July 6, 2025 • 21 mins
Time to tidy up, folks! In our final episode of the "Make Fun a Habit" series, I’m all about the importance of a little creative cleanup—both in our messy studios and in our chaotic minds. We dive into the concept of the "10 Second Tidy," inspired by kids’ shows, and how it can help us organize our thoughts for maximum creative output. Not only does this quirky cleanup reduce stress and boost productivity, but it also gives our motivation a nice little kick in the pants! So grab your favorite beverage, kick back, and join me as we wrap up this celebration of creativity and explore how to put fun back into our artistic lives. Let’s get messy and make some art, people!
Making Fun A Habit Series
30 days to add fun to your creative practice. I will be going through Mike Brennan's Make Fun A Habit workbook and help you make fun a habit. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike on my other podcast Find A Podcast About and talking about his podcast Creative Chats. This workbook leads you through steps to rekindle the fun in your life and get you into a space where you are your most creative. This is a 30-day book and I will tackle each day as if it were a week and provide insights on how to use his ideas in your creative practice. Each chapter is broken up with a short story, questions to ponder, action items, and tips.
Assignment
Questions
- What ideas do you have?
- What are the different categories of your ideas
- How important are each of your ideas
- What are the next steps you need to take to make progress on your ideas?
- What tools and resources can you use to help sort and organize your ideas?
- How can you make sure that your sorting and organizing system is flexible and sustainable?
- How can you celebrate your successes as you sort and organize your ideas?
Action Items
- What are your current goals
- What ideas do you have for achieving your goals
- Sort and organize your ideas
- Prioritize your ideas
- Take action on your ideas
Tips
- Set aside time each day to sort and organize your ideas
- Start small
- Enlist the help of others
- Make it fun
- Reward Yourself
As we close the chapter on our Make Fun a Habit series, this episode is a celebration of creativity, inspiration, and a little bit of messiness! I’m Timothy, your guide through the artistic chaos, and in this final episode, we’re diving into the 30th chapter of Mike Brennan's workbook, featuring the wonderfully whimsical '10 Second Tidy.' Sounds easy, right? But it’s not just about cleaning up our physical spaces; it’s about clearing out the clutter in our minds too! I share my personal anecdotes about juggling parenthood with creativity, and how this simple practice can help us channel our thoughts into tangible projects. Spoiler alert: I’m also gearing up to conquer the watercolor world, which has evaded me for far too long! Let’s talk about how to organize our creative ideas, prioritize what’s important, and maybe even indulge in a little fun while we’re at it. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your creative pursuits, this episode is a must-listen!
Takeaways:
- The last episode of the Make Fun a Habit series brings a playful twist to organizing your creative thoughts, encouraging a '10 second tidy' approach to decluttering your mind.
- Timothy Kimo Brien emphasizes that reducing stress and boosting productivity can be as simple as cleaning up your mental space, so let's tidy up those ideas!
- In the creative world,...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Create Art Podcast commentaryEverybody clean up. Part of the Make
Fun a Habit series. Hello,friend. This is Timothy Keem o' Brien,
your head instigator forCreate Art Podcast, where I use my
over 30 years of experience inthe arts and education world to help
(00:27):
you tame your inner critic andcreate more than you consume. So
we have been doing the MakeFun of Habit series for quite a few
episodes here, for 30episodes, and this is our last episode
for the series. Let me tellyou a little bit about Make Fun of
(00:50):
Habit. It's a book from MikeBrennan, who is the head guy over
at Creative Chats, who I had aopportunity to interview on my other
podcast, which is Find apodcast about and what this book
is. It's a workbook. It takesyou through 30 days, 30 different
(01:13):
topics on how to put fun backinto your creative practice. Now,
I've gone through thatworkbook and I've taken each of the
chapters and turned them intoan episode, and it's been a wild
ride. It's been a lot of fundoing that here. And I want to thank,
first and foremost MikeBrennan for writing that book and
(01:36):
for all the stuff that hedoes. He's actually just finished
another book and that would behis eighth book, so I am well behind
him. I've only got four booksout there, he's got eight, but he's
got a great podcast. Like Isaid, it's called Creative Chats.
