✱ Link: Archispeak 14 - "Normal" Business Hours
The latest episode of the Archispeak podcast is live on iTunes and the Archispeak website. After thanking our new Friends of the Show, we talked about the virtual leash that comes along with being hyper-connected to our profession.
The truth is that we have to be diligent and set our own boundaries in order to get the most out of our personal lives and our business lives. There's a great article on Steven Pressfield's site (that quotes the original article posted on the Four Hour Workweek site) that talks about how and why creative people need to say no. It's a great addition to the podcast. I only wish I had found it earlier so we could have talked about it.
Steven:
My own problem is it’s hard for me to say no. Despite years of therapy I still have the demented idea that I should be a nice guy. This is crazy. It’s a character flaw for anyone who is trying to accomplish something.
And there's this gem by the Charles Dickens, quoted in the article:
“‘It is only half an hour’–’It is only an afternoon’–’It is only an evening,’ people say to me over and over again; but they don’t know that it is impossible to command one’s self sometimes to any stipulated and set disposal of five minutes–or that the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometime worry a whole day… Who ever is devoted to an art must be content to deliver himself wholly up to it, and to find his recompense in it. I am grieved if you suspect me of not wanting to see you, but I can’t help it; I must go in my way whether or no.”
“No” makes us aloof, boring, impolite, unfriendly, selfish, anti-social, uncaring, lonely and an arsenal of other insults. But “no” is the button that keeps us on.
AMEN! I know that I need to have solid blocks of time consisting of many hours to accomplish things. Interruptions come from all over the place and all of the starting and stopping makes things take many times longer to finish than necessary, or never get finished at all. Nose to the grindstone and all that.
As I said on twitter to some friends discussing the podcast after it went up:
@EntreArchitect exactly. It's up to us to have boundaries. People are like children - they push them until pushed back. @npann @archy_typeAugust 13, 2013