Speaker 1: I have some bad news. No matter what you're working on,
Speaker 1: you're going to procrastinate at some point, even if it's
Speaker 1: a passion project. Nobody can work without breaks forever. So
Speaker 1: why not build procrastination into the process right from the start. Singer,
Speaker 1: songwriter and actor Eddie Perfect has been writing for more
Speaker 1: than two decades now, and over the years, he's discovered
Speaker 1: the wisdom behind an odd little tip from one of
Speaker 1: musical theaters True Titans, Stephen Sondheim, the importance of writing
Speaker 1: with a soft lead pencil. My name is doctor amanthe Immer.
Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science
Speaker 1: consultancy Inventium. And this is How I Work, a show
Speaker 1: about how to help you do your best work. On
Speaker 1: today's It's my Favorite Tip episode, we go back to
Speaker 1: an interview from the past and I pick out my
Speaker 1: favorite tip from the interview. So before every How I
Speaker 1: Work interview, my producer Liam does a pre interview with
Speaker 1: my guest, and for this particular chat with Eddie, Liam
Speaker 1: gave me the advice ask Eddie about the soft led
Speaker 1: pencil reference from the late Stevens. Sometime.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so, Stephen. Sometime on one of his many
Speaker 2: tips about how to write lyrics. One of them was
Speaker 2: always used like a soft lead pencil because they wear
Speaker 2: out quicker and it means you have to sharpen them more.
Speaker 2: And I love that bit of writing advice because what
Speaker 2: that's basically saying is build procrastination into the process. Also, interestingly,
Speaker 2: Sometime didn't sit at the piano and write lyrics. Once
Speaker 2: he knew what his musical structure was. He would sit
Speaker 2: on I think he had like a kind of a
Speaker 2: couch that it was line on it with a board
Speaker 2: that he put his piece of paper and he wrote
Speaker 2: lyrics that way with a bit pencil and taking lots
Speaker 2: of pauses to sharpen it, which is because the kind
Speaker 2: of the breaks that are actually vitally important with writing.
Speaker 2: You know, you can go on the most focused human
Speaker 2: being in the world and I'm not going to I'm
Speaker 2: not going to My attention is a steel trap that
Speaker 2: I'm never going to turn off. I'm just going to
Speaker 2: lock in on this thing. And that's great, but you
Speaker 2: you know, you can't just be shooting at the bullseye
Speaker 2: all the time. Sometimes you've got to walk away from
Speaker 2: the target. And then and then these ideas just sort
Speaker 2: of slip in walking, you know, without listening to music,
Speaker 2: jogging without listening to music, you know, just not tackling
Speaker 2: the problem, just the letting it sort of like just
Speaker 2: letting the yeast rise a bit in your brain. That's
Speaker 2: really important. And I do like separating out of all
Speaker 2: this because you know, I write music and lyrics, and
Speaker 2: often those jobs are done by two entirely different people
Speaker 2: collaborating together. So I, you know, I have to find
Speaker 2: ways to collaborate with myself. And sometimes that means I
Speaker 2: just get my skateboard and my lyric book and I
Speaker 2: go to a park bench and I just write. I
Speaker 2: write lyrics, and I don't have any piano in front
Speaker 2: of me, And so the music I hear is a
Speaker 2: lot better because I'm musically, I'm a lot better in
Speaker 2: my brain than I am in my actual real world.
Speaker 2: My fingers when you go to play. When I go
Speaker 2: to play a piano, i'd imagine that most people when
Speaker 2: they go to play an instrument, you end up first.
Speaker 2: The first things that happen are your habits. You know,
Speaker 2: where do your hands go when you first play the piano?
Speaker 2: Where do your hands go your first play guitar? Is
Speaker 2: it a certain chord or a song that you know,
Speaker 2: or a progression that you know that you like, and
Speaker 2: then you know. So you're sitting right in your habit,
Speaker 2: and so it takes a long time to play through
Speaker 2: that and to find some original musical language that fits.
Speaker 2: But there is no way of getting around it. You
Speaker 2: have to go through that process. But if I'm just
Speaker 2: writing lyrics and I just hear stuff, I can write
Speaker 2: lyrics to what I hear in my head, and then
Speaker 2: I can sing into my voice memo. And you know,
Speaker 2: the music is complex and it's not there is no
Speaker 2: habit to kind of get through. And then when I
Speaker 2: get back to the piano, I try and honor that
Speaker 2: musical inspiration and go straight for that.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this excerpt from my chat with Eddie Perfect,
Speaker 1: hop into the show notes and click on the link
Speaker 1: to listen to the full interview. If you're looking for
Speaker 1: more tips to improve the way that you work, I
Speaker 1: write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things
Speaker 1: that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging from
Speaker 1: software and gadgets that I'm loving through the interesting research findings.
Speaker 1: You can sign up for that at Howiwork dot com,
Speaker 1: That's how I Work dot co. Thank you for sharing
Speaker 1: part of your day with me by listening to How
Speaker 1: I Work. If you're keen for more tips on how
Speaker 1: to work better, connect with me via LinkedIn or Instagram.
Speaker 1: I'm very easy to find. Just search for Amantha Imba.
Speaker 1: How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of
Speaker 1: the Warrangery people, part of the Koln Nation. I am
Speaker 1: so grateful for being able to work and live on
Speaker 1: this beautiful land, and I want to pay my respects
Speaker 1: to elders, past, present and emerging. How I Work is
Speaker 1: produced by Inventium with production support from Dead Set Studios,
Speaker 1: and thank you to Martin Nimba who did the audio
Speaker 1: mix and makes everything sound better than it would have otherwise.