So you’ve decided to participate in the Challenge. Congrats! I’m pretty stoked you’ll be joining. As today kicks off the 40 Days of Dating Your Passion Project creativity challenge, I am feeling a bit anxious and excited—are you? Here’s a checklist to help you prepare:
- Decided which project you will be working on.
- Created a brief daily questionnaire. Picked out a time to fill this out. It can be first thing every morning, before you go to bed, or right after you finish working on your project. Consistency is key.
- Spent some time thinking about what you want to achieve. I’m not too concerned about the results our outcome, but rather by putting the time and work into it.
- Scheduled the times you’ll be spending time with your passion project, at least for the 2–3 hour time blocks. If not for the entire 40 days, then just for the week ahead.
- For the 10-30 minutes you’re spending on your project every day, I like to think of them as daily check-ins, whether it’s a mini-sprint of writing, outlining, or editing a scene. I think it will help to do it the same time every day, if possible.
- Decided which weekend you’ll go on your bender, getting away to focus exclusively on your project (spending 8 hours a day or so).
- Built a “creation cave,” a dedicated (or as dedicated as possible) space you’ll be working in. Whether it’s a local coffee shop, a room in your place, or your dining room table (that’s me) I think having a set place you go to work on will make it easier to get into your flow and build momentum.
- Let your friends and family know. This might help them be more understanding if you can’t make it out to as many social activities.
- Picked out some reading material or online tutorial to help you learn.
Facebook group: There’s now a Facebook group for participants of the challenge to cheer each other on. We can also share helpful links and whatnot. I’m not really sure what I’m doing, but that’s okay. I think we can all take comfort in the fact that we’ll be winging it.
If you want to chat or need anything on my end, feel free to hit me up at jackie[at]cheapsters[org].
Please think of the challenge as a general framework to guide you, in no way is it meant to feel constraining.
This is gonna be great fun. I can tell. 🙂
photo credit: devilinsidela via photopin cc
I’m off to a great start. I really hope I can stick with this! Thanks a million for setting this up Jackie!
My creation cave will be Barnes & Noble, Starbucks or Whole Foods!
Good luck to all in the challenge!
Awesome! I see you have already been busy!! 🙂 Good for you on picking your creation caves. Mine will be the dining area at my apartment, and the occasional coffee shop.
I am sure you will be able to stick to this. We’ll keep each other in check, and cheer each other on!