YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts

Steady Work Beats Frantic Work

Join a gym and any personal trainer will tell you this: Working out three days a week for the rest of your life will get you in much better shape than working out six days a week for six months, getting burned out on it, and giving up. The same is true with artistic work. It's better to work steadily on things and make a habit of it until it's second nature than to work all day and night on something for a few days and then give up.

I always have five to seven projects going at one time, usually one long-term project, several shorter-term projects, and a couple of one-day projects. Managing them takes concentration. I have ADD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention-Deficit_Disorder) (URL 12.19), but through careful planning, note taking, practice, and the power of computers, I've turned ADD from a deficit into a plus. (Also, I developed the Dean One-Page Plan, which helps immensely. I'll talk more about that in a minute.)

Multitasking

Slipping in and out of one thing and into another is easier for some people than others. I find that my ADD actually makes it easy to do this if I keep my mind relatively clear, don't hold on to resentments that take up head space, plan my day/week/month and year in advance, and update regularly.

Be careful. Multitasking is good if you're on a computer. It's not good if you're driving. (Incidentally, California just passed a law that makes it illegal to talk on a cell phone without a headset while driving, and I think it's ...