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Why focusing on one thing at a time is a superpower
In this issue: Why you shouldn't wait to have everything "ready" to start and How to leverage your focus for deeper value
PJ Milani
April 25, 2024
š¤ INTERESTING
āYou can do anything, but not everything.ā (ā¦all at once)
I admit, before I started posting online a couple years ago, I was notoriously bad at this. And my wife argues I still have quite the room to grow in other domains (like tidying up the bedroom!).
But I make conscious (and often painful) efforts to focus on one cup at a time when it comes to being a creator.
My priority this week is to reflect on my fatherās life through journaling.
š DESIGN
A question came up in my Thinking in Visual Metaphors course about avatars.
Do you create a reference sheet for your avatar with different moods and poses?
This isnāt a bad idea, but I donāt recommend spending the time to do this when youāre first starting out.
Why?
For years, I struggled to make anything because I thought I needed to do x, y, and z to START. Turned out it was just productive procrastination.
It wasnāt until I realized, you know what? Itās totally fine to build as you goā¦make what you need as you need it (applies to many things, not just visuals).
An hour spent making 20 different facial expressions is an hour not spent on creating the visual that needs only 2. And once you have those 2, you can reuse them like this:
 |  |
The 80/20 rule applies here: Youāll probably use 20% of those poses for 80% of your visuals.
So build that reference sheet, but only as youāre building your visuals.
Build as you go is my philosophy.
P.S. If youāre ready to start Thinking in Visual Metaphors, the next cohort starts late May.
š§ ANALOGY
Most of us (myself included š ) get caught up in shiny object syndrome which splinters our focus a mile wide, but an inch deep.
Itās the paradox of the creator. We seek novelty through experimentation, but need to improve what we do through repetition.
If we truly want to upgrade our thinking and skillsets, we need to dive an inch wide, a mile deep.
The shiny objects will always be waiting for us at the surface when we come back up.
š¤ WHAT IāM READING NOW
Iāve been a long time fan of Catana Comics, with her cute, quirky and often heartwarming comics highlighting her romantic antics with her best friend. Iāve been known to send a comic or two to my wife with: āThis is pretty much us isnāt it? šā
Catanaās second book, āSnug,ā does not disappoint and brought me more than a few smiles.
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