Here we are, its Monday and once again the to do list I had for the weekend didn’t get completed. 

It wasn’t as if I didn’t work over the weekend, of course I did. But that to do list is still there and is still almost full. Why? Well because every weekend I go into it thinking how much I’m going to get done. For whatever reason in my mind I think the weekend will have endless time that I’ll never be able to fill. Sadly it’s only 48 hours and during some of that I do have to sleep… no matter how much I try not to.

Still, the idea of being able to accomplish a lot over the weekend seems like it could happen. You don’t have all these emails coming in or clients calling you. Even if clients do call and email you can wait and answer them back on Monday. After all, it’s the weekend and people don’t really expect you to get back to them as quickly as you would during the week. 

Typically I start the weekend with big goals of getting so much done, anything that I wasn’t able to wrap up during the week and then maybe some other fun project I’d like to work on. Maybe some drawing, reading, or blogging because I also have to find some time to relax. It is the weekend and you need a break no matter how small of a break; you have to recharge somewhat. 

What always happens is Sunday rolls around and I feel way behind, I end up stressing out over what I didn’t get done. Some of it I needed to get done and some of it didn’t matter. 

What it really comes down to is time management, or my lack of it on the weekend. Or maybe I should just be enjoying the weekend and not trying to cram it full of work because that’s what I do during the week. Ha, right! Of course, I’ve already started adding things to my to do list for this weekend. Cause ya know, I’ve got 48 hours to fill. 

If you know me or at least follow my work and my work online, you know I often have a lot of projects happening at once. Not just with LooseKeys and the Hop Cast but with other fun personal things I’m exploring or trying. With all this going on there are times where I worry about over promising what can be delivered. Which is a terrible thing to do for yourself or your business, it just leads to stress and anger from clients. 

For me, I try to be honest and keep every project in check. If I feel like I’m falling behind or I’m not going to make a date for a client, I let them know as soon as possible. Sometimes it’s hard to face the reality but the more you keep clients updated, the less likely you’re going to make them feel like you let them down. Especially when having that extra day or two is going to allow you to give them a better product then something that is slapped together for this arbitrary date. 

If for some reason I did feel like I had over promised a client, I have a get it done at whatever cost attitude. I call in reinforcements, maybe a freelancer or two. I’ll sacrifice some sleep or whatever needs to happen to make sure that they don’t feel like I let them down. 

Making smart decisions is the best way to avoid over promising and then paying the price. 

I recently started watching the Netflix show, House Of Cards and in episode 1 Kevin Spacey’s character Frank J. Underwood has a great quote.

“I never make such big decisions so long after sunset and so far from dawn.”

What an eloquent way to just say that you need to sleep on it. I tend to work around the clock but I try to follow this advice. If there is an important email or decision to be made, I don’t do that at 1AM. More than likely that question or issue will be there in the morning. I’m not dealing with anything life or death here and knowing when to shut down for the day and taking the time to weigh a decision is important.

When working on broadcast commercial spots, there are not usually a lot of delays in production, the airtime has already been paid for and something needs to air. 

However, I work with a lot of startups and issues can come up and there are times where the products get delayed. Even if something happens with a launch date or product release date, the video isn’t necessarily going to be coinciding with that, it could be coming out with a press release instead. Its important that I know what role the video I am producing will play in the overall plan.

When there are these real deadlines, such as a launch or a press release coming out, I’m more than happy to put in the extra time, the late nights and even weekends if needed to make sure that deadline is hit.

If the deadline for the video I’m working on has been pushed back, its important that the client let me know. I know dates are often flexible but when I go into a project thinking a video is needed for a certain day, I do my best to make that happen. There have been instances where I’ve met the deadline for a project and then the client ends up wanting to tweak for an extra week past that drop dead date they gave me.

Maybe I rushed parts or scaled back on what I wanted to do because I was worried about this date. At 2:00 AM I’m not at 100%. If I would have known there was an extra day, I may have changed something in my design or animation. I would have put that time to use, improving elements and fine-tuning the piece. Not to mention that when I schedule a project for a certain amount of days and then the client wants to tweak past that date, that adds conflicts with my schedule. So its always important to communicate these important dates with all involved on a project, if a deadline changes then include the people working on the project with that bit of information. 