And he's just, he's out theremaking sure that all of us creatives
(01:59):
have all the stuff that weneed. And this book is definitely
one that you need to have inyour library. And the links for it
will be in the show notesthere for you. So don't worry about
it. You don't have to write itdown or anything like that. If you
listen to podcasts like I do,I usually listen to them in the car.
So keep both hands at 10 and2, folks. So let me go ahead and
(02:22):
break down what each chapterhas. So he'll tell us a little story
that's related to the topic ofthe chapter, and then he'll give
us questions to think about.He'll give us tips to actually do,
and he'll give us actionitems, things that, you know, we
can go ahead and add into ourcreative practice, whatever it is,
(02:45):
right away. So let's get intothis final one, chapter 30. Everybody
clean up. So this chapterisn't necessarily about cleaning
up your. Your studio space,which, you know, I'm looking around
my studio space and it coulduse a good dusting and a good vacuuming
and a good cleanup. But whatMike tells us is, you know, he's
(03:09):
got kids and I've got kidstoo. And you know, when it's time
to, you know, be done, thelast thing that kids want to do is
clean up, you know, the toysthat they're playing with. And one
of the shows that he watchedwhile, you know, he was with his
kids was the big comfy couch.And they had a thing called the ten
(03:33):
second tidy. And that's where,you know, one of the lead characters
would go ahead and clean upthe mess of the day in, in 10 seconds.
Obviously it was time lapseand I have twins and they can really
make a mess. I have pictures.I'll share them with you some other
(03:53):
time. But you know, when we'rethinking about all the things that
are going on in our head, whynot apply that 10 second tidy to
our thoughts? Because we havea lot of ideas that are just wanting
to pop out and come to theforefront. And if we do that 10 second
tidy, just cleaning things upand organizing them the way they
(04:18):
should be, will be ready forthe next time when we, you know,
sit down and go ahead and do acreative project. Now here's some
of the things that Mike bringsto to light here on why it's good
to have a 10 second tidy.First off, it reduces stress. You
(04:40):
know, we've got all thesethoughts going on in our head. Which
one do we go with? And theywon't turn off sometimes and it can
cause us a lot of stress.Well, if we're organizing our thoughts
and cleaning things up, thenthat's going to reduce our stress
levels. Next thing he talksabout is it improves our productivity.
So when we organize all theseideas and all these thoughts, then
(05:04):
we can go ahead and figureout, all right, this one I don't
have any materials for, so Igoing to put this one in the back
burner. But this one I've gotall the materials for and I feel
really confident in it. So Ican go ahead and tackle this. You
know, I can go ahead andtackle Project B and put Project
A in the background so thatway I can get something done. He
(05:29):
also talks about how increasesour motivation and when we're organizing
things and when we, you know,take a take stock of what we have
to work with, then, you know,we have no excuse. Let's get the
stuff done, let's get theseprojects out the door so that way
we can work on our nextproject. And another thing he talks
(05:52):
about is how it Saves us time.So if we're. If we don't have all
the stuff for Project A, wedon't have to worry about it. We
can go. Okay, well, the nexttime I'm at the art supply store,
I'll go get all the stuff forProject A. Obviously, I don't have
it here with me right now. Solet's go work on Project B and then
that way I can get Project Bout the door. And then when I have
(06:14):
some free time, go over to theart store, pick up all the stuff
I need for Project A, andthen, boom, go right back to my studio
and work on Project A. Thelast thing that he talks about on
why this 10 second tidy isreally good is it. It boosts your
mood. You feel like you'reaccomplishing something. You know,
(06:35):
you feel really good aboutyourself. It's great to finish a
project and to put it outthere in the world and say, here
you go. You know, just likewith these podcasts, you know, I
have a lot of ideas forpodcasts. I get my good buddy Kyle
Bondo. He and I would sitaround for hours on end and talking
(06:57):
about different ideas forpodcasts that we could do, but we
didn't do them. We did acouple of them, but for the most
part it was just like allthese ideas and we're wasting all
this time and we're thinkingabout all this stuff and we're like,
yeah, but we didn't doanything. Organize yourself. Take
(07:18):
that 10 second tidy, and thenthat way you'll be able to go, I
did this, I did that. Not. Ithought about doing this. I thought
about doing that. You actuallyhave done it. Okay, so right now
we're gonna go right into thequestions and the first question
is, what ideas do you have?Oh, my God, I have so many ideas.
