NORTHERN PLANNER

I'll level with you, I hate starting new projects.

Even now, after all these years, there is that fear that the brief won't get cracked.

I like it now, it forces me to try harder and, since these days I've learned to channel stress into energy, it's a fuel.

Nevertheless, there is nothing scarier than a blank page. 

Years ago, someone told me to get over the initial paralysis by going about every project in a different way.

It frees the mind from the shackles of obvious and makes it easier to get to interesting. 

So that's what I do.
On top of constantly reading stuff that is nothing to do with marketing and everything to do with real life, you know the thing people actually care about, I always change it up. 

Sometimes that's as simple as trying to work to a different communications strategy framework or briefing format.

Sometimes I work to the seven plot concepts. 

Sometimes I actually try and write ads (bad ones) and then work out why I'm writing what I'm writing.

Sometimes I'll try and write the worst strategy and then work out how to make good.

It doesn't really matter. As long as you start with different, you'll end with different. 

When I used to train properly for sport, one of the golden rules was the avoidance of too much repetition. The more the  body gets used to doing the same thing, the less the training effect. 

So most training plans are built on continually dealing the body an unexpected blow it isn't expecting.

Planned shocks to the system.

It's the whole concept of interval training and more.

Long term training plans have variety built in to stop you plateauing. 

And what works for the body, works for the mind. To do your best work, you need to shock the brain out of autopilot.

This is the real problem with proprietary process, it may help the paymasters feel there is some predictability to great work, but the truth is, it gets in the way.

You know the drive to work that you never remember because the mind did it on autopilot? That's the kind of work you run the risk of doing. Just as forgettable as the commute.

That's why 95% of the marketing we expose people to is utter drivel and ignorable. It's all researched the same way, tested (God help us) the same way, made the same way with the same reference points.

We stay interesting by pushing ourselves out of the routine. Leaving what we know behind for a bit.

The challenge of course, is then making it all look like it came from the process so it gets approved. 

I won't tell if you won't.