Three months ago, a colleague I’d never met put out a tantalising invitation on P2:
Who would be interested in joining me in a Creators Club, with the end goal of presenting our work to our colleagues (and beyond) as an online exhibit?
The chance to join a bunch of like-minded folks to pursue a creative project, keep each other accountable, and have something to show for it at the end?
Yes, please!
That colleague, Sasha, kicked things off with a workshop introducing us to the 12-Week Year methodology. I’d never heard of this framework before, but as I started putting it into practice, I realised it was a good fit for my style of working.
Planning the project on a granular level upfront meant that when I was able to work on my project, I could easily pick it up and know what to do next, rather than sitting uninspired in front of a blank page or spending time worrying about what I should work on next. Having a plan with deliberate steps, parameters, — most importantly — a deadline meant that I would actually finish it.
Sasha set up a Slack channel and regular Zoom check-ins for the club. This accountability group was critical to my success. Sharing progress, clearing mental blocks, and just seeing how far along everyone else was made a big difference to the shared experience.
The result? I completed a short graphic memoir of a story I’ve been wanting to explore—my experience playing bass in a band while I was in high school.
I’d been burying this part of myself underneath a film of embarrassment, But revisiting the memories through images, videos, and music allowed me to look upon my younger self with renewed grace. The experience has been a powerful way to reflect from the adult perspective on the way we see ourselves as teenagers.
I feel really proud of the work, and so happy that I participated in the club and was able to complete something for the exhibit. The finished project, along with process notes and sketches, can be seen on the Creators Club exhibit site here.
The Band
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