(07:42):
Just gonna give you guys aheads up. I'm gonna be starting a
whole new series and it'sgonna run for about six months and
it should be starting in July,where I'm going to have conversations
with people. Not necessarily astraight up interview like I've done
in the past, but justconversations with people about different
(08:02):
topics. And it's going to belike I said, run for about six months,
two topics a month. That's 12topics right there. And we're going
to keep the episodes kind ofshort. But, you know, I may be talking
to multiple people on onetopic or I might just be doing one
topic on my own. So that's myidea. I'm also doing another podcast
(08:28):
about my battle with Ms. It'sgoing to be called My Solo Journey
with Ms. And that's going tobe a limited series, and hopefully
it can win an award at the 3rdCoast Audio Festival in Chicago in
2026. But these are some ideasthat I have. We just had Father's
(08:48):
Day here in the United States.My wife. I asked my wife to buy me
a watercolor set, because ifyou've listened to the show, you
know that anytime I've done awatercolor in the past, it looks
like a thing of mud. So I'mchallenging myself to actually learn
how to do watercolor. So theseare just a couple of the ideas that
I have. The next question is,what are the different categories
(09:12):
of your ideas? Well,podcasting, you know, still podcasting
with about art here on thisshow, but then changing the format
from interviews toconversations. So that's one category.
Another category is startingup a new podcast to deal with my
(09:34):
Ms. Diagnosis and what that'sgoing to be. And then a third category
is watercolors. I just want toget in there and see what I can do
with that. I've always been,you know, I've had people that do
watercolors on the show, so Ineed to go ahead and do it myself.
(09:55):
All right, next question is,how important are each of your ideas?
They're vital. They're vitalfor me. I've got to do these things.
These are things that I reallyenjoy doing. I really enjoy podcasting.
I'm here with you just aboutevery week. Every week or every other
week. And I really enjoy, youknow, sharing my ideas about art
(10:16):
with you. So that's why it'simportant for me to do that and then
for the watercolor thing,because I ask you to go out there
and try stuff, I need to goout there and do it myself. So watercolor
has always been kind of thebane of my existence. So I'm gonna,
you know, face that fear andgive it a shot. Next question is,
(10:36):
what are the next steps youneed to take to make progress on
your ideas? Well, I'm alreadylining up. I'm already lining up
conversations. They're notinterviews for this next series.
For the other podcasts, I'vegot it all set up in my podcast media
host, and I just need to, youknow, start writing out the outline
(11:00):
for it and for thewatercolors. Well, I just need to
go ahead and pick up one ofthe watercolor papers, the canvases,
and start sketching out.Basically, I want to do my backyard.
I just need to go ahead and dothat. Next question is, what tools
(11:21):
and resources can you use tohelp sort and organize your ideas?
I like project managementsoftware. I've used a couple in the
past, and I'm really going toneed to, you know, lean back on.
Lean on that and go ahead anddo that. Just that way I can stay
organized with everything thatI do. Next question is, can you make
(11:46):
sure that your sorting andorganizing system is flexible and
sustainable? Well, becausewith me having ms, things have to
be flexible, and I'm a dad oftwins, so they have to be flexible
as far as sustainable. Yeah,these, these project management software
apps that I've been using inthe past, they're very stable, they
(12:09):
work really well, they'refree. That's what I like them. And
so I believe that I can beflexible with it and very stable
with it. If I can't do aconversation with somebody, I, you
know, I have it up on myprofile because I have ms, I might
not be able to, you know, Imight have to pull out at the last
minute. The last question is,how can you celebrate your success
(12:32):
as you sort and organize yourideas? So I think going back to the.
Using the program managementsoftware, getting that, getting all
the dates and all thetimelines set up, that's going to
be my first area of success.Then my second area of success is
(12:53):
actually doing the work,getting that done. And then my third
area of success will beactually presenting it to the public.
And my fourth is, hey, if Iwon an award for a podcast or if
I get a lot of engagement fromyou with, you know, the conversations
(13:14):
that I'm doing or the otherpodcasts that I'm doing, or when
I have a couple of watercolorsto show you to get feedback on that,
that's success for me. Allright, we're going to switch on over
to his action items. And firstaction item is, you know, what are
your current goals? Make sureyou're writing them down, both long
(13:36):
term and short term. Anotheraction item is what ideas do you
have for achieving your goals?You know, brainstorm those ideas.
