This blog post and its accompanying image wereĀ made in less than two hours. As Iām writing this however, the word count stands at 24. This may sound like a strange exercise in torture, reminiscent ofĀ college exams, but in fact itās just putting a very useful tool to work: theĀ timebox.
As I mentioned inĀ my last post, I used to makeĀ YouTube videos professionally, but what I didnāt mention wereĀ some of the failures that came with it. While my personal channel was not very profitable, it wasnāt meant to be and was by far the most fun to produce. I started by making cooking videos, then vlogs,Ā then way more than I could handle. OneĀ month, I decided it would be a good idea to launch fourĀ seriesĀ simultaneously.
Ā
- Watching Plants Grow: A cooperative series where IādĀ follow advice in the comment section of videos, and hope that my plantsĀ didnāt die.
- Hablas Ingles?: This is where I got the idea to teach people Spanish despite not knowing any Spanish myself.
- Leaving The Nest: I explored Montreal in order to get to know my city better, and find the best neighbourhoodĀ to move to.
- Just PokĆ©ball It!: I just wanted an excuseĀ to play PokĆ©mon.
None of these series had beenĀ pre-recorded when I launched them, and it quickly became evident that it was impossible to keep up without sacrificing my regular content. The new content itself wasnāt a failure; it was a lot of fun to make, and I learned a lot in the process. Itās the execution that needed some work an this is whereĀ timeboxingĀ would have come in handy.
Timeboxing works like this: you set a goal, then you decide how much time youāre going to spend on it.
This might sound a lot like a deadline, but the key difference is that one is empowering, and the other is not.Ā A deadline is given to you, and generally has some consequences attached. A timebox on the other hand is self-imposed, by a group or individual, and typically the consequences are light, if not inexistant.
In the case of my videos, the goal wasĀ toĀ diversify my content,Ā and that could have been done a lot more sustainably had IĀ know about timeboxing. One day a week: Time to innovate.Ā Simple. It can also be applied to lots of other things like meetings, gaming sessions, or scouting out technologies to build your next project. Basically, anything that you donāt want to be spending an eternity on.
With this blog,Ā Iām actually scared that Iāll like it too much, and thatĀ itāll cannibalize the time I want to spend onĀ other things. Like my appā¦ or having a social life!Ā I figure that 2 hours is probably enough time to write something good in most cases (we are at 1:31:25 according to Toggl), and I can useĀ any extra time to make cool illustrations, or stuff like that JavaScriptĀ button fromĀ the last post that lets you have this blog delivered to your mailbox š . At any rate, consistence is key and I want this to last, so Iāll get to drawing, and see you next week!