Austin Improv

Me too. Its kind of an ADD thing too I think, which I would imagine many improvisers might also have. Its the ability to focus intensely on things we find extremely interesting, and a love for high stim activities and the abilty to shift focus rapidly.
I do plan and keep timelines but they are more guides for me to then hurry up and work, rather than pace myself.
I like working collaboratively most of all which is indeed hard for writing or singular artistic expression.

kbadr wrote: I've learned so much shit needs to be done yesterday, that it's not worth it for me to bust my ass when I don't absolutely have to.

Yep. What everyone said.

I've tried all the list-making GTD productivity scams, and they might work for a short time, but they all roll off. There's an interesting take on the whole ADD thing by this this guy, comparing people like us to a "hunter" archetype, which reframes the drawbacks of not being able to concentrate and get stuff done into traits that would benefit someone who always has to be aware of everything to survive - which also describes what we have to do on stage, to some extent.

As someone with an obscene number of forum posts to attest to his ability and desire to be "differentially productive," I say that I procrastinate simply because I can. I'm more efficient than 91.2% of the people I work with. I can do their week-long project in a day and a half.

Maybe it's lack of passion. Not enough of us is excited about what we're doing, so we put it off until we have to do it.

i hate lists!


they make me work

hmmm...I'm like that sorta.

In playwriting class, we had to write a full-length play, which was cool because I just had to double the size of a play I had alrady written, so I already had all my characters and settings and blah...so I planned my procrastination? I was like, if I could write 5 pages a day, I wouldn't have to start writing until this date here. And so I "put it off" until then...

maybe it's not the same thing unless I wrote all 90 pages in 8 hours?

My father told me that if it weren't for the last minute, I'd never get anything done.

It's the reason why many of us are improvisers--to not worry about deadlines and to just hop on stage and play.

That's why it's been sorta tough doing sketch comedy--though I try my best to get things done in advance, many of the improvisers I've worked with in sketch are busy with multiple projects (I used to be the worst at it) and/or and put things off.

Sketch involves writing, rewriting, learning lines, gathering props and costumes, putting together the lights and sound AND b/c you're doing a show that takes a couple of months to put together and want people to come out and see it, doing flyers, mass e-mailings, etc...so that's why Hoover's has been shifting to minimalism in its productions.

majcher wrote:I've tried all the list-making GTD productivity scams, and they might work for a short time, but they all roll off.

Have you read the book Getting Things Done by David Allen? I'm working through that right now.

acrouch wrote: Have you read the book Getting Things Done by David Allen? I'm working through that right now.

I can save you some time...

1. Make a list of all the shit you need to do
2. Do it

I had an amazing problem with procrastination throughout most of my life until I hit grad school, where I was kept so busy constantly that everything had to be done NOW - I'd have something due every day and procrastination simply wasn't an option - the first minute was the last minute. In fact, in my autobiography to be published in 2040 or something around there, the chapter of my grad school life will be called "Living in the Last Minute."

Ever since then, procrastination hasn't been such a problem for me.

-- Brian.

acrouch wrote:

majcher wrote:I've tried all the list-making GTD productivity scams, and they might work for a short time, but they all roll off.

Have you read the book Getting Things Done by David Allen? I'm working through that right now.

what do you think "GTD" stands for in the original post?

deroosisonfire wrote:

acrouch wrote:

majcher wrote:I've tried all the list-making GTD productivity scams, and they might work for a short time, but they all roll off.

Have you read the book Getting Things Done by David Allen? I'm working through that right now.

what do you think "GTD" stands for in the original post?

Personally, I've dabbled with or at least read about tons of GTD productivity techniques, thanks to regularly reading lifehacker.com, but I've not actually read Getting Things Done.

deroosisonfire wrote:

acrouch wrote:

majcher wrote:I've tried all the list-making GTD productivity scams, and they might work for a short time, but they all roll off.

Have you read the book Getting Things Done by David Allen? I'm working through that right now.

what do you think "GTD" stands for in the original post?

I think it stands for "Andy Can't Read (Or Spell) (Or Use The Right Number Of Letters In An Acronym)".

Vines has it pretty much nailed. Make lists, do the stuff on the lists. If the second part there wasn't already a problem, that'd be a great plan.

Had a teacher at Second City who was addressing the class: "Improvisers are smart, lazy people."

I looked down. I looked all around at the other people in my class and saw that they were all doing the same thing. We all broke out in a laughter that implied "Boy has he got our number."