I like to do drawing first thing in the morning. I like to touch clay. And write. Those are the things that I do. Have I ever looked at Instagram first thing in the morning? Of course, we’re all guilty of it. This is just a compass, a direction for you to consider.”
Don’t read first thing in the morning! Reading is input. Write. Don’t read.
Rule 2: Do What You Love
“Make it fun. This is not out of duty, this is not homework, this is for you. This is your time. If you don’t like it, do something else, but engage with your active mind. If you’re gonna play video games, play Minecraft so you can build something. I love Grand Theft Auto, but it’s kind of passive. It’s hard to be creative. I used to smash cars together and build pileups of cars and see if I could make a sculpture using the cars as an element. If you do a mission, you’re solving a puzzle. And there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just a different activity. People are doing a lot of jigsaw puzzles which is good because it activates your mind. But do something else too. You should do different kinds of things.
It’s very hard to find what you love. Maybe this time in quarantine is a way to give us a little perspective about finding priority in our lives and doing what we gotta do to put those things forward.”
Rule 3: Setup Is Everything
“Your setup is your paper and pencil, minimally. So you have to have a piece of paper and a pencil and maybe a backup pencil in case it breaks, so you don’t wake up first thing in the morning, like, Oh, that was an amazing dream, I saw gold at the end of a rainbow! I just gotta write it down and I’ll be set for life! But where’s my pen? And then the memory fades.
The muse is so fugitive that you must be set up to capture her. If you’re gonna dance in the morning, move the furniture the night before. Roll up the rug, have your outfit ready to go. It’s called your setup. And again I’m gonna give props. This, I read from David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish. I highly encourage that as a book on tape ‘cause you get to hear David Lynch scream the whole book at you in his own voice. He does sound effects with, like, wind noises. Wonderful if you’re on a long road trip. Perfect.”
Rule 4: Start Easy. Or Don’t.
“Do the easy things first as a warmup to do the hard thing. Make it easy. Don’t kill yourself. Or, do the hard things first. Get it out of the way.”
Rule 5: Patience Is a Curse
“Another way of saying that is, procrastination is a good thing. This boombox I started in 2015, it’s still not done. But here’s the secret: if at first you don’t succeed, give up immediately. Seriously. Give up immediately, move on to something else, work that problem until you get stuck, move on to something else, work on that problem ’til you get stuck. By that time your subconscious mind is working on those other two problems and you circle back. Your subconscious mind, maybe even something you discovered while you were sleeping, ’cause your brain’s active even when it’s sleeping, solves the problem. And then you come back to it—’Oh! I just have to put a little golden acrylics carbon black paint, just dab it on…look at that!’ “
Rule 6: Forgive Yourself for Perfectionism
“I wanna contradict what I just said. It’s important to contradict yourself. YouTube commenters—the most racist, xenophobic, sexist, antisemitic—the worst people…trolls hate contradictions. Because it’s a challenge, it creates uncertainty. And that’s the role of the artist: to create uncertainty and to challenge you. Otherwise it’s just fluffy entertainment and i’m not interested in that. I enjoy consuming fluffy entertainment, but I don’t wanna make it.