June 13: #27 Spend time Creating something (anything)

Phil: I suppose this one was pretty easy considering Bruce and I are always up to something. In fact while typing this I just realized that is pretty much the first sentence of the same entry Bruce just wrote. So obviously when it comes to creating, my job entails that every single day. I created several news pages in tomorrow's New York Post. That one was easy to get out-of-the-way. But I wanted to do some more things that were more outside of the routine of what I do every day. So on top of that I also wrote lyrics and finish them for a new upcoming song The Vigilance Committee is writing. It is a song about journalism serving as a failsafe for the greater good. I know that sounds a little idealistic but hey, we are the vigilance committee. This was a song I had been putting off for almost a month now waiting for the right inspiration but taking on this challenge reminded me that inspiration rarely falls into your lap so I just finished the damn thing. Or should I say darn thing considering we cannot curse tomorrow?

Bruce: Today was probably an easy one for both Phil and I but I'm always happy to have an enforced excuse to create and to stay mindful about productivity. One of my thoughts, especially artistically, that kept coming up with the idea of creation versus consumption. I felt more aware about the decision to make things instead of just taking them in distractingly. Today was a welcome and incessant reminder to spend my energy on forging something new as opposed to just picking something up whether it was a show, or food, a song etc. Speaking of creating/consuming… today I made the best cheeseburger of my life I think on the grill outside! Making your own food is so much cheaper and more gratifying and often tastier than going out or just picking up food and I feel like time is an excuse for people, but it really only takes an hour tops to make most things it seems. On an artistic note, I also spent a significant amount of time editing and writing for a new song with my DJ, BMO that I'm recording this Saturday and worked on it throughout the day! I made and posted my daily web-comic, DUGGS. I made two small videos today sharing my progress on the new song and reminding people about my weekly project spontaneous Sundays for being out with its new episode! I decided that this was a good excuse to get back to pickling vegetables which I haven't done and more than half a year and I miss it and so I went out and grabbed some cauliflower and string beans and cucumbers and spices and made a bunch of jars of pickles which was great fun. I also intended on submitting my short story to a project I am a part of and I hauled a pallet a mile or two all the way to my house to turn into a bookshelf which is a task I've been wanting to do, but I sort of ran out of time and I think that was one of the big lessons today the reminder I got from Tim Ferriss that a busy to-do list doesn't really mean a productive one. My housemate has said of me recently that my focus is like a shotgun blast while my other housemate is like a precision laser and with my ADD style brain I can certainly agree I tend to have "too many pans in the fire" and juggle so many things that it takes all projects longer to get done. It can be a sort of time management version of "jack of all trades master of none". While I felt extra gratified and excited about yet another day of being hyper focused on creating more than anything else it definitely made me realize that a full plate doesn't always make for the healthiest meal and that less is more of you apply the 80/20 rule, 20% of your actions could produce 80% of your positive results. As someone who is scatterbrained and constantly excited and inspired today was an invitation to revisit my thought process on what a normal day might be like anyway and on that generous opportunity for perspective alone, CHALLENGING DAYS proves useful again!

Tomorrow's challenge: #23 Endeavor not to curse