I've wanted high-efficiency days to be my norm since I was a teenager. Today, I have more resources and experience, so I should be able to give it a better shot than past me would have.
It's important to remember to STOP so that every day isn't GO-GO-GO. Stop to workout, stop to take a walk, stop to eat lunch, or to read, or lay down, etc.. A stop doesn't mean looking at my phone.
Having and staying in tune with my Good Day calendar seems like a door that leads to somewhere, and I'd like to figure out where that is.
Also, my goals are elephants, I can't accomplish them in one sitting.
Jan 11
Strategy vs Tactics
My brother asked me, "so, what's your strategy as an artist?"
I explained all this calendar stuff to him.
He told me that this isn't a strategy, it's tactics - and that I need to research the difference between the two and understand them better.
I found this article.
Here's my quick summary:
A strategy describes your destination and how you are going to get there. Tactics describe the specific actions you are going to take along the way.
Here's a quote from the article:
"If your strategy is to climb a mountain, one key component of your strategy might be to decide which side of the mountain you should climb. Your tactics would be the gear you’d buy, who you’d bring with you, your complete trip plan, how long it would take to get there, what season you’d go in, and so on."
So all of my daily habits and tasks are tactics, not strategies. And if I do tasks every day without building a strategy (and without having a clear goal) it'll be like I'm pushing a boulder around all day to potentially no end.
Here's a quote from The Art Of War:
"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."
Jan. 12
I find it funny that when I was 15 strategic planning was what I did almost all of the time. Goal setting was essentially a hobby of mine. I wouldn't ever do tactics because I was a kid and didn't really want to work. I would spend my time learning/researching/note-taking, but I wouldn't spend much of my time applying what I learned to create stuff.
Now that I'm 24 I've flipped 180 degrees. I'm fully tactic-minded, I'm doing work each week, but I couldn't tell you a simple-to-explain strategy or long term goal of mine. These are things I'm needing to continue developing over time.
Jan. 14
I didn't figure out a strategy this week that I have enough confidence in to share. I'll keep working on developing (hopefully) a really good one! And I hope that the things I became aware of this week can be helpful to any one of my friends reading this.
Have a great week!
-Cam