The next action item is sortand organize your ideas. See, he's
not starting off with the sortand organize your ideas. Just what
are your goals? What do youwant to do? And then brainstorm it
(13:59):
and then sort those out. Andso that way they make sense to you.
Maybe they're not logical, butthey make sense to you. Next action
item is prioritize your ideas.What can you get done first? What
has to be done before you cando anything else? And then the last
Action item is take action onyour ideas. So that means actually
(14:22):
doing the work. There's nogetting around it. It's not going
to do itself. You need to dothat work. So some tips that he has
that he's going to leave ushere with is set aside a specific
time each day or week to sortand organize your ideas. Absolutely,
absolutely. I remember itwasn't this year, but I think it
(14:46):
was last year. I took like twoweeks and planned out the whole year
and I had it all set up in myproject management software. And
that felt great because then Icould release that. I wasn't ever
wondering, what am I going todo and when am I going to do it.
I knew from week to week toweek what I was going to do. Start
(15:09):
small is the next tip. Youknow, we're not trying to do brain
surgery here. We're not tryingto do the Great Wall of China here.
Just start small. And youknow, with the stuff that I'm doing,
it's actually small becauseI've done bigger projects. But now
I'm going to have three mainprojects that I'm going to be working
on. This show, my, my new showthat I'm building up, and then some
(15:33):
watercolors. So I'm, you know,I'm setting that up as small things
for me. They're, they're easythings, but they do need that organization.
Next tip is to enlist the helpof others. So I interviewed Tia Sunshine
a long time ago and she's awatercolor artist. So when I'm get
(15:57):
ready to start thesewatercolors and the actual painting
aspect of it, oh, you know,I'm going to be emailing the crap
out of her and going, hey,listen, how do I do this? Actually,
the next tip is make it fun.Well, geez, that's what this book
says. Make fun a habit. Makeit fun for yourself. Okay. You know,
am I going to paint some mudon some canvases? Absolutely I am.
(16:22):
And that's going to be okay.And heck, I'll show you what they
look like, you know, whenthey're, when they're done. But make
it fun for yourself. Make itstuff that you want to do. And then
the last thing is rewardyourself. So a reward for myself
would be to submit my solo Ms.Journey to the Third Coast Audio
(16:46):
Festival in Chicago and thengo out there and even if I don't
win, go out there, hook upwith some old friends and have a
good time. That's going to bemy reward for that. As far as the
watercolors. Go. Well, my goodfriend Heather Moon is out there
in Rockford, Illinois, whichis, you know, 90 miles west of Chicago.
(17:08):
I'll go out there and show hermy watercolors in person. You know,
that'll be a great time. Andyou know, a reward for myself already
is that I'm going to be doingone, maybe two podcast conferences
later on this year. So that'smy reward to myself. Okay. So definitely
(17:32):
want to thank Mike Brennan forwriting this book and for being on
my other show and for doingeverything that he does. Mike, this
has been a interestingjourney. I've really enjoyed it.
I read through the book reallyquick. I was like, wow. And as soon
as I got done with chapter 30the first time, I was like, this
(17:52):
has got to be a series. Sothis is a project that I have now
completed and I feel reallygood about it. And you know, I've
made a good friend in MikeBrennan. I've been following him
on all the socials and Ilisten to his podcast all the time.
So I've made a good friend outof it, A good mentor even, I would
(18:13):
say. So first and foremost,thank you, Mike, for everything that
you do. And then I want tothank you for taking a listen to
all 30 of these episodes forthe Make Fun of Habit series. It's
been, it's been a lot of fundoing these and thinking about, thinking
about art. And I wouldchallenge you, go grab the book,
(18:38):
run through those 30 daysyourself. I mean, yes, you've got
the episodes that I've donehere, you could just do that. But
I would highly recommend goget the book and go make Fun of Habit
for yourself. Alright, so ifyou'd like to reach out to me and
let me know if you've done theMake Fun of Habit or if you have
ideas for the show or if youhave critique for the show. I take
(19:01):
all, I take everything. Emailme timothyreateartpodcast.com I'd
love to have you on the show.The next episode that I do here,
I'm going to be explaining thedifferent topics and what I'm going
to be doing them for you. Soif you want to get involved in that,
(19:22):
by all means, shoot me anemail and let's get you on the list
and let's get you on theschedule. Okay. A couple of things
I want to remind you of. Oneis I do have that other podcast.
