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Welcome to Film on Tape, a free audio library for creatives in film and television.
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My name is Misha Calvert, and I've worked as an actor, writer, director, and
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producer for many decades. I had so many questions when I was first getting started
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in New York, and I just wanted fast, free answers. That is what this library is
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for. The work that you do as a creative is so important. I really hope that this
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library is going to help get your work out there. Film on Tape is sponsored by
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Vermillion, a coaching and educational company for creatives. You can learn more at
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clubvermillion.com.
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We're going to talk today about procrastination. Do you procrastinate? I bet you
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procrastinate about at least one really important thing. I do too,
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it's okay. But if you can understand procrastination and why you do it,
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we just might be able to kick that habit for good.
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Most people throw away time because they're not aware of its passage.
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If they knew what was happening, they would not throw away time. But we're not
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aware of it. We dissociate. We black out from the passage of time. We pretend it's
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not happening. That's the only reason, really, that we would allow it to happen,
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because for the vast majority of us, you will never have more potential energy than
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today.
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your body is disintegrating, your brain is decaying,
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and our brains also tend toward the negative. They tend to pick up negative memories
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and associations in order to protect us from harm. So by the end of our life,
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there's a very good reason why old people are grumpy, because we tend to over
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-rotate on the negative. So you're never going to be more optimistic than today.
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You have more strength and more health, probably potential strength and health today
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than you ever will again in your life, more inspiration and openness, more community
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and more friendships.
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And this might resonate with my fellow ladies, you're probably not going to be more
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beautiful in your life than you are today. You are so beautiful today. As we age,
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I think aging is beautiful, but in terms of, I'm using quote, "beautiful" and
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physical beauty standards as represented in conventional society. Today is quite
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possibly your most beautiful day of your life.
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When you start to think of it like that of just the natural progression of time.
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Again, caveat, aging is beautiful, maturity is beautiful,
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wisdom is beautiful, but look, I'm in my middle age now and my body is starting to
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show me what happens as we grow older and you better believe I wish I had the
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body of my 20s. Oh my Lord just the amount of injuries that I'm picking up over
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doing nothing doing nothing like lifting a frickin chair so if I knew Then what I
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know now. Oh My god, I would have wasted No time I would have just been Frickin
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speedy Gonzales with my goals. I would have attacked Genghis frickin Khan with
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my dreams and
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so with that knowledge, all I can do is attack now. This shifts the conversation,
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the idea that we're actually, we're losing time by default. It shifts the
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conversation from woe is me to now or never and that's a very empowered place to
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start from
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Procrastination is complex. It's not just oh, I suck. I'm lazy. I don't have
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discipline like no First of all, there's a whole lot of other schemas and mind
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modeling going on like like what I just said where we feel that we're invincible We
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feel that we're eternal and in a way. I think we are like on the spiritual level
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sure we are But as a result we don't feel the passage of time and you know What
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else procrastination does? There's a very real neural reason for procrastinating,
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a neuroscience reason for procrastinating, which is that our brain wants us to keep
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things the same. It wants to preserve the status quo because the brain knows what
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has kept us alive until now. The status quo has kept us alive with the way that
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we've always done things. and trying something new is scary. The brain optimizes for
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keeping things the same because it would rather keep us alive and know where we're
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at than try something new and accidentally kill us or hurt us or put us in a
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mentally unsafe situation. So procrastination is actually a very
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narrowly, psychologically these a very valid coping mechanism, but it's not going to
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make us happy. It's not going to make our lives better. It's just going to keep us
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alive. And for me, I would rather have quality of life than quantity.
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Yeah, I really just said that. So because the brain hates uncertainty,
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you can, once you know that and understand this mental block literally, you can work
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with it and you can change it. One approach to transforming your brain's desire to
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remain unchanged is to remove the uncertainty. What does that mean? Mentally,
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you lay out the possible scenarios and worst case scenario for the thing that you're
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procrastinating against. You just mind map all of the potential outcomes,
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including and especially the worst case scenario. That's going to give you strategies
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for moving forward no matter which way it goes. Mind modeling is very valuable and
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very effective because it soothes your brain and it kind of directly contradicts that
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knee jerk reaction of, "I don't know what's going to happen, so I'm not going to
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do it." So mind model all the comes and see if that doesn't ease your anxiety a
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bit. You can do this with a friend, a lover, you can do it by yourself, you can
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do it in a journal, out loud, voice note while you're walking to yourself. There's
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so many different ways to mind model it, just do it or write it out and see how
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you feel afterwards. Another approach to soothing your anxious brain is to create an
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action plan that is so robust that you can essentially control the outcome.
