July 25, 2024 • 11 mins
In this episode as we uncover the powerful impact of time constraints on getting things done. We illustrate how setting tight time limits can drastically reduce procrastination and boost your focus. These principles apply whether you are managing household chores or attempting to finish a film with our 1 year timeline in the Feature Filmmaker Academy. Discover how working within set time frames can lead to more efficient and concentrated work sessions.
Successful runners often prioritize the time spent running over distance or pace, emphasizing the importance of consistency. We'll discuss how incorporating short, intense bursts of activity—akin to "speed work" in running—into your daily life can yield significant results. Tune in as we explore balancing endurance and speed work, and learn how limiting yourself can actually help you get the results you want faster.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, welcome to the podcast.
So today Kent came up with ourlovely title that this will
change your life in 10 minutes.
And he just kind of suggestedit to me, like because we were
saying do you think we could dothe podcast in 10 minutes today?
Because we were wanting to getonto the next thing.
And I said, actually that fitsperfectly with what I wanted to
(00:24):
talk about on the podcast andwe'll actually use that title
and talk about if you can giveyourself less time, why that's
good.
And I actually just last nightchallenged our feature
filmmaking academy class to dothis because I see them taking
forever to do steps.
(00:46):
So if you're interested, we haveyou can sign up on the bottom
of the podcast for a green lightcall and learn all about this
and receive our free one-yeartimeline.
And in the class we follow thistimeline and it's basically our
free checklist broken down intoweekly segments, and every week
we do certain tasks for makingyour feature film.
And so I said, hey, you guys,this week's tasks and all of
(01:12):
these tasks can be done in 15minutes or less or 10 minutes a
day if you're just doing itconsistently every day and you
don't need to give yourselfhours of time, like I do this
with laundry.
I realized the other day that Iwas giving myself like a start
time for laundry but not an endtime, and laundry would take me
(01:32):
hours.
I'd just be folding and foldingand yeah, we have five kids, so
there is a lot of laundry.
But then the other day I gavemyself a 30 minute.
I was like I'm going to leavewith the kids and go to the
playground in 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And I was like I'm going to leave with the kids and
go to the playground in 30minutes and the next day I
opened the drawers and likelaundry was exploding out of me,
out at me.
They'd been shoved into thedrawer.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
No, I was like, if I don't finish, I don't finish,
I'm just going to do what I can.
And I got a whole load oflaundry folded and put away in
30 minutes and it just showed me, like, what we give ourselves.
The amount of time we giveourselves is how long it takes
for us to get things done.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
There are days when you have like seven loads that
have piled up over the course oflike six days of negligence,
but that might not be 30 minutespossible.
But it is possible to say I'mgoing to work hard at this for
30 minutes and if you can get aload in the half done, you're
eventually actually doing morefolding than you are getting it
poured onto the bed.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, so you will catch up eventually it was a
more productive 30 minutes thanit would have been otherwise.
Even if I ended up coming backand doing 30 more minutes later,
I still got way more done thanI usually do in 30 minutes,
because it wasn't like I'm goingto work on this thing until it
wasn't like.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I'm going to work on this thing until it's done.
It was.
I'm going to work on this thingfor 30 minutes.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, like that's all I've got.
I'm just going to use it andfocus.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I'm done.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, and then it also makes it not so big in your
mind Like oh, like to work onthis for an hour.
It's do this actually in class.
Sometimes.
I'll give we'll all just take10 minutes in class to work on a
step and we can get a lot done.
It's like when you're notdistracted and there's other
(03:13):
people there and you're workingtogether.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
There's kind of this like I have to stay focused and
do it for 10 minutes straight,and then we're going to all
share what we did, and so wewant to like be productive.
Well, and like.
Another example of that is I amworking with assistant editors
that I'm training, right.
I actually find that I'm superproductive when I sit down for
four hours and work with thoseguys on a feature edit Right and
(03:35):
I'm not saying this to dog onanyone.
These are really great, humbleyoung guys that I'm training.
They're awesome and I'm supergrateful for their help because
they're helping me get stuffdone that I don't have the
bandwidth for.
But I could edit way fasterthan these guys.
I mean, if I sit down and justtake the keyboard from them.
I could just scream throughsome of the functions that I'm
(03:55):
like do this keystroke, do thisthing, do that thing?
And it's like, yeah, but I'mtraining people and they're
getting faster every week andthat's exciting for me and
really gratifying.
But however, in the long run,would I actually be that focused
for four hours straight if Iwasn't sitting with them in the
room doing it?
