Getting Work To Work

One of the books I consistently read is Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon, a small book full of wisdom and insights on how to live the creative life. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to share some reflections on why showing your work is important for others to see the work you do, a way to measure your levels of growth and stagnation over time, and to provide a path of vision and differentiation.

Martin Gee is a Senior Art Director at TIME and freelance illustrator during the evenings and weekends. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, we talk about his love for truth and journalism, Star Wars, how improv has impacted his life and work, and the importance of being real.

Hot on the heels of last week’s episode—QUESTIONS & CHANGES—I’ve been thinking a lot about how to go about reinventing myself. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to share a few ideas gleaned from conversations with friends, wisdom from books, and random early morning thoughts.

I love this quote from The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt: “Happiness requires changing yourself and changing your world. It requires pursuing your own goals and fitting in with others.”

Joe Workman is a software developer and loves to make your life better by developing cool things. He also runs an online community called Weaver’s Space and coaches soccer. Did I mention he also loves hats? In this episode of Getting Work To Work, Joe and I discuss work/life balance, how he approaches his development work, the sources of his inspiration and ideas, business advice for creative professionals, and the story behind his favorite hat.

As 2017 comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting upon what went well, where things fell apart, and what needs to change in 2018. Quantity was definitely high. I produced a lot of work and unfortunately I have been paying for it this month in low morale, exhaustion, and burnout. I’m honestly asking myself some really deep questions and in this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to talk through some of the thoughts I brought up in this week’s issue of The Curiosity Lab.

Briar Levit is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University, a graphic designer, and filmmaker. Her first documentary film—Graphic Means: A History of Graphic Design Production was released on April 15th, 2017 and is an example of the type of work she is drawn to: content-driven projects. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, Briar and I discuss Graphic Means and the making of it, how education fuels her work, and her thoughts on the future of design.

As creative professionals, acting upon our ideas is crucial to our long-term success. I love this quote from Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland: “The hardest part of artmaking is living your life in such a way that your work gets done, over and over—and that means, among other things, finding a host of practices that are just plain useful.” One of the practices that has been useful to me is how I move from admiration to action, and I’m going to share a few ways I do that.

Kelly Keigwin is a professional artist working in collage, ceramics, and photography infusing everything she does with humanity and storytelling. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, we talk about what she requires of her artwork, the stories behind several of her projects, the evolution of fear in her life and work, and what motivates her to create art.

I’ve been thinking all weekend about something John Furniss said last week during episode 119, that he tends to get burnt out when he is just making work and not creating it. It can be easy to worship productivity and the act of shipping our work to the point of losing the soul of our creation and the very reason why we do what we do.

Here are four ways you can think differently about burnout, take sanity breaks, and reconnect with yourself:

1. Burnout is the result of just simply cranking out work without a connection to a greater purpose.

2. Working in spite of those burnout feelings can only make them worse.

3. Take sanity breaks to rediscover and reconnect with yourself and your why.

4. Reengage with your work when you are ready.

John Furniss is a fine woodworker and happens to be completely blind since the age of 16. In September 2016, I released a short documentary about John and his work and in this episode of Getting Work To Work, we catch up with what he’s been up to the past year, new challenges as he gains increased exposure for his work, and what his hopes and plans are for 2018.