Okay so I said “I’m bringing the podcast back.” in a standalone sentence to try to be bold. Then I didn’t actually follow through on finishing up the podcast.
I’m going to think out loud (aka try to type some thoughts out here) to get down to why1 I haven’t actually recorded the podcast. Pretty much trying to find where the friction is.
- The friction is all over. There isn’t really one single reason explaining why I haven’t made the podcast. I don’t want to record because I want to record at home on my mic with my laptop (when I’m probably fine recording on the Shure MV88 and my iPhone). I don’t want to edit because it takes a long time (this is a boohoo one because I actually know this time is really worth it but maybe I can time box this to get to some nice 80/20 spot). I don’t want to post because I’m worried that it’s going to be bad in the end (probably just need to read some stuff like ).
- Starting something new is more fun than finishing things. I’ve started shooting a bunch of video for different ideas but then when it comes to editing I don’t actually want to go through with it. Because I’m pretty slow at video editing right now. And I’m probably actually writing this to procrastinate and not work on the podcast episode.
- Matt D’Avella talked to Thomas Frank about how he works (video). He focuses on removing friction from everything in his work. Video is his main thing and there’s so much more room for friction when working with both video and audio equipment. Cutting that down goes a long way toward creating consistent content.
- There’s mental friction from your schedule. The College Info Geek podcast changed their schedule from weekly to bi-weekly. I think I have some kind of mental friction here but probably not from the schedule. It’s me being worried that it won’t be worthwhile for other people to listen to. But I can take steps toward improving that by, well, actually doing it.
I’m making it hard (aiming for shows that require lots of editing), unsustainable (aiming for a daily schedule in my head), and inconsistent (because I let the friction rule over everything).
I need to remember what I’ve written about before: Make it easy, sustainable, and consistent.
- Also have had a thought recently about practicing that concept of “Finding your why” without needing to get down to the meaning of your life. One way to do this is to ask “Why are you reading this book” whenever you’re reading a book. Usually it’s to learn something (are there better ways to learn it?) or to be entertained. But it can be good to stop and ask “Why”.