I’ve almost finished recording the audio for an online course in many of the exercises I’ve posted here. I expect many people will find doing it a life-changing experience (like they will with my next seminar, this Saturday in Soho).

I had been planning to make the course for a long time, thinking of how to write the perfect text and organize it all. I wasn’t creating anything.

Then a friend said what I always knew, but forgot: “Josh, let’s just record this.”

Also, NYU asked me to teach an in-person version of the course and needed a syllabus.

Two deadlines and a partner started me working—writing text for meeting with someone to record and to distribute to NYU students so they could figure out if they wanted to take the course.

The deadline for recording with the friend led to a series of short deadlines, often one hour, to write the copy to interview him. I wrote better copy in those one-hour blocks than in six months planning. I had led people through these exercises more than enough times to know what to write. I just needed the motivation.

I didn’t need six months to write something perfect. I needed one hour to write something at all. A good something beats a perfect nothing.

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