(04:16):
Because I've dedicated that time, I've set it apart for this one
thing that we're going to do,and so, even though they are
slower than me, we probably getmore work done than I would by
myself that day, because I haveno option to check my email or
to get distracted on YouTube orI'm not on social media, but
that can be a major distraction,you know.
(04:38):
Or if I start doing a functionthat's a foreground function,
that something has to load and Ican't work, I'm waiting for
something to load and finish,then I'll be really tempted to
start thinking about somethingelse or getting distracted by
reading about something else.
But if that happens when I'mworking with an assistant, then
we start talking about okay,here are these functions and
(04:58):
here's what we're trying toaccomplish, and remember to look
at the treatment and the storyand what is the story about and
what's our vision, and then itfinishes loading and then our
minds are still on the task, youknow.
And so just keeping that sortof focus is, I think, a big part
of what you're saying, becauseyou can't do that 24 seven.
It's like impossible to like.
I'm going to get my 10 minutesto do this and then 10 minutes
(05:19):
to take my kids to school, andthen I'll just drive fast, you
know.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I just want to challenge this belief that if
you give your, it'll be easier.
If you have more time and Ithink time is a really precious
resource and a lot of us feellike we don't have enough of it
because we work day jobs, wehave kids, we have lives, but
(05:43):
actually giving yourself moretime makes it harder and more
painful and take longer.
And so I want to challenge thatidea because I think we we
sometimes give ourselves toomuch time to get our goals.
And so, yes, like making afeature film in a year is a
pretty um ambitious first film,like timeline, but you could do
it in six months.
(06:03):
You could.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
You could technically make a feature film in a day,
like if you shot a one-er thatyou came up with that morning
and you rolled the camera for 90straight minutes and it
wouldn't be a very good movieprobably, but like I mean, maybe
something amazing would happenif we just keep talking.
then we could make a featurefilm right now, right, now we
could make a podcast into afeature film, and I know that
(06:25):
sounds silly and that soundskind of like a content
perspective.
But in reality, like you know,most of us spend like the first
decade out of film school notmaking zero feature films.
And at that point you're likeif I had spent 15 minutes a day,
I could have made four featurefilms by now.
You know, and I know thatsounds a little reductive, but I
(06:46):
agree with it.
I think when we sit down andsay I'm just going to get
started, a good friend of ourssaid I'm going to go to the gym
and I have to touch a weight.
No-transcript, that's all Ihave to do.
I have to get up and go touch aweight and then suddenly it's
like I work out every day andI'm extremely consistent and I
(07:08):
actually push myself because I'mat the gym.
I made it all the way here.
I might as well work out.
The hardest part is actuallywaking up and getting out of bed
.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And that's the momentum part.
That's kind of a differentdiscussion, but it does relate
to this.
Because every time you likehave to stop and start again and
I'm not talking about like thenext day you pick it up and do
your next 10 minutes thatmaintains momentum because
you're still like it's happeningin your brain, you're thinking
about it, it's top of mind,you're working on it
(07:36):
consistently and that createsmomentum.
That doesn't mean you'reworking on it every second of
every day, um, it's just regularenough that it's there.
But but every time you have tolike gain momentum again.
That's a lot of work.
Like you think about the amountof work it takes for a train to
get rolling, and it's a ton ofenergy, but once it's rolling,
(07:57):
it doesn't take much to keep itgoing.
It just keeps going becausethere's momentum.
And it's the same with ourcareers.
Like, if you keep the momentumgoing and you maintain that it
doesn't take much to keep going,and many times you'll want to
keep going and it's like wow, 15minutes was super productive, I
can do 15 more.
And if you want to do it, butlike also sometimes it's good to
(08:19):
set an end challenge, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I wouldn't make this analogous to running in two
different ways.
First, many runners greatsuccessful runners who have
inspired a lot of people tobecome runners say it's really
more about the amount of timeyou spend running than the
distance you run.
And so it's like if I can run30 minutes a day, run 30 minutes
a day, but if you can fit 60minutes in, then it's like
(08:42):
you're going to be a betterdistance runner because you're
running for 60 minutes straight.
They never talk about pace ormiles or anything.
It's just getting your bodyinto that habit of starting and
going and in that case you'rekind of trying to make it take
longer.
But but, like for me, I do twodifferent types of running.
I do speed work and then I doendurance work, and so when I'm
doing endurance work I take mytime right.
(09:04):
I'm not really trying to run ashard and as fast as I can.
That doesn't make any sense,like it doesn't take much to
tuck her out.
But when I do speed work, I amkind of saying you know, I only
have 30 minutes, I'm going to doa few sprints, I'm going to run
as hard as I can, and it'sreally easy to just like shred
my legs and get really tired.
