⚠️ DOUBLE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY

[Music]

decision paralysis one of the things

that slows down artists or creatives

when they're making something like

writing a novel or making an art book or

making an indie game as I'm as I'm

stepping into this role I'm seeing that

one of the things that slows me down the

most is indecision paralysis and what

that means is I've got too many options

I could do too many things and

ultimately sometimes it's hard to make a

decision and I want to figure out

something else before I can make a

decision on that thing and so one of the

ways that I'm combating this is with a

technique that essentially sounds insane

but it totally works and that is to

expect impossible goals from yourself

on a daily basis and my hope my hope is

that this could help you if you're

painting or you've got a lot of work on

your plate and you're maybe struggling

with your perfectionist this can really

help you to get over those hurdles so a

good example of this is for instance I

have to block out an entire dungeon in

one day and that means make as many

design decisions as I can without second

guessing myself going in and adding

rooms that I might end up cutting later

I might end up moving them around it

doesn't matter the point is to just

build the sketch and this is equivalent

I would say in writing when you're

writing a novel not every writer does

this mind you but I found that the best

way to write a novel is to do a first

draft off the seat of your pants that

just makes stuff up you don't have to

answer any questions you don't have to

create any solutions you know all you

have to do is just whatever comes to

mind first in fact trying to stop

thinking and just doing to get that

first draft done allows you to take a

look at the whole thing from a distance

and evaluate what's working and what

isn't and sometimes you find that the

whole thing doesn't work and maybe you

have to throw throw out literally half

of it but you know what you figured out

what doesn't work you figured out some

things that don't so the next day when

you're sitting down to do that painting

and you're sketching the whole thing out

you're planning here's where the the

castle is in the background and here's

where the character is running in the

foreground whatever it is

when you're doing that really quick

layout you're just forcing yourself to

make decisions quickly you're not

inhibited by the white bull you're not

scared of jumping in there and maybe you

need to change the angle of a

character's face if you're doing this on

paper and you're sketching out your your

stuff just make sure you do it really

lightly don't press really hard don't

commit to anything a lot of times people

get so obsessed with making it

impressive right out of the gate that

they focus on details way too soon and

so like the the comparison with art

would be if you're doing a painting and

you don't sketch anything out you just

immediately start on a character's face

and then then you've got all this Blank

Space up at the top right corner or

something and you don't really know what

to do with the character's arm and and

let me know in the comments if you've

been here before because I'm pretty sure

you have I've been there many times

where I just jump in and I start doing

like all these details on one little

part and then I realize oh man I still

haven't figured out what the heck I'm

gonna do with that other piece that

other part of the painting that makes it

all come together and if you do this

approach where you ask impossible things

of yourself if you if you wake up in the

morning and you're like I am gonna

sketch out this whole scene screw it

this whole like I'm gonna sketch out

this whole comic in like this weekend if

that's your thing or if if you're doing

your um if you're doing like a painting

you're just like I am going to finish

this whole painting today like first

pass you know it's not true you know in

the back of your mind you're gonna come

back and revisit it you know you're

gonna have some mistakes but by forcing

your soft to just push through you won't

dilly dally you won't stop and like go

ah well you know what about this other

thing and I'm just gonna get caught up

on the character's expression or I'm

gonna get caught up on the character's

weapon design or something of that

nature that can end up really hindering

you from even making progress and you

can ultimately find that you've put a

ton of time into something that

ultimately doesn't even work it's not

even functional and you don't like it

because you don't like the whole

composition

now there are two caveats to this and

you absolutely need to do this by the

way if you're going to do this process

to challenge yourself to break through

that that inhibition to break through

that that uh indecision if you're going

to do this you number one you cannot

promise that impossible deadline to a

client

you always go the other way what you're

promising to a client with the deadline

that you promised to a client you always

want a little extra padding so that you

can come in early with something that's

more impressive than what they asked for

okay so if it's something where you are

taking on a job for a client you say all

right I'll get that to you by Tuesday

but in your mind you're like I'm gonna

have that done before the end of the

weekend and it's already Saturday

because you'd never want to come to your

client with excuses as to why you didn't

do something impossible that you

