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Ryan Levesque

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The Digital Contrarianâ„¢

Ryan Levesque

Issue #111

| The Digital Contrarianâ„¢

Why Everything Takes You So Damn Long…

Why Everything Takes You So Damn Long...

Ryan Levesque

6 min read

-

Ever notice that everything seems to take three times longer than you think it’s gonna take??
 
Like, it’s an unspoken law of the universe.
 
For example:
 
Somewhere along the way, I got the crazy idea to hand-illustrate every diagram in my upcoming book, Return to Real.
 
(After all, it’s very much the ethos of the book, and I thought it would be a fun challenge.)
 
I figured it would take me a month, tops.
 
In fact, you may remember I wrote about the illustration process in [Issue #101].
 
That issue was published back in May, by the way.
 
(Here we are now in August.)
 
And after spending this entire past week locked in my office, I finally managed to finish the very last hand-drawn illustration… last night.
 
(And it only took me THREE months. Funny enough, exactly three times as much time as I had expected.)
 
Why do things like this always take so damn long??
* * *
A few weeks ago, in [Issue #108], I wrote about a concept from the book called The Edge Effect.
The tl;dr on The Edge Effect is this:
 
In nature, the most interesting things grow at the edges where ecosystems meet, because the edges combine conditions that don’t normally coexist elsewhere.
 
The same is true for ideas. The most interesting ideas emerge at the edges where two or more different worlds collide.
 
The Edge Effect is a concept I wanted to create an illustration for in the book to help make it land, because it’s SO important — especially when positioning yourself as a category of one.
 
So, I started by creating three different mockups to get initial feedback from a small group of beta readers:
After a few feedback sessions, it became clear that NONE of these designs were working.
 
Blah :-/
 
But out of ONE of the sessions came a mini-breakthrough.
 
A few members of the group made a suggestion:
 
Ditch the aerial view. Attack it from the side.
 
Live on that call, I sketched a fourth design:
Everyone LOVED it.
 
(I wasn’t convinced.)
 
After all, this was going into a printed book. The stakes were high. And I wanted to get it right.
 
So I went old school ASK Method and ran a survey.
 
The results?
 
Hundreds voted. And the final results were overwhelmingly in favor of that fourth design.
That one was the clear winner.  All I needed to do was draw it.
 
How hard could it be, right?
 
Well, right about that time, things started to get pretty busy.
 
Farm. Kids. Summer Vacation. Clients. Business. Travel. LIFE.
 
(Sound familiar?)
 
Weeks later, I was FINALLY able to carve out enough uninterrupted time to get THIS illustration (and the dozen others) over the finish line.
 
First, I created a custom font in my handwriting using a tool called calligraphr.com to create the labels for each illustration.
Then, using that low-fidelity concept from the survey, I played around with a few different ideas until landing on a final design I was happy with.
 
I sketched each illustration using an app called Procreate, which is sort of like Photoshop Lite, specifically designed for the iPad.
 
(Originally, I had contemplated doing each of these on bristol board with a micron pen. But the truth is I’ve been sketching on the iPad for years now, and it’s where I’m most comfortable. So I went that route.)
 
And, yes. I’m aware of how that sounds. Guy writes a book about real things, draws them on a screen.
 
But here’s where I landed:
 
Every line in every one of these drawings came out of my hand. Every label is in my own handwriting.
 
(How to make these types of decisions in your OWN work is the EXACT tension that the book tackles head on…)
 
And BTW – if you’re curious, here’s a timelapse of the actual process:
That took things from the initial, low-fidelity mockup that we started with here:
To the finished hand-drawn illustration — complete with custom hand-written font — that will make it into the final book here:
Altogether, this ONE illustration probably took me about 10-12 hours of work, between initial designs, feedback calls, running the survey, and then sketching the final illustration (which alone took about 6-7 hours…)
 
Now, multiply this process over a dozen illustrations, and you can see where this “one month project” turned into three…
 
So why DOES everything like this take so damn long??
 
Well, when you estimate how long something will take, you picture the actual work. The equivalent of the drawing. The writing. The building.
 
But you don’t picture the three versions you’ll throw away first.
 
You don’t picture the deciding time. The agonizing over something for a week (or five) because you’re still not sure.
 
And you definitely don’t picture the fact that the calendar isn’t yours. Farm. Kids. Clients. LIFE.
 
(So don’t be so hard on yourself.)
 
Now, there’s GOOD NEWS in all of this, and that’s THIS:
 
Now that these illustrations are finished (the very last thing holding up interior layout…)
 
I am VERY excited to say that we will be kicking off the pre-order process for Return to Real in less than two weeks.
 
Here’s how to get onto the pre-order priority notification list:
 
If you haven’t already done so, get yourself onto this list here:
 
When you get to that page, enter your email address.
 
That’s all you need to do. It will take 10 seconds.
 
This coming week, I’m traveling to Nashville, TN to kick off the Return to Real Book Launch Podcast Tour with SEVEN podcasts…
 
(Crazy, yes I know.)
 
Then, NEXT week, I’m back in Vermont, just in time to host our Return to Real Vermont Farm Mastermind Experience.
 
(Which is going to be awesome.)
 
And once we wrap that event?
 
We’ll begin opening the door to pre-orders, starting with a VERY special offer for those who want to help get this book into MULTIPLE readers’ hands.
 
(Single copies will come a short bit after that, so if that’s you, you’re not missing anything. I’ll tell you exactly when.)
 
The MOST important thing to do if you haven’t already, is get yourself onto this list here so you can get ALL the details:
 
 
That’s the ONE thing to do today.
 
Make sense?
 
Awesome.
 
Okay! I’m going to leave you with that for now.
 
Remember:
 
Everything takes three times longer than you think it should.
 
True for you.
 
True for me.
 
True for everybody.
 
So cut yourself some slack.
 
You’re doing great.
* * *
Have a great rest of your weekend…
 
Remember to hug the ones you love…
 
And until next week,
 
Ryan :-)
 
P.S. These illustrations are the reason I’ve been woefully behind in replying to emails, comments, private messages, and texts these last couple weeks.
 
If you’ve reached out and haven’t heard back from me, thank you, thank you, thank you for your patience and understanding :-)
 
(And if you haven’t gotten on the pre-order notification list yet, go here now: ReturnToRealBook.com ; -)

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The Great Sea Change

The Great Sea Change diagram from Return to Real