So what we're suggesting isadding speed work to your
(09:25):
routines to help you say, I'mgoing to spend 10 minutes on
something, 15 minutes onsomething, and that's all we
have, and it's good enough, andI'm going to pick it up again
tomorrow, and that kind oflaser-focused minutes.
Those laser-focused minutes arehighly valuable.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, and we're out of them now, so hope you enjoyed
that and that you give it a try.
Let us know how it.
Hi, welcome to the podcast.
So today Kent came up with ourlovely title that this will
change your life in 10 minutes.
And he just kind of suggestedit to me, like because we were
saying do you think we could dothe podcast in 10 minutes today?
Because we were wanting to getonto the next thing.
And I said, actually that fitsperfectly with what I wanted to
(00:24):
talk about on the podcast andwe'll actually use that title
and talk about if you can giveyourself less time, why that's
good.
And I actually just last nightchallenged our feature
filmmaking academy class to dothis because I see them taking
forever to do steps.
(00:46):
So if you're interested, we haveyou can sign up on the bottom
of the podcast for a green lightcall and learn all about this
and receive our free one-yeartimeline.
And in the class we follow thistimeline and it's basically our
free checklist broken down intoweekly segments, and every week
we do certain tasks for makingyour feature film.
And so I said, hey, you guys,this week's tasks and all of
(01:12):
these tasks can be done in 15minutes or less or 10 minutes a
day if you're just doing itconsistently every day and you
don't need to give yourselfhours of time, like I do this
with laundry.
I realized the other day that Iwas giving myself like a start
time for laundry but not an endtime, and laundry would take me
(01:32):
hours.
I'd just be folding and foldingand yeah, we have five kids, so
there is a lot of laundry.
But then the other day I gavemyself a 30 minute.
I was like I'm going to leavewith the kids and go to the
playground in 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And I was like I'm going to leave with the kids and
go to the playground in 30minutes and the next day I
opened the drawers and likelaundry was exploding out of me,
out at me.
They'd been shoved into thedrawer.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
No, I was like, if I don't finish, I don't finish,
I'm just going to do what I can.
And I got a whole load oflaundry folded and put away in
30 minutes and it just showed me, like, what we give ourselves.
The amount of time we giveourselves is how long it takes
for us to get things done.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
There are days when you have like seven loads that
have piled up over the course oflike six days of negligence,
but that might not be 30 minutespossible.
But it is possible to say I'mgoing to work hard at this for
30 minutes and if you can get aload in the half done, you're
eventually actually doing morefolding than you are getting it
poured onto the bed.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, so you will catch up eventually it was a
more productive 30 minutes thanit would have been otherwise.
Even if I ended up coming backand doing 30 more minutes later,
I still got way more done thanI usually do in 30 minutes,
because it wasn't like I'm goingto work on this thing until it
wasn't like.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I'm going to work on this thing until it's done.
It was.
I'm going to work on this thingfor 30 minutes.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, like that's all I've got.
I'm just going to use it andfocus.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I'm done.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, and then it also makes it not so big in your
mind Like oh, like to work onthis for an hour.
It's do this actually in class.
Sometimes.
I'll give we'll all just take10 minutes in class to work on a
step and we can get a lot done.
It's like when you're notdistracted and there's other
(03:13):
people there and you're workingtogether.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
There's kind of this like I have to stay focused and
do it for 10 minutes straight,and then we're going to all
share what we did, and so wewant to like be productive.
Well, and like.
Another example of that is I amworking with assistant editors
that I'm training, right.
I actually find that I'm superproductive when I sit down for
four hours and work with thoseguys on a feature edit Right and
(03:35):
I'm not saying this to dog onanyone.
These are really great, humbleyoung guys that I'm training.
They're awesome and I'm supergrateful for their help because
they're helping me get stuffdone that I don't have the
bandwidth for.
But I could edit way fasterthan these guys.
I mean, if I sit down and justtake the keyboard from them.
I could just scream throughsome of the functions that I'm
(03:55):
like do this keystroke, do thisthing, do that thing?
And it's like, yeah, but I'mtraining people and they're
getting faster every week andthat's exciting for me and
really gratifying.
But however, in the long run,would I actually be that focused
for four hours straight if Iwasn't sitting with them in the
room doing it?
(04:16):
Because I've dedicated that time, I've set it apart for this one
thing that we're going to do,and so, even though they are
slower than me, we probably getmore work done than I would by
myself that day, because I haveno option to check my email or
to get distracted on YouTube orI'm not on social media, but
that can be a major distraction,you know.
(04:38):
Or if I start doing a functionthat's a foreground function,
that something has to load and Ican't work, I'm waiting for
something to load and finish,then I'll be really tempted to
start thinking about somethingelse or getting distracted by
reading about something else.