It's called Find a PodcastAbout. You can find it at findapodcastabout
xyz and there I hope you findyour next Binge worthy podcast and
(19:42):
outsmart the algorithm. Checkit out for yourself. It's a great
podcast to listen to if youwant to hear about other podcasts
that I think are binge worthy.And then I would be remiss if I did
not tell you about mybusiness. It is TKB Podcast Studio
(20:03):
and that's where I help myclients lead through the noise with
quiet professionalism. Allpodcasting, from idea creation all
the way to publishing andpromotion. If you're thinking about
starting a podcast, you canhear me. I've been doing it since
2006, so if little old me cando it, I think you can do it too.
(20:26):
But let's make thatconversation happen. You can find
mybusiness@tkbpodcaststudio.com and
again, you can email metimothy kbpodcaststudio.com all right,
that's all I have for you heretoday. I need to get on with my day.
I know you need to get on withyour day, but I hope that you got
(20:50):
something out of thisorganizing those ideas and actually
putting them into practice. Sogo out there, tame that inner critic.
Create more than you consume.Go out there, make some art for somebody
you love. Yourself. I'll talkto you next time.
Create Art Podcast commentaryEverybody clean up. Part of the Make
Fun a Habit series. Hello,friend. This is Timothy Keem o' Brien,
your head instigator forCreate Art Podcast, where I use my
over 30 years of experience inthe arts and education world to help
(00:27):
you tame your inner critic andcreate more than you consume. So
we have been doing the MakeFun of Habit series for quite a few
episodes here, for 30episodes, and this is our last episode
for the series. Let me tellyou a little bit about Make Fun of
(00:50):
Habit. It's a book from MikeBrennan, who is the head guy over
at Creative Chats, who I had aopportunity to interview on my other
podcast, which is Find apodcast about and what this book
is. It's a workbook. It takesyou through 30 days, 30 different
(01:13):
topics on how to put fun backinto your creative practice. Now,
I've gone through thatworkbook and I've taken each of the
chapters and turned them intoan episode, and it's been a wild
ride. It's been a lot of fundoing that here. And I want to thank,
first and foremost MikeBrennan for writing that book and
(01:36):
for all the stuff that hedoes. He's actually just finished
another book and that would behis eighth book, so I am well behind
him. I've only got four booksout there, he's got eight, but he's
got a great podcast. Like Isaid, it's called Creative Chats.
And he's just, he's out theremaking sure that all of us creatives
(01:59):
have all the stuff that weneed. And this book is definitely
one that you need to have inyour library. And the links for it
will be in the show notesthere for you. So don't worry about
it. You don't have to write itdown or anything like that. If you
listen to podcasts like I do,I usually listen to them in the car.
So keep both hands at 10 and2, folks. So let me go ahead and
(02:22):
break down what each chapterhas. So he'll tell us a little story
that's related to the topic ofthe chapter, and then he'll give
us questions to think about.He'll give us tips to actually do,
and he'll give us actionitems, things that, you know, we
can go ahead and add into ourcreative practice, whatever it is,
(02:45):
right away. So let's get intothis final one, chapter 30. Everybody
clean up. So this chapterisn't necessarily about cleaning
up your. Your studio space,which, you know, I'm looking around
my studio space and it coulduse a good dusting and a good vacuuming
and a good cleanup. But whatMike tells us is, you know, he's
(03:09):
got kids and I've got kidstoo. And you know, when it's time
to, you know, be done, thelast thing that kids want to do is
clean up, you know, the toysthat they're playing with. And one
of the shows that he watchedwhile, you know, he was with his
kids was the big comfy couch.And they had a thing called the ten
(03:33):
second tidy. And that's where,you know, one of the lead characters
would go ahead and clean upthe mess of the day in, in 10 seconds.
