The Work, The Work, The Work.
Effort’s a funny old thing.
You can put a lot in and get sod-all out at the other end, and you can toss something out on the way back from the pub and hit a home run.
And that can fuck with your mind.
Should one work really hard? Will it produce better stuff?
Well, annoyingly enough, the answer to both those questions is ‘yes’.
Although you might produce the best executions in the first ten minutes, the tedious truth of the matter is that if you come up with 100 more executions, the standard of your best three cannot possibly get any worse. That means the only outcomes to greater effort are either stasis or improvement, and neither will do you any harm.
But, y’know, work can be a bit of an arse, especially when compared to sitting around playing GTA 4 while mainlining whisky sours.
So where do you draw the line?
That’s a much harder question to answer because it depends on many factors at the same time: how ambitious are you? Do you need to impress your CD? Is the client too cunty to appreciate/ buy what your extra toil produces? Do you stop at eight, nine or ten o’clock? Are the extra hours worth it or should you get some sleep and try again in the morning? Is that new ad better or is the desperation for some kind of improvement screwing with your perspective?
God knows.
But I do think it gets easier as you get older, partly because you know how to spot which ideas are good, partly because you learn to recognise the dead ends before you go down them and partly because practice makes perfect, or at least better.
But if you want the real solution just find something you love doing, then it won’t feel like work. That means that you will end up doing tons of work and no work at all simultaneously.
Good luck finding that thing.
“find something you love doing, then it won‚Äôt feel like work”
Spot on there Mr Ben.
Ben, this is what I have always believed in and have always lived by. Thanks for articulating it perfectly. I will print this off and hand it to students who come to visit.
I will remove my lips from your ass now.
searching for a better idea is like walking head on into a gale. you may end up pissing all over yourself and never reach that better idea.
the problem is how and when to decide to stop that search before you start wasting the energy that you need for your next brief.
Aye. But everyone is going on about the right to work, what about the right not to work?
Me want to work when me want to, but most of the time me want to chill, me want to hang with me bitches, me just want to relax.
Who’s stopping you?
Quite a good book on this very subject is called “How to be free.” I forget who it’s by. Got a bit pissed last night you see.
i got pissed last night as well. you’re not that irish guy i was talking to in soho arts club who wanted to be an actor and was wearing a twatty hat?
In this industry it’s important to sit back, put your feet up and observe.
Then the hard work becomes easier.
Not me. Although I like the word “hat” i certainly wouldn’t wear one. No matter what type of hat it is, they all seem to make me look something of a…ooh now what’s the word…ah yes….something of a git.
Stop reading. It just fucks with yer ed.