Gary Bencivenga said that sales copy needs to only do two things to be successful. The first is to open the sale. The second is to close the sale.
In a similar vein, I think you need to only do two things to finish any copy project. The first is to sit down to work. The second is to actually write.
You might think I’m being silly, but I’m serious.
To show you how serious, let tell you about a little game I like to play. Maybe you will like to play it too. It’s called master and servant.
Each night, I get out my riding whip, and, in the role of master, I make a list of tasks for the servant to accomplish the next day.
In the morning, I put the riding whip away and, in the role of servant, I blindly begin to follow the master’s written orders.
So I sit down to work on a particular copy project. Thing 1 above is complete.
But now what? The servant is lazy. He will whine and invent excuses. Soon, he will get up and quit rather than starting to do any work.
So in the role of master again, I’ll warm up the servant with some trivial subtasks.
For example, one of today’s tasks was an email for some real estate agents. And so I told the servant, “Open up a new text document. Write SUBJECT across the top. That’s where the subject line will go one day. And then just paste in the three or four URLs you will get research from. That is all you have to do.”
The servant, who is gullible as well as lazy, does as he’s told. “I’m finished,” he says. “Can I go now?”
So the master gives him a few more easy subtasks. And a few more. Soon enough, the servant is huffing, puffing, sweating, and working, without realizing that time is passing and the project is moving forward, under his own initiative. Thing 2 above is complete.
Gene Schwartz said that you have to work hard to succeed. He then clarified. You don’t have to work long hours. You just have to work hard, with great intensity.
But how do you do that?
I subscribe to the idea, which I first read from Cal Newport, that procrastination is at bottom uncertainty. Uncertainty about what you have to do. Uncertainty that it will work. Uncertainty that such a massive project could ever get finished.
So much thinking. So much personal attachment. So much stress. No wonder you can’t get any work done.
That’s why it helps to split your personality into two. Hammer and anvil. Master and servant. It’s a lot like life.
“I’m finished. Can I go now?”
Yes, you’re free to go if you like. But if you want to give your servant some useful reading to do later, click here and subscribe to my daily email newsletter.