My biggest problem
The big event for me right now is the launch of The Remix Method.
So The Remix Method is out, it’s awesome, I’m happy… but my biggest problem reared its ugly head again on this project.
Here are the two big issues that cropped up.
The course took about 200 hours to make. That’s double what I planned.
The course shipped seven weeks later than planned.
These two issues represent a larger problem I’ve had for many years now: sprawl.
Sprawl is when a project expands after you start working on it – perhaps by many multiples. Imagine starting to run a race, and then noticing, off in the distance, the finish line rushing away from you and disappearing over the horizon.
This happens to me quite a bit on my own projects – and occasionally on client work. Another term for sprawl is “scope creep.”
I’m just now emerging from two sprawls. One was The Remix Method and the other is a video commission for a major newspaper that has dragged on for months. That one proved surprisingly difficult to define and I had to do a lot of rewrites to shape it.
Why does this keep happening?
What do these two projects have in common? The topic of creativity. I consider creativity my wheelhouse, but the topic is innately vast and this vastness creates boundary problems.
That’s my biggest problem: setting the right boundaries for projects. In other words, shaping it, defining what it is, and, even more importantly, what it is not.
I mostly set the boundaries too wide. This wastes time in a couple of ways.
Loads of excess material gets created that ultimately won’t fit the project. For The Remix Method, I created about 40 drafts for additional chapters.
Then a bunch of time and mental energy is spent adjusting the boundaries until I finally get it right.
So I know what the issue is. Why on earth do I keep falling into this trap?
It’s simple: doing interesting things requires boundaries that are a bit wide. One of my strengths as a storyteller is that I can perceive topics from a wide-angle perspective. This is one of the major reasons you’re reading me right now.
I need to find better ways to discover the right boundaries for projects before I commit to them. I won’t go into how I plan to do this and it’s still something I’m sorting out, but I’ll revisit this topic in the future.
In the meantime, here are some adjustments I’ll be making to minimize sprawl.
Be aware that my favorite topic, creativity, tends to have boundary issues. I got tricked this time because I know the topic so well and I figured I’d have the boundaries better defined than I did.
Thanks to The Remix Method, I now have a specific framework I can build on. The creation of the course has given me tighter boundaries to work within. I’ll be sticking to that terrain for a good long while.
Lastly and most simply: I have no plans to make a large-scale project for a bit. I’ll be keeping everything smaller for the foreseeable future.
Alright, that’s it for this time folks! See you all in a while!
K
P.S. Wanna learn how to make videos like me? Register for Everything I Know About Making Videos.