If you’re anything like me, you find it incredibly easy to wake up and let the day whisk you away into whatever chaotic direction it wants to take  you.

But this isn’t ideal, especially for anyone with creative ambitions.

So here’s a simple rule that (over time) may be the single most important change you could make in your life: Make before you manage.

Disclaimer: I stole this idea from Tim Ferriss 🤫

But these 4 words really resonated with me. For filmmakers, here’s how the incredibly simple morning ritual of “make before you manage” looks.

I promise this is less rigorous than Patrick Bateman’s morning routine.

Writing

Probably the biggest roadblock for many filmmakers is they don’t have a story in their back pocket that they’re either dying to make or able to make. Ideally it’s both.

What’s the one way to remove this hurdle to becoming a more prolific & successful filmmaker? Write everyday of course! Whether you have ideas or not.

What’s the easiest way to do that? Do it before you do anything else. Do it before you start managing your life.

Checking and answering emails, walking the dog, doing the dishes – these are all life’s little tiny fires that it beckons you to put out right when you wake up.

But once you start managing these little tasks, you’re going to have a hard time getting out of that loop and stepping into a creative mode. Managing begets more managing. Answering one email or text will lead to answering 5 more.

So give yourself a window of 20 (or hell, even just 5!) minutes before you even acknowledge all that bullshit, to just make something out of nothing, in whatever form you want that to take.

It could be open-ended freeform journaling, brainstorming story ideas, or actually typing out a scene of a script you’re working on. But put something on paper just for the sake of creating.

Then carry on with your day and managing all the big & small fires waiting for you. They’ll get done anyway, but usually the making won’t unless you do it first.

Over time, that additional and consistent 5-20 minutes a day will have a massive, life-changing effect on your trajectory. For example, writing 1 page of a script every morning means you’d have written 3 feature films in just a year.

Not to mention the fact that creative output begets MORE creative output.

But beyond any gains in creative productivity, this practice reinforces to ourselves the importance of creating. By prioritizing the act of making over the bullshit of everyday life, we’re subconsciously internalizing who we are and what we value.

That alone is worth this small time commitment.

7-Day Challenge

Every good habit needs extra TLC in the beginning, so I hope you’ll join me in a small commitment:

Everyday for the next 7 days, I’m going to make before I manage.

Do it with me!

On next week’s newsletter I’ll share the results of 1 week committing to that morning routine, and invite you to do the same. Now we’re all accountabillabuddies.

So starting tomorrow morning: resist the urge to look at your phone first thing!

Stay away from emails and texts and social media.

Instead, grab a pen and paper or a blank document. Put something on it. It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be something from your brain.

See you in 7 days to see how it went.

Favorites this week:

📺 TV: Dark (Netflix)

Thanks to Howie from WRAPPED who recommended this German show.

Besides being a great reference for the cave scenes in my Oliver Brody short (which is really starting to move now that we’re locking in locations, update video coming next month!), Dark is just really well done across the board – writing, performances, cinematography, etc. It’s an intricate puzzle, and can be complicated at times – you definitely have to pay attention while watching.

Toni and I binged the 10-episode first season in 2 days. The performances are solid, so I recommend watching it subtitled with the original German audio instead of dubbed.

Oh, and it’s also pretty obvious how Outer Range ripped this show off (to much worse effect). Excited to see where it goes.

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent