Austin Kleon

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Would I do it tomorrow?

a photo from Oliver Sacks’ On The Move

A while back I found myself in the middle of doing something and thinking, Why on Earth did I agree to do this?

There’s a question that helps you avoid accepting invitations you’ll later regret: “Would I do it tomorrow?”

Here’s David Plotz to explain (who learned it from his wife Hanna Rosin, and her friend, New Yorker staff writer Margaret Talbot):

That’s it—those five words. Not: Would I do it on some theoretical day in the future? This is the crucial question: Would I upend whatever I am doing tomorrow so that I can go there and do that?

Are they paying you enough to skip your daughter’s soccer game tomorrow? Is the panel interesting enough that you don’t mind asking your colleague to cover for you, tomorrow? Is the conference important enough to your career that you would blow off your college roommate’s visit, which is tomorrow. When you get the invitation, pay no attention at all to its far-flung date: Move it mentally to tomorrow.

Tomorrow makes decisions simple…

A little extreme, maybe, but it helps me just a teensy bit more than Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah or No. (I posted this on Twitter and James Kochalka responded,“ If I lived by that creed i’d just never do anything, I think. And also be happier.”)

Lauren Groff (author of Matrix) showing off her NO bracelet she got on Etsy to remind her to say no

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Related reading: the “Learn to say no” section in Keep Going.

Only the questions

The questions in Steal Like an Artist

Clive Thompson made an online tool that shows you only the questions in a piece of writing.

I love it because I love questions and also because it turns everything into Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood.

I fed it the complete text of each book in my trilogy. Here’s Show Your Work!:

And here’s Keep Going:

The results are not only funny, they sort of make great summaries for the books.

You can try the tool here.

Road trip Q&A

When we were driving back from Florida last week, I took some questions on my Instagram. They’re all still up in my Stories, but I thought I’d share some of them here, too.

Q&A sessions like this are often a reminder of how many people who follow me on social media don’t necessarily know my books all that well.

Q&As can  also be a way of kind of summarizing mood and what folks are dealing with and what I might want to write about next. A lot of the questions were about depression and anxiety. (Here is more on my “very simple rule” for dealing with “sundowning.”)

This list is from Keep Going.

I really want to write about this in a book.

My favorite thing to say about stuff I don’t like.

Almost every answer in a Q&A is some form of “one day you’ll be dead” and “keep going.” (This, on obituaries, is from Show Your Work!)

I get a lot of questions about making art with kids. I should probably write a book on the subject, but until then, see my post, “The Pram in the Hall” and my “parenting” tag.

I miss movies.

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