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So let's say you're procrastinating on contacting a whole bunch of casting directors
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and announcing your presence, letting them know you exist. This is probably one of
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the number one things that people tell me they procrastinate on, by the way. They
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have all the names and emails. They just can't seem to find the time to sit down
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and send the emails. Well, guess what? It has nothing to do with finding the time
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because the 35 minutes you spent on reels, scrolling, you could have sent every
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single one of those emails. But so it's not about time. It's about the fear and
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the emotional and mental blocks of doing it. So if you create an action plan that
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addresses the fear, like let's say the fear is I'm scared that none of them are
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going to reply and if one does reply, they're going to be mean about it and tell
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me not to bother them. Okay, so your action plan is two part with that actually.
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Instead of contacting 30 casting directors, I'm going to contact 300 casting
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directors. I'm going to find every single casting director's email that's on IMDB and
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I'm going to tell all of them that I exist and I guarantee at least one of them
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is going to write back and say, "Oh, great to meet you. Nice materials. I'll check
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out your work." They might even call you in. At 300, I mean, you're just, you have
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an unfair advantage at that point. You have an unfair advantage over other actors
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because you have gone above and beyond to ensure that you will get some sort of
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positive result. And then if you're worried about at least one of them being an
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asshole, great, we have your friend there next to you and maybe they're doing a
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scary thing too. And when each other gets rejected, you can be right there to talk
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shit to the computer and make each other feel better, right? So create the support
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to help you get through the possible negative response that you might get. And
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chances are your anxiety is gonna calm down enough for you to do the thing. I find
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it really helpful to create a plan that is so comprehensive that all my energy goes
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to simply executing the plan and I don't have any emote. I don't have any energy
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left for an emotional response Like all of my focus is on oh Shit this plan is so
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big that it's gonna take everything I've got just to be able to get through this
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plan by the deadline. I've set for myself I don't have any time to be afraid if
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I'm like no I have to email 300 casting directors between 9 a .m. and 6 p .m.
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today, and that is my mission. And if I'm really focusing on that, I don't have
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time to be scared. I actually don't have time to worry about any of the responses,
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even the positive ones. I'll worry about that tomorrow. For now, I just have to get
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through the goal. So let's talk about fear for a second, with procrastination,
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because there's different kinds of fear. There's the fear of it not working,
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right? The example that we just laid out. I email casting directors and I hear
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nothing. So then what comes up for you might be failure, rejection, disappointment,
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despair. There's also the fear that it might work. Like what if half of those
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casting directors get back to you and want to schedule you for an audition? That
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might run through your head of like, "What if this is wildly successful?"
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I am so excited to tell you that I'm launching a brand new slate of classes that
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are incredibly helpful on my website. Some of the classes include on -camera acting
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technique and how to self -produce your own film, actor self -care, which is something
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that nobody talks about, and how to write a feature film in 10 days, which I'm
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gonna teach you how I did it and how you can do it too. And believe me when I
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say I poured my heart into these courses. Go to clubvermillion.com.
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I am so excited about this website. I can't wait to work with you.
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So what comes up for you then? It might be overwhelm. It might require a big life
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change. Oh my god, I'm gonna have to move to LA and then leave all my friends
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behind in New York and then write a big responsibility. You might lose your freedom
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or your sense of freedom. So we can be afraid that not only that it might not
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work, but that it actually might work too.
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We can also be afraid that we don't know what's gonna happen. It's just an unknown.
