I have long known that Doing one thing at a time and Focusing on it are two of the most important habits to have when it comes to getting things done and moving forward with any project you are working on. However I had no idea just how difficult it would be to hold true to those habits. It seems that every day more and more projects, tasks and things to do get added to the already never ending ToDo list. And I am just talking about CG projects here, not even mentioning what life has waiting for me when I open my email or step away from the computer!

So in an effort to manage the big and small, it is easy to get tangled up in the thick of thin things. We are also continuously bombarded daily with information that distracts us too. News, radio, blogs, email, forums, articles, magazines, Advertisements, etc. ad infinitum. All those inputs give us ideas, thoughts of projects to start, things to buy, things we might want to learn, ad infinitum again. All of of the above are things that can be added to the.. thats right, todo list! Information just creates things to do that didn’t even exist to you before you were informed, ignorance is bliss in this particular case.

Time for recovery.
As Tim Ferriss says in his book, “The Four Hour Work Week”, go on an information diet, go cold turkey if you can. No news, no blogs, no magazines, you name it. Do this for a week or two, then ease yourself back into the info world, but don’t overflow yourself again.
Now it’s time to simplify. Start with Importance.
With information aside and distractions at a minimum, you need to take a look at your todo list and prioritize. What Projects or Tasks are most important? Pick a top 5 or 10, leave the rest unsorted for now. Once you know what project is most important, get started on it asap. You may have 1001 personal projects you want to work on, most of which you are itching to start and more importantly, finish. With little free time to work on side projects, you really need to focus, so work on that top Priority project and work it until it is done. Don’t worry about the next model or animation you want to make until the one you are on is Finished! The time you spend thinking about another model while your working on your current model is time wasted getting the current one done and out the door. On a smaller scale, Get one thing done at a time while working on the model. If you start texturing the boot, don’t stop to go texture the face. Finish the boot! You may need to make revisions later, but that’s ok, when your doing the revision, start it and finish it. The rule still applies.

I may be ranting here, but I know this a problem among many artists.