promised okay the the second thing is

the psychology of what happens when you

fail at this okay because this is also a

big big part of it and I've talked a lot

about this in many of my videos we are

all going to fail to live up to our own

expectations uh when we're trying to get

skinnier we're never skinny enough when

we're trying to get to be a better

painter we're never a good enough

painter you know we all have this it's

always and that's also what drives us so

we need to accept that this is a natural

part of things and so when you're

looking at your artwork when you're

looking at something that maybe you

spent the whole weekend you gave it so

much of your time you didn't dilly dally

though you didn't stop to browse the

internet you didn't stop to look at a

new podcast or look up that show or

maybe you know grind on your RPG

character in your Final Fantasy 15 14 or

15 or whatever you're not like you're

not dilly-dallying with distractions uh

you you're you're getting stuff done and

you are at the end of that one day or

that weekend you are evaluating the

quality of the work that you've made

you're looking at the whole picture okay

and instead of thinking oh man of course

I came up you know less than high

quality of course uh well now now you've

got extra time and so you need to adjust

your perspective perspective is

everything by the way perspective I'm

not talking about the the line

perspective on your horizon line I'm

literally talking about how you perceive

it is everything and how you perceive

this scenario in this situation is that

hey I'm way ahead of where I would have

been if I had Dilly dallied and just

tried to uh do this in in this

meticulous slow way where I'm uh you

know second guessing myself on every arm

and every angle of everything if you if

you want to just see how something looks

do thumbnails first jam out several

thumbnails I have literally sketched out

10 page of a comic in two days uh just

from thumbnails creating storyboards

using thumbnails just so that I could

evaluate the whole sequence and go okay

well maybe I need another more frame

here a couple more frames there okay now

I can add in uh more of a a moment where

the character shows their expression or

they have this one line that comes up

and this gives it more emphasis really

evaluating from taking a look at what's

there it's so much easier and this is

the psychology of it by the way and this

is what it all boils down to

it's so much easier to critique

something

than it is to conceive something

right we all know this is true and you

know this is true because you got a

thousand Armstrong quarterbacks that are

telling you that all the ways that you

did your thing wrong if you posted

online right all the critics they come

out in droves because it's so much

easier to critique than it is to

conceive and so your job is to throw

something out as quickly as you can

get something out there as quickly as

you can and then use your Discerning Eye

to critique yourself as if you were an

outside Observer

don't take all the emotion of the pain

of what you what you put into it you

know and instead take a look back from

the outside looking in and go all right

how can I make this better

separating yourself from the work almost

entirely how can I make this better what

would make this a better painting what

would make this a better sequence

whatever it is that you're working on

what would make this a better game

whatever it is that you're working on

all this applies by having a first draft

of your whole body of work here you can

then evaluate where you want to add some

parts that maybe lead up to something in

another part of your story or you could

create more mystery or you could drop

hints to the reader for example this is

your first draft get your first draft

done an impossible time and you'll be

able to evaluate how to make the whole

thing better then you can start to spend

more time going in meticulously you can

still set impossible goals for yourself

but they should be a little bit closer

to more reasonable you're honing in on a

more reasonable goal for yourself and

the the goal here is also to strive for

excellence and I've talked a lot about

this in recent videos as well

be proud of the work that you're doing

and take as long as as you need to to

make it great unless you have a client

deadline that's the caveat there

so this has certainly been working

really well for me you know we're making

incredible strides with the game

hopefully I can give you some updates on

that soon but I'd like to hear your

thoughts if you have any other

suggestions on how you uh can structure

you know facing the white bull or just

facing indecision and just making

decisions to get them done I'd love to

hear your thoughts and suggestions as

well if you'd like to learn more about

my painting process and you'd like to

discover what real concept artists do

that's a job that I did for 20 years on

some of the world's biggest video games

and I have workshops that I've created

over on my gumroad channel and that'll

allow you to go step by step through

everything that you would need to know

about the actual process of creating

environments and characters for video

games it is my ongoing goal here on my

YouTube channel to help you achieve your

art dreams and get that art career that

you've always been dreaming of so please

do subscribe and sound off in the

comments below let me know you're here

and I will see you guys in the next

video alright ciao