Sam Bennett - Get It Done: From Procrastination to Creative Genius in 15 Minutes a Day

Praise for Get It Done

Sam Bennett is a genius really. She has the unique ability to help artists of all types love who they are and love the work they do, and then, get this, she helps them actually get their creative work out into the world in a bigger, better way. Get It Done is the book you will come back to time and time again for inspiration, profound truths, humor, and one-of-a-kind practical tools. Bennetts wit, poetic words, and loving thwacks upside the head are just what every creative person needs. Hearing her words is like sitting down with your best friend and receiving the advice your soul has been longing to hear.

Amy Ahlers, author of Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves

Whether you are just toying with the idea of pursuing a creative interest for the first time or you are already established in a creative field, Get It Done gets you excited to start prioritizing and pursuing your ideas. On top of that, Sam Bennetts exercises are actually enjoyable (as opposed to the kind that can feel like unpleasant homework) and will help you move your ideas out of your head and into the world. Bennett is refreshing in her positivity and achieves something rare a how-to book that is funny and entertaining to read, and makes you feel good! Now, if youll excuse me, I must go write an Oscar-winning screenplay. Or clean my room. One of the two Ill figure it out.

Rachel Dratch, cast member of Saturday Night Live and author of Girl Walks into a Bar

Within these pages, artists and nonartists alike will find brilliant, tangible tools to tap into their inner organizing genius. Even when it feels impossible, we all can create bits of time, and Bennetts strategies put fifteen minutes a day to superb use. This book is going to the top of my resource list for my creative clients.

Marney K. Makridakis, author of Creating Time

Fantastic for creative types of all stripes (actors, songwriters, visual artists, musicians, screenwriters), amateur, preprofessional, or professional. What Sam Bennett has to share is invaluable.

Phil Swann, singer-songwriter, producer, author, and teacher

Sam Bennett is the kind of insightful, articulate thinker who can make sense of the roadblocks we all face each day. Her book will help you get unstuck and on track, so that you can accomplish your goals.

Clate Mask, cofounder and CEO, Infusionsoft

Calling all artists! Are procrastination and perfectionism getting in the way of your sharing your creative gifts with the world? Through small, doable steps, Get It Done will help you make your big ideas real. Whether your roadblocks are limiting beliefs or challenges with money, time, and space, Sam Bennett has you covered with her real-world advice and time-tested tips.

Jennifer Lee, author of The Right-Brain Business Plan

Ive been meaning to read Sam Bennetts book for a while, but I havent done it yet. Im sure it is very good.

Charlie Hartsock, executive producer, Crazy Stupid Love and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Copyright 2014 by Samantha Bennett

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

First printing, February 2014

ISBN 978-1-60868-210-2

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I was on a plane a few years ago and struck up a conversation with an average-seeming guy across the aisle who confessed to me that he was writing a memoir. Once we finished chatting, he pulled out a journal and started writing with unbridled joy. I heard him making audible gasps of discovery and revelation. It was as if a muse was sitting on his shoulder sharing an amusing anecdote every three seconds or so.

Needless to say, he was in the zone.

Given everyones schedules these days, moments like this are rare. It seems as if an aluminum tube thirty-five thousand feet in the sky may be the only place where a person can find the reprieve necessary to have such a creative outburst. In my daily life, I can be working on four or five projects at a time and never feel like Im giving enough attention to any of them.

The good news is that, according to Sam Bennett, we dont need to be literally airborne in order to create: we can soar in only fifteen minutes a day. Her easy-to-do approach made me feel absolutely invincible.

Sam has dedicated an enormous part of her life to helping us all deftly juggle our creative desires the screenplay and the pottery kiln and the dance lessons (or, in my case, the martial arts classes). In the very near future lets say the next twenty seconds or so youre going to dive into seemingly uncharted waters to find treasure that already belongs to you.

So have fun, dont ever let anyone tell you that you cant do it, and keep Sam around as your capable guide.

Keegan-Michael Key, cocreator of Key & Peele,
writer, actor, and producer

I began teaching the material in this book in 1996 or thereabouts for an organized person Im remarkably hazy on dates and numbers and called it the Get It Done Workshop. Ive presented it as a ninety-minute seminar, a three-week workshop, a twelve-week workshop, a one-day intensive, and a six-week teleclass. The nice thing is, the material seems to work every time.

I created all the exercises youll find in this book in response to the challenges I faced in my own peripatetic life as an actor, writer, and teacher. Along the way, friends, colleagues, and students introduced new questions, problems, and conundrums, and it was fun to develop new ideas addressing their concerns.

After all, how do you move forward when theres no quarterly review on how your novels going?

When theres no raise or corner office to be earned by completing your one-person show?

When frankly no one cares if you move forward on your projects but you?

As I continued to study the world of creative productivity, I began to notice that while there were a lot of great books about getting organized out there (David Allens classic Getting Things Done, Julie Morgensterns Organizing from the Inside Out, and Stephen Coveys Seven Habits of Highly Effective People leap to mind), they werent exactly geared toward artists. Creative people dont care whos moved their cheese, you know?

The creativity books available (Julia Camerons The Artists Way, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, all of SARKs writings) seemed concerned with spiritual healing through creativity, or with the study of creativity, or with unleashing your inner creativity. But what about those of us whose creativity is already plenty unleashed, thank you very much? What is to become of us?