manually, but there’s a little more flexibility this way.

It’s a project calendar for keeping track of (a) which projects I’m working on and (b) when I’ve worked on them. That way I can easily see where my time is spent and possibly where I need to adjust things. (“Hmm, looks like I’m neglecting my writing. Whoops. Time to fix that.”)

I started out using the back of my Field Notes notebook, since it has a handy grid, but I ran into a problem: when I finish the notebook, I no longer have my project calendar with me.

Enter Google Spreadsheets:

The grey boxes mean that the project has ended. Each month is its own sheet, which keeps things tidy. (Projects that end don’t need to be on the next month’s sheet.)

And the best part? It’s super easy to maintain. I can just copy and paste the black boxes, and when I start a new month, it only takes a few seconds to clear out the boxes and change the days of the week.

Speaking of tracking things, I forgot to blog about my writing log (which I used to use back when I was writing more frequently):

I need to go in and start using that again. (Since, ahem, I’ve been a slacker.) I’m also planning to make a grid-based log for scripture reading and family history and other church-related things I want to do more diligently.

Update: You can now download a Google Docs template of the project tracker.

Another update: There’s now a project page for this.

See the Glider project page for more details and screenshots.