So often when a project or a design is finished we are so proud of it that it gets sent off to the client or posted online right away. Sometimes you’re done just because you’re sick of looking at it or working on it and don’t have any interest in prolonging the project any longer then necessary. However, just like a paper you wrote in high school or college that you revised, re-wrote and re-worked, you should also look at your work in the same way. When you think you’re done, stop and look it over. Maybe even sleep on it or get a second opinion. You always want to put your best work out there and if you’re not on a tight deadline, give yourself the time and chance to improve on what you’ve been creating.

It’s 2 AM and you’re still working… are you really getting that much work done? Don’t you have to be up again at 7 AM to start it all over? And I have a feeling you’ll still be working on that same project in the morning. Is that extra hour of work right now really going to help you tomorrow when you’re running on 5 hours of sleep? That $6 triple shot of espresso can only help so much. I know from doing a few too many late nights myself that at some point, they will break you and you need rest. Figuring out the right balance of those late nights and early mornings is tricky. For your own sanity and for the sanity of the ones you work with, treat yourself to some ME time. Find some time just for yourself; to relax, unwind and power back up. Doing so will allow you to be more productive when it’s time to get back to work. So shut it down, you can always pick it back up tomorrow.

The creative process is a strange one that’s hard to explain and even harder for you to bill. One day a simple task might take you 30 minutes, the next time that same general thing could take two days. Learning your creative process and how to make use of your time more efficiently is often trial and error. I’ve learned over the years what works best for me. For instance, I know that I have to have a little time to think and brainstorm before I start a new project. When a new project hits my desk you’ll almost never see me start working on it right then. And that’s not just because I have a handful of other things in the pipeline. Its actually because I need time to think about it and let it digest. Depending on the project, that could take me five minutes or a week. No way I can just jump into something new straight off. I need to let it simmer there for a while… you can’t just turn creativity on like a faucet. I usually have at least one project on the back burner that I’m starting in a few days or next week. I’m not working on it so I’m not billing for the time. But I know it’s there and my brain is thinking about it. Perhaps while I’m sleeping or while I’m out for a run, the ideas will start forming and coming together. Maybe its the color, style or how best to explain the product in a witty way; it all begins to take shape before I actually start officially working on it. So when I sit down to finally get to work on this project or idea I don’t spend a day forcing myself to be creative, I already have an idea of what I want to do. If you take time to understand your creative method, you’ll be able to work more efficiently and maybe even produce better work.

I’m sure we’ve all wished there were more hours in the day so we could get a little more done and be able to bill just a couple more hours. I find myself wishing this at least once a week with nearly every project I’m working on. I think if only I had time to do this or if I spend just a few more hours I can do it that way. Sometimes you can squeeze in a few more hours on a job but it’s not always going to make the project better. If you push yourself too far and stay up longer then you should, trying to take hours away from sleeping there is a good chance the following day isn’t going to be as productive as it could have been. Was that extra three hours of work worth the following day working at a slower pace? Recently, finishing up a few 15 plus hour work days at Daily Planet ltd. really proves this point. The project needed to get done and of course I was going to put in everything I could to accomplish this. There were a few moments during these long hours that I found myself staring at my computer screen moving the same couple of keyframes back and forth. No real work was getting done I was just putting in time. My brain needed to rest and recharge and I’ve said before how important it is to get away from your computer and take a break. But when the deadline looms and the clients sitting their waiting to see something that isn’t always an option. As many of you know, I put in a lot of hours practicing my craft, collaborating on new projects and looking for what my next great idea might be but there is a limit, even for me. As I was putting in more and more time each day on this recent project, I realized there was a limited number of hours that allow me to perform creative tasks. Sure, some of this project was waiting on 3D renders and then having to composite those into After Effects and it all wasn’t work, work, work but for the most part my mind wasn’t able to rest for more then an hour or so before I needed to jump back into it. It was a constant push and we were working longer hours. Of course we got it done and it shipped off to wherever it needed to go. The long hours and practically sleepless nights paid off for this project, but for me I was drained and pretty much exhausted. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one because I know a couple other people on the project put in even longer hours then I did. It took me several days to recover from this and as a result I didn’t want to work on a few other things I needed to accomplish.

In this case adding more hours of work to this project got more work done, but on the whole I ended up needing a long recovery time and that resulted in lost productivity in those following days when I was zapped of creative energy or any energy at all. This isn’t some sort of data entry job where the work is so second-nature that you don’t have to think about what you are doing. If you are doing creative work more time working does not necessarily equal more accomplished work. In the future when I find myself starting the day earlier and earlier and finishing later and later, often working more and more hours just to feel like I was accomplishing something; I have to stop and think if I’m really getting more done.