Alex Burns

Make art, and while everyone is deciding what they think of it, make more art.” — Andy Warhol

Do a lot of work — do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week, or every month, you know you’re going to finish one story. Because it’s only by actually going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.

from the radio producer Ira Glass, on feeling disappointed by your own work:

All of us who do creative work...get into it because we have good taste. But there’s a gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making...It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but

... See more

Achieving perfection is the most efficient way to discover how little it offers.

Read the newspaper

To that last point, consider getting a newspaper subscription, even just for one day a week (I’d go with Sunday, personally). It’s a slower and more resonant way to process the week’s headlines. No clicking away. Also, if I might submit some superficial rationale here: sitting in the kitchen reading a newspaper looks and feels... See more

Organize a weekly card game

Or a board game. Catan-heads stand up. A little competition, a couple hours of shooting the shit...this is the exact sort of thing we all once took for granted. Find a few reliable people in your orbit and bring it back. Bonus points if everyone agrees to leave their phones in their jacket.