Obviously it was time lapseand I have twins and they can really
make a mess. I have pictures.I'll share them with you some other
(03:53):
time. But you know, when we'rethinking about all the things that
are going on in our head, whynot apply that 10 second tidy to
our thoughts? Because we havea lot of ideas that are just wanting
to pop out and come to theforefront. And if we do that 10 second
tidy, just cleaning things upand organizing them the way they
(04:18):
should be, will be ready forthe next time when we, you know,
sit down and go ahead and do acreative project. Now here's some
of the things that Mike bringsto to light here on why it's good
to have a 10 second tidy.First off, it reduces stress. You
(04:40):
know, we've got all thesethoughts going on in our head. Which
one do we go with? And theywon't turn off sometimes and it can
cause us a lot of stress.Well, if we're organizing our thoughts
and cleaning things up, thenthat's going to reduce our stress
levels. Next thing he talksabout is it improves our productivity.
So when we organize all theseideas and all these thoughts, then
(05:04):
we can go ahead and figureout, all right, this one I don't
have any materials for, so Igoing to put this one in the back
burner. But this one I've gotall the materials for and I feel
really confident in it. So Ican go ahead and tackle this. You
know, I can go ahead andtackle Project B and put Project
A in the background so thatway I can get something done. He
(05:29):
also talks about how increasesour motivation and when we're organizing
things and when we, you know,take a take stock of what we have
to work with, then, you know,we have no excuse. Let's get the
stuff done, let's get theseprojects out the door so that way
we can work on our nextproject. And another thing he talks
(05:52):
about is how it Saves us time.So if we're. If we don't have all
the stuff for Project A, wedon't have to worry about it. We
can go. Okay, well, the nexttime I'm at the art supply store,
I'll go get all the stuff forProject A. Obviously, I don't have
it here with me right now. Solet's go work on Project B and then
that way I can get Project Bout the door. And then when I have
(06:14):
some free time, go over to theart store, pick up all the stuff
I need for Project A, andthen, boom, go right back to my studio
and work on Project A. Thelast thing that he talks about on
why this 10 second tidy isreally good is it. It boosts your
mood. You feel like you'reaccomplishing something. You know,
(06:35):
you feel really good aboutyourself. It's great to finish a
project and to put it outthere in the world and say, here
you go. You know, just likewith these podcasts, you know, I
have a lot of ideas forpodcasts. I get my good buddy Kyle
Bondo. He and I would sitaround for hours on end and talking
(06:57):
about different ideas forpodcasts that we could do, but we
didn't do them. We did acouple of them, but for the most
part it was just like allthese ideas and we're wasting all
this time and we're thinkingabout all this stuff and we're like,
yeah, but we didn't doanything. Organize yourself. Take
(07:18):
that 10 second tidy, and thenthat way you'll be able to go, I
did this, I did that. Not. Ithought about doing this. I thought
about doing that. You actuallyhave done it. Okay, so right now
we're gonna go right into thequestions and the first question
is, what ideas do you have?Oh, my God, I have so many ideas.
(07:42):
Just gonna give you guys aheads up. I'm gonna be starting a
whole new series and it'sgonna run for about six months and
it should be starting in July,where I'm going to have conversations
with people. Not necessarily astraight up interview like I've done
in the past, but justconversations with people about different
(08:02):
topics. And it's going to belike I said, run for about six months,
two topics a month. That's 12topics right there. And we're going
to keep the episodes kind ofshort. But, you know, I may be talking
to multiple people on onetopic or I might just be doing one
topic on my own. So that's myidea. I'm also doing another podcast
(08:28):
about my battle with Ms. It'sgoing to be called My Solo Journey
with Ms. And that's going tobe a limited series, and hopefully
it can win an award at the 3rdCoast Audio Festival in Chicago in
2026. But these are some ideasthat I have. We just had Father's
(08:48):
Day here in the United States.My wife. I asked my wife to buy me
a watercolor set, because ifyou've listened to the show, you
know that anytime I've done awatercolor in the past, it looks
like a thing of mud. So I'mchallenging myself to actually learn
how to do watercolor. So theseare just a couple of the ideas that
I have. The next question is,what are the different categories
(09:12):
of your ideas? Well,podcasting, you know, still podcasting
with about art here on thisshow, but then changing the format
from interviews toconversations. So that's one category.