But if that happens when I'mworking with an assistant, then
we start talking about okay,here are these functions and
(04:58):
here's what we're trying toaccomplish, and remember to look
at the treatment and the storyand what is the story about and
what's our vision, and then itfinishes loading and then our
minds are still on the task, youknow.
And so just keeping that sortof focus is, I think, a big part
of what you're saying, becauseyou can't do that 24 seven.
It's like impossible to like.
I'm going to get my 10 minutesto do this and then 10 minutes
(05:19):
to take my kids to school, andthen I'll just drive fast, you
know.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I just want to challenge this belief that if
you give your, it'll be easier.
If you have more time and Ithink time is a really precious
resource and a lot of us feellike we don't have enough of it
because we work day jobs, wehave kids, we have lives, but
(05:43):
actually giving yourself moretime makes it harder and more
painful and take longer.
And so I want to challenge thatidea because I think we we
sometimes give ourselves toomuch time to get our goals.
And so, yes, like making afeature film in a year is a
pretty um ambitious first film,like timeline, but you could do
it in six months.
(06:03):
You could.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
You could technically make a feature film in a day,
like if you shot a one-er thatyou came up with that morning
and you rolled the camera for 90straight minutes and it
wouldn't be a very good movieprobably, but like I mean, maybe
something amazing would happenif we just keep talking.
then we could make a featurefilm right now, right, now we
could make a podcast into afeature film, and I know that
(06:25):
sounds silly and that soundskind of like a content
perspective.
But in reality, like you know,most of us spend like the first
decade out of film school notmaking zero feature films.
And at that point you're likeif I had spent 15 minutes a day,
I could have made four featurefilms by now.
You know, and I know thatsounds a little reductive, but I
(06:46):
agree with it.
I think when we sit down andsay I'm just going to get
started, a good friend of ourssaid I'm going to go to the gym
and I have to touch a weight.
No-transcript, that's all Ihave to do.
I have to get up and go touch aweight and then suddenly it's
like I work out every day andI'm extremely consistent and I
(07:08):
actually push myself because I'mat the gym.
I made it all the way here.
I might as well work out.
The hardest part is actuallywaking up and getting out of bed
.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And that's the momentum part.
That's kind of a differentdiscussion, but it does relate
to this.
Because every time you likehave to stop and start again and
I'm not talking about like thenext day you pick it up and do
your next 10 minutes thatmaintains momentum because
you're still like it's happeningin your brain, you're thinking
about it, it's top of mind,you're working on it
(07:36):
consistently and that createsmomentum.
That doesn't mean you'reworking on it every second of
every day, um, it's just regularenough that it's there.
But but every time you have tolike gain momentum again.
That's a lot of work.
Like you think about the amountof work it takes for a train to
get rolling, and it's a ton ofenergy, but once it's rolling,
(07:57):
it doesn't take much to keep itgoing.
It just keeps going becausethere's momentum.
And it's the same with ourcareers.
Like, if you keep the momentumgoing and you maintain that it
doesn't take much to keep going,and many times you'll want to
keep going and it's like wow, 15minutes was super productive, I
can do 15 more.
And if you want to do it, butlike also sometimes it's good to
(08:19):
set an end challenge, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I wouldn't make this analogous to running in two
different ways.
First, many runners greatsuccessful runners who have
inspired a lot of people tobecome runners say it's really
more about the amount of timeyou spend running than the
distance you run.
And so it's like if I can run30 minutes a day, run 30 minutes
a day, but if you can fit 60minutes in, then it's like
(08:42):
you're going to be a betterdistance runner because you're
running for 60 minutes straight.
They never talk about pace ormiles or anything.
It's just getting your bodyinto that habit of starting and
going and in that case you'rekind of trying to make it take
longer.
But but, like for me, I do twodifferent types of running.
I do speed work and then I doendurance work, and so when I'm
doing endurance work I take mytime right.
(09:04):
I'm not really trying to run ashard and as fast as I can.
That doesn't make any sense,like it doesn't take much to
tuck her out.
But when I do speed work, I amkind of saying you know, I only
have 30 minutes, I'm going to doa few sprints, I'm going to run
as hard as I can, and it'sreally easy to just like shred
my legs and get really tired.
So what we're suggesting isadding speed work to your
(09:25):
routines to help you say, I'mgoing to spend 10 minutes on
something, 15 minutes onsomething, and that's all we
have, and it's good enough, andI'm going to pick it up again
tomorrow, and that kind oflaser-focused minutes.
Those laser-focused minutes arehighly valuable.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, and we're out of them now, so hope you enjoyed
that and that you give it a try.
Let us know how it.
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