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So sending all those emails might create chaos. It might be a potential disaster. It
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might get me blacklisted. I mean how many times have I sat down to do something
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I'm like irrationally. Oh man, sending that text might get me blacklisted from the
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industry. Have you ever thought that of just like, it's just so irrational
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irrational, the depths to which you're afraid of something, the destruction that you
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think it might cause.
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We also don't know if it's going to leave us isolated or alone.
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There's a really good argument for every fear, being ultimately the fear of being
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alone.
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Even the fear of death. that everything that we're anxious about is really when you
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carve it down and down and down, it's an anxiety about being abandoned and being
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alone. That's why the approach of having emotional support there with you or like
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right there accessible at the touch of a dial or whatever, as you're doing something
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that you've been procrastinating on, that can be really helpful. Even right now, like
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I'm in the podcast studio and I have probably recorded in half the time that I
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normally do. I think because I have one of my interns here helping me feel like,
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"Oh, maybe that wasn't that bad what I just said. Maybe my voice sounds okay," or
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whatever. So that kind of emotional support can really mitigate against the propensity
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for procrastination. What does that look like? Like it could look like an
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accountability partner, an accountability group, talking with your friend or your
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roommate about the thing that you're procrastinating on, the deeper issue behind it.
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It could be hiring a coach.
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Excellent idea. I have a coach, by the way. He's changed my life. He's not cheap,
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And yet he's made me probably 10 times what I've paid him due to the strategies
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that he uses in our sessions. So coaches are freaking great. You can also have a
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therapist or a healer standing by to help you process.
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And you can use social outings and like friend outings as a way to springboard the
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motivation to do the thing that you're procrastinating on. I mean, maybe everyone in
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that friend group is also procrastinating on the exact same thing. And then you can
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all schedule the day to sit down and do the thing that you're all avoiding.
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And finally, I wanted to take a moment to, to acknowledge that procrastination can
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come up just because it's bringing up an emotion that we don't want to deal with.
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So we know that it's going to bring up, for instance, I think, I haven't done my
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taxes yet. And I've been putting them off because it's going to bring up for me,
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let's see, doing my taxes is going to bring up a sense of overwhelm, maybe some
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humiliation. It's going to bring up probably some frustration and you know what now
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that I'm digging it's gonna bring up a sense that I'm wasting a day when I should
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be on the hamster wheel trying to go go go make money and every day that I'm not
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hyper focused on moving my business forward whether it's vermilion or my filmmaking
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then I feel like a failure Whoa, that's crazy that I just figured that out. I'm
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putting off my taxes because I feel like a day where I'm not hustling is a day
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that I'm a failure. And that's why I haven't done them yet.
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That's crazy.
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So really, in order to get over the hump of procrastination on my taxes, I need to
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address the fact that baseline, I feel like a failure low -key.
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It's not like 100%, but you know, I a little bit feel like a failure just by
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existing. And unless I do this extraordinary action,
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trying to move my career forward, I'm like a loser. That's what's playing in my
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head in the background. And that is why I haven't sat down to do my taxes, because
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that would feel like time off. That's insane. But if you dig and dig and you look
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at what's really down there with the procrastination, you'll probably find something
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insane as well. Because procrastination's not logical. It's emotional.
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If you've done the deep work and you figured out why you're actually procrastinating,
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Here's some like cheap and dirty tricks to kind of jumpstart the engine. First of
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all, you need eight hours of sleep. Eight hours of sleep is probably going to fire
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up your engine and you're going to be able to do the thing you've been putting
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off. If you didn't get eight hours of sleep, or even if you did. A nap is a game
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changer. And I talk about this in the "How to Add Two Hours to Your Day" episode,
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which is really good. It was early on, so I check out if you haven't listened yet.
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A nap is going to reset. I find 20 to 50 percent of the energy lost up until the
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point of nap. You can restore 20 to 50 percent of your energy for the day.
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That's crazy. So I love naps. They really help.
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Try no phone until you've done the is thing of your day first. If you start with
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phone, and especially if you start with social media of any kind, you're probably
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going to put off the hard thing, maybe even indefinitely. And it just won't,
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you won't even touch it that day. So no phone until you've done one extremely hard
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thing of your day first. Get it out of the way. It's called eat the frog. And I
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find it, like, basically I've arranged my whole life around this concept and my life
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has changed dramatically as a result. On the topic of social media,
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it's crack. And I know this is not PC, but just, it's kind of funny. So this is
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how I remember it. Be a crack dealer and not a crack user.