Another category is startingup a new podcast to deal with my
(09:34):
Ms. Diagnosis and what that'sgoing to be. And then a third category
is watercolors. I just want toget in there and see what I can do
with that. I've always been,you know, I've had people that do
watercolors on the show, so Ineed to go ahead and do it myself.
(09:55):
All right, next question is,how important are each of your ideas?
They're vital. They're vitalfor me. I've got to do these things.
These are things that I reallyenjoy doing. I really enjoy podcasting.
I'm here with you just aboutevery week. Every week or every other
week. And I really enjoy, youknow, sharing my ideas about art
(10:16):
with you. So that's why it'simportant for me to do that and then
for the watercolor thing,because I ask you to go out there
and try stuff, I need to goout there and do it myself. So watercolor
has always been kind of thebane of my existence. So I'm gonna,
you know, face that fear andgive it a shot. Next question is,
(10:36):
what are the next steps youneed to take to make progress on
your ideas? Well, I'm alreadylining up. I'm already lining up
conversations. They're notinterviews for this next series.
For the other podcasts, I'vegot it all set up in my podcast media
host, and I just need to, youknow, start writing out the outline
(11:00):
for it and for thewatercolors. Well, I just need to
go ahead and pick up one ofthe watercolor papers, the canvases,
and start sketching out.Basically, I want to do my backyard.
I just need to go ahead and dothat. Next question is, what tools
(11:21):
and resources can you use tohelp sort and organize your ideas?
I like project managementsoftware. I've used a couple in the
past, and I'm really going toneed to, you know, lean back on.
Lean on that and go ahead anddo that. Just that way I can stay
organized with everything thatI do. Next question is, can you make
(11:46):
sure that your sorting andorganizing system is flexible and
sustainable? Well, becausewith me having ms, things have to
be flexible, and I'm a dad oftwins, so they have to be flexible
as far as sustainable. Yeah,these, these project management software
apps that I've been using inthe past, they're very stable, they
(12:09):
work really well, they'refree. That's what I like them. And
so I believe that I can beflexible with it and very stable
with it. If I can't do aconversation with somebody, I, you
know, I have it up on myprofile because I have ms, I might
not be able to, you know, Imight have to pull out at the last
minute. The last question is,how can you celebrate your success
(12:32):
as you sort and organize yourideas? So I think going back to the.
Using the program managementsoftware, getting that, getting all
the dates and all thetimelines set up, that's going to
be my first area of success.Then my second area of success is
(12:53):
actually doing the work,getting that done. And then my third
area of success will beactually presenting it to the public.
And my fourth is, hey, if Iwon an award for a podcast or if
I get a lot of engagement fromyou with, you know, the conversations
(13:14):
that I'm doing or the otherpodcasts that I'm doing, or when
I have a couple of watercolorsto show you to get feedback on that,
that's success for me. Allright, we're going to switch on over
to his action items. And firstaction item is, you know, what are
your current goals? Make sureyou're writing them down, both long
(13:36):
term and short term. Anotheraction item is what ideas do you
have for achieving your goals?You know, brainstorm those ideas.
The next action item is sortand organize your ideas. See, he's
not starting off with the sortand organize your ideas. Just what
are your goals? What do youwant to do? And then brainstorm it
(13:59):
and then sort those out. Andso that way they make sense to you.
Maybe they're not logical, butthey make sense to you. Next action
item is prioritize your ideas.What can you get done first? What
has to be done before you cando anything else? And then the last
Action item is take action onyour ideas. So that means actually
(14:22):
doing the work. There's nogetting around it. It's not going
to do itself. You need to dothat work. So some tips that he has
that he's going to leave ushere with is set aside a specific
time each day or week to sortand organize your ideas. Absolutely,
absolutely. I remember itwasn't this year, but I think it
(14:46):
was last year. I took like twoweeks and planned out the whole year
and I had it all set up in myproject management software. And
that felt great because then Icould release that. I wasn't ever
wondering, what am I going todo and when am I going to do it.
I knew from week to week toweek what I was going to do. Start
(15:09):
small is the next tip. Youknow, we're not trying to do brain
surgery here. We're not tryingto do the Great Wall of China here.
Just start small. And youknow, with the stuff that I'm doing,
it's actually small becauseI've done bigger projects. But now
I'm going to have three mainprojects that I'm going to be working
on. This show, my, my new showthat I'm building up, and then some
(15:33):
watercolors. So I'm, you know,I'm setting that up as small things
for me. They're, they're easythings, but they do need that organization.
