Yes sir or/and ma’am! There’s definitively a podcast that was going on with the posts. I set it aside for a while while I was looking for a house (we moved in February), and took some time to really review what went so horribly wrong with it. The dissection of all the gory details can be found in the podcast, but the short story is that I made a series of assumptions that didn’t work out they way I thought they might and learned some good things for the next go-round!
I reference a martial arts post in the podcast, that I’m fond of (despite the knee jerk inducing title). That post can be read here.
Overall, I feel like I may have helped some people by going over all the things I did wrong – but hopefully I’ll be able to help a lot more people in the future.
That’s it for now!
As always, I hope this helps you with your own goals – or at least keeps you amused until the next time!
See you soon and thanks again for listening/reading!
Much of this section of the book came from experiences that I had in, first, getting my Melodic Patterns book written and then, secondly, getting the book in a month project off of the ground.
I’m using that book as a case study, but I believe that the steps behind it help form a reasonable approach to working on any large project that’s unfamiliar (or largely unfamiliar) to you.
The steps to follow:
I made a reference to various pieces of advice. The overall categories of this are:
Build off of past experiences (or go with what you know)
Whenever possible start with the heavy lifting
Beware of the rope swing
Be realistic about what you can do
Break up overwhelming things into small chunks
Contortion doesn’t hurt if you’re limber
Projects have a tendency to run wild on their own – so plan on constantly monitoring their growth
Be prepared to go a lot of it on your own
Be ready to make a lot of mistakes
Be ready to improvise because you can’t plan for everything
Have a deadline and/or know when you’re done
You really can’t do it alone
Here are a few specifics related to the above:
Beware of the rope swing The advice I gave for this was a little too vague so here’s a qualifier. It’s all about balance. If you jump into something with no research, knowledge or plan, it will generally go badly. If you put too much energy into research, you may face paralysis in actually acting.
Deadlines I’d write more about this but I’ve already written on it here.
That’s it for now!
As always, I hope this helps you with your own goals.
See you soon and thanks again for listening/reading!
The Podcast and the liberal use of the term “Excerpt”
Part of working in a format like this is being able to review things that you wrote a while ago and seeing how they shake out in a conversational manner. That means that when I’m reading the book I’m editing the text in my head to prevent really awkward (or wrong things from being said. It also makes for some stilted moments, but the good news it that it tightens up both the podcast and the book in the process.
I’ll talk more about why I do this in the future but (editing this down from a lumbering 23 minutes) I’m hoping to convince you that there is a method to my madness (or vice-versa).
The steps to follow:
Just to recap, these are the steps I reference in the podcast (I skipped a few of them on the audio!!!) Good thing it’s an edit!
How to manage a project in a few broad strokes
Have a clear vision of what you want to do (set quantifiable goals).
Align perception with reality and create priorities (in other words make an honest assessment of what needs to happen to reach those goals)
Set deadlines and benchmarks.
Be accountable.
Do daily focused work on those goals and limit distractions and obstacles in the way of achieving them.
Make periodic reviews to check your project’s status against the benchmarks and timeline.
Utilize available resources when possible/necessary.
Come prepared:
I should have taken a page from the Boy Scouts this time around and been better prepared for a podcast. Then, perhaps, I would have had something novel like water handy and not had either a coughing fit (edited out) or the scrath voice that comes in mid-way to the podcast before I started coughing.
Related material:
Most of the observations on this site, will work in directly with the podcast posted here. But the two links I cited specifically were:
Yep! I have a few new books that I’m working on, and the non-guitar instructional book, Nothing Ever Got Done With An Excuse (Or a case study in how to plan projects and get things done). is all about several large scale projects that I got done (such as releasing 4 books of 1,200 + pages of writing in 5 months of 2011/2012).
You’re Podcasting this?
Yep! A large component of the book is accountability so there are several advantages to podcasting the bulk of the book.
It builds an audience for the book.
It gives me a framework (and deadlines) for editing the material.
Like I said in the podcast (re: pedagogy for pay and the flamenco dance teaching model) even if the ENTIRE book was put up online, there are people that will still want a book of the material.
Episode #12
Guit-A-Grip podcast episode #12 “Nothing Ever Got Done With An Excuse Introduction And Overview Excerpt” is out and available for download/streaming.
The writing book I reference in the podcast is Chris Baty’s, No Plot? No Problem! A low-stress, high-velocity guide to writing a novel in 30 days. There are a bajillion Kindle titles for outputting an ebook quickly, but Chris’ book is the granddaddy of them in my humble opinion.
The Harvard Study:
The study I cited in the podcast was from a source that quoted, What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School, by Mark McCormack. Funny story, this site contends that the data is largely fabricated and based on a non-existant 1953 Yale study! (It then goes on to cite another study that came to the same conclusion). So take that for what it’s worth because if the original study anecdote WAS fabricated – I can’t even fathom the number of people who must have cited the McCormack reference of it (or a reference to the reference) by now.
“There are only 12 notes and they take forever to learn.”
This is just a reminder. If the new habits you’re trying to acquire are outside your comfort zone, you’ll need to review your game plan often.
The Steps to follow:
WOW! It turns out that I was reading from an earlier draft of the book and missed a few steps! Here’s a case where it pays to check out the website as well as the podcast. ; ) I changed the below from first person to passive to make it more applicable to the reader.
How to manage a project in a few broad strokes
Have a clear vision of what you want to do (set quantifiable goals).
Align perception with reality and create priorities (in other words make an honest assessment of what needs to happen to reach those goals)
Set deadlines and benchmarks.
Be accountable.
Do daily focused work on those goals and limit distractions and obstacles in the way of achieving them.
Make periodic reviews to check your project’s status against the benchmarks and timeline.
Utilize available resources when possible/necessary.
That’s it for now!
See you soon and thanks again for listening/reading!
GuitArchitecture.org 