It’s been a few weeks since I last messaged you because something big happened:

Tara and I finally sent off our rewrite of a screenplay to the well-known comedy director who’s interested in directing it.

The main note we got from the director was to really push the comedy, taking it from rom-com land to something closer to “Bridesmaids” or “The Hangover.”

This was music to our ears because we love those movies, but it also took a tremendous amount of mental energy to push each and every scene to be as funny as it possibly could be.

But we did it and we sent it off. It was the culmination of three months of work, the last three weeks of which were a sprint. A sprint is when Tara and I use our best hours (9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.) to tackle the project. Everything else gets relegated outside that crucial peak-performance zone.

So it’s off our plate. But in order to get it done, I had to stop sending these emails. And that taught me something about focus that none of our previous projects has…

Before this rewrite, I always thought a list was just all the things I need to get done, preferably in order of priority.

But what I didn’t understand was that a list isn’t just supposed to keep you productive by crossing things off as you knock them out. It’s also meant to keep you focused.

Because if it’s not on the list, you shouldn’t be working on it!

I only learned this after going on a side-mission during the rewrite that was definitely not on my list.

Long story short, I learned about this tactic called clipping, which is basically where you pay other people to “clip” your content and share it on their social media accounts.

I wanted to try it out with our series, “Hot Ghost Roommate.” It’s pretty cheap, like 50 cents per 1,000 views, and I was super curious to see how it works. It felt like low-hanging fruit.

Well, it became this massive distraction for me. The biggest problem was that it used an approval system, so I had to filter through literally hundreds of accounts that were clipping our content and either approve or deny their posts. It was a massive amount of work I didn’t have time for.

So I cancelled the campaign after a day and returned my focus to, you know, the giant opportunity at hand!

I went back to my list and made sure the most important (not easiest, or quickest, or dopamine hit-laden) task was at the top (rewrite movie), and everything else came after it.

And for all the weeks that followed, I would look at my list, and stick to the things actually on it!

Who would have thought? Charlie Munger, that’s who:

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I said above how much work it took to try and make every scene as funny as possible, and I meant it. After working from 9-2, Tara and I were legitimately exhausted.

Because when you’re writing a movie, you are literally imagining a different world. You’re holding so many variables in your head simultaneously, and using up a ton of mental energy to do it.

Afterwards, I didn’t have any energy left to write these emails. So I stopped writing them.

Instead, we’d go to the spa to try and recover. We’ve started doing contrast therapy (cycling infrared sauna and cold plunge), along with red light therapy, and a few other techniques like mouth tape while sleeping, all to try and make sure we’re operating at the highest possible level. This is in addition to exercising, eating well, etc. etc.

I know I’m starting to sound like a tech bro, but any small edge you can give yourself when doing something so difficult compounds over time.

And Hollywood is extremely competitive. Only those who are completely dedicated to their craft are going to make it. And we are going to make it.

I used to feel like giving just one thing all my focus was lazy. That I should have 5-10 different things on the go at the same time and really grind it out.

Now, depending on the kind of work, you probably can have a bunch of different things on the go. But not deep creative work.

It comes down to giving the project — and the magnitude of the challenge — the respect it deserves. You can’t write a great movie when you’re distracted. You have to be “in it.”

Because when you’re in it, there are intangible elements to the creative process that start to show up.

For example, I had multiple ideas come to me in the middle of the night, where I had to send myself a message from my watch so that I’d remember it in the morning.

And most of the time, it was either things we missed in the draft we had to address, or solutions to problems in the script that we hadn’t yet solved.

And you can’t be “in” more than one project at a time. You need to let your brain focus entirely on the world you’re building, and let it do its magic creative work.

So focus isn’t “lazy.” It’s a sign of respect for the craft, and the intangibles of the creative process that feel like magic.

So, stay focused. Work on the things that could legitimately change your life. And don’t let the urgent override the important.

Start now. And thanks for reading.

-Thomas

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