Next tip is to enlist the helpof others. So I interviewed Tia Sunshine
a long time ago and she's awatercolor artist. So when I'm get
(15:57):
ready to start thesewatercolors and the actual painting
aspect of it, oh, you know,I'm going to be emailing the crap
out of her and going, hey,listen, how do I do this? Actually,
the next tip is make it fun.Well, geez, that's what this book
says. Make fun a habit. Makeit fun for yourself. Okay. You know,
am I going to paint some mudon some canvases? Absolutely I am.
(16:22):
And that's going to be okay.And heck, I'll show you what they
look like, you know, whenthey're, when they're done. But make
it fun for yourself. Make itstuff that you want to do. And then
the last thing is rewardyourself. So a reward for myself
would be to submit my solo Ms.Journey to the Third Coast Audio
(16:46):
Festival in Chicago and thengo out there and even if I don't
win, go out there, hook upwith some old friends and have a
good time. That's going to bemy reward for that. As far as the
watercolors. Go. Well, my goodfriend Heather Moon is out there
in Rockford, Illinois, whichis, you know, 90 miles west of Chicago.
(17:08):
I'll go out there and show hermy watercolors in person. You know,
that'll be a great time. Andyou know, a reward for myself already
is that I'm going to be doingone, maybe two podcast conferences
later on this year. So that'smy reward to myself. Okay. So definitely
(17:32):
want to thank Mike Brennan forwriting this book and for being on
my other show and for doingeverything that he does. Mike, this
has been a interestingjourney. I've really enjoyed it.
I read through the book reallyquick. I was like, wow. And as soon
as I got done with chapter 30the first time, I was like, this
(17:52):
has got to be a series. Sothis is a project that I have now
completed and I feel reallygood about it. And you know, I've
made a good friend in MikeBrennan. I've been following him
on all the socials and Ilisten to his podcast all the time.
So I've made a good friend outof it, A good mentor even, I would
(18:13):
say. So first and foremost,thank you, Mike, for everything that
you do. And then I want tothank you for taking a listen to
all 30 of these episodes forthe Make Fun of Habit series. It's
been, it's been a lot of fundoing these and thinking about, thinking
about art. And I wouldchallenge you, go grab the book,
(18:38):
run through those 30 daysyourself. I mean, yes, you've got
the episodes that I've donehere, you could just do that. But
I would highly recommend goget the book and go make Fun of Habit
for yourself. Alright, so ifyou'd like to reach out to me and
let me know if you've done theMake Fun of Habit or if you have
ideas for the show or if youhave critique for the show. I take
(19:01):
all, I take everything. Emailme timothyreateartpodcast.com I'd
love to have you on the show.The next episode that I do here,
I'm going to be explaining thedifferent topics and what I'm going
to be doing them for you. Soif you want to get involved in that,
(19:22):
by all means, shoot me anemail and let's get you on the list
and let's get you on theschedule. Okay. A couple of things
I want to remind you of. Oneis I do have that other podcast.
It's called Find a PodcastAbout. You can find it at findapodcastabout
xyz and there I hope you findyour next Binge worthy podcast and
(19:42):
outsmart the algorithm. Checkit out for yourself. It's a great
podcast to listen to if youwant to hear about other podcasts
that I think are binge worthy.And then I would be remiss if I did
not tell you about mybusiness. It is TKB Podcast Studio
(20:03):
and that's where I help myclients lead through the noise with
quiet professionalism. Allpodcasting, from idea creation all
the way to publishing andpromotion. If you're thinking about
starting a podcast, you canhear me. I've been doing it since
2006, so if little old me cando it, I think you can do it too.
(20:26):
But let's make thatconversation happen. You can find
mybusiness@tkbpodcaststudio.com and
again, you can email metimothy kbpodcaststudio.com all right,
that's all I have for you heretoday. I need to get on with my day.
I know you need to get on withyour day, but I hope that you got
(20:50):
something out of thisorganizing those ideas and actually
putting them into practice. Sogo out there, tame that inner critic.
Create more than you consume.Go out there, make some art for somebody
you love. Yourself. I'll talkto you next time.
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