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So don't get lost in the scroll. Post and then Delete, post and delete the app,
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it's fine to post. We're all just making art around here. But then try not to
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consume, just produce, consume. Deal the crack, don't use it.
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Now, if you know anything about flow state, really helpful for finishing something
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that you've been putting off. Because studies show that if you're in a flow state,
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which is a brain state, you can be up to 500 % more productive than your baseline.
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Yo, 500 % from being in a flow state, that's crazy. That's like superhuman. So if
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you can set yourself up to get into a flow state and then let yourself go and rip
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through that task, you'll probably finish it in a lot shorter time than normal. By
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the way, I get into flow states with emails, with cleaning, ironically, with getting
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my taxes done. So just set yourself up for the flow state and let the flow take
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over.
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Another tip is to delegate what you hate. So if you're procrastinating because it's
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just something that you shouldn't have to deal with and you know that there's other
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people who can do it for you, just have them do it. And I know there's some
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amount of privilege with that, but You know, if you don't want to clean because
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it's your kid's job to clean the house, make the kids clean the house. You don't
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have to do everything. So delegate what you hate. Oh, touch it once on email.
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This one's really good. CEO taught this to me. I see an email come in. The time
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it takes for me to pause, think about it later, come back to it. Maybe I don't
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want to deal with it, so I come back two, three, four times. No. No, you see the
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email come in? If you can answer right then and there, you answer right then and
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there. Touch it once, comes in, you answer, you never think about it again. It's
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really changed my email hygiene and I'm just so much faster with getting through my
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emails now. That said, I do have,
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this is gonna make you wanna cry, I have 1 ,755 unread emails on my,
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on my app. So maybe I didn't touch it once. Maybe, maybe there's a few I didn't
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touch at all. Okay, your final tip is to set up systems to preserve your time and
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mental energy so that you don't have to think about things. You know, if you had
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to think about brushing your teeth every time you brush your teeth, you'd probably
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procrastinate brushing your teeth. You might not even do it like some days at all,
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but you don't have to think about it. You have a system for it. So, I don't know,
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Maryam, what are some other systems that, what do you procrastinate on? - Work that
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doesn't have a deadline. - Okay, if you procrastinate on work that doesn't have a
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deadline, for example, what If you set up a deadline for yourself, an artificial
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deadline with maybe a creative partner or a business partner or even like you can
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say to a friend, "Okay, we're going out to dinner, but we can't go to dinner until
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I finish this thing." You create those systems to set yourself up,
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to give yourself whatever you need. It's probably different person to person, but you
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don't want to have to create the system as you go. And you also don't want to
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have to dedicate mental energy to the parameters or to thinking about the thing.
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You just want to not think about the thing and do the thing. So action over
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thought in many cases.
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I procrastinated coming to the podcast studio today. And then finally I set it up
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because I had my beautiful lovely intern here to be like, hey, "Let's go to the
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studio." I'm like, "Okay, that's a great idea." So thank you for tuning in with me
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on this chat about procrastination. I hope you feel motivated now. I hope you feel
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excited to go and do the thing that you've been putting off. And send me a DM if
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this helped at all. No one ever DMs me about the podcast.
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No, if you listen. No, I do know a lot of people But I want to hear if it's
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helping you, so please send me a DM. Let me know if this helped you unprocrastinate
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and actually get something done and tell me what it is that you got done. Because
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I want to celebrate with you. Thanks so much. See you next week. Thank you so much
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for listening to Film on Tape. If you like the way that I approach the industry,
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check out our other classes, Consulting and Mentorship, at ClubVermillion.com.
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Vermilion is a home for artists and those looking to expand creatively. Whether
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you're an actor, a film professional, an entrepreneur, or a CEO, we'll help you find
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your voice and hone your skills to thrive in any market at any scale.
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You can schedule a free phone consultation at clubvermilion.com.
