Accounting becomes a major chore when you only do it just before tax day. But if you do it every day, it takes 45 seconds.

Customers were feeling a whirlwind of emotions, as were restaurants, bars, brands, and all businesses. No one knew what was coming next, and everyone was so busy putting their own affairs in order, and hunkering down, that no one had time to say a word. Except Guinness.

We must automate our own decisions to counter these corporate giants’ automations. Not many people had a social media addiction when the feed was chronological. But when more content became automatic, the problem began. And it hasn’t stopped.

The good news with these is that we don’t have to come up with 75 completely unique concepts for each video. They’re almost identical except for the copy we’re split testing. The bad news is that if we make one mistake, it usually gets applied to all 75 assets. Then we have to fix and re-export each one.

Delayed gratification is the backbone of most long projects. We stack small bricks on the city of our dreams, each day, knowing that the bricks we carry today will become incredible views in a few tomorrows. However, avoiding all immediate gratification is a path to exasperation.

The advantages to breaking out line items for people is that it takes a lot less thinking and story management. The advantages to pitching an all-in rate are usually that you can find more profit on all ends, and keep the client from parsing things out and finding leverage on specific line items.

It’s simple yet profound: if we create a frictionless environment in which we can create, it becomes much easier. Those who achieve extreme consistency don’t necessarily have more willpower than the rest of us—they simply have designed an environment in which a large amount of willpower isn’t necessary.

Hiring someone for a role you aren’t familiar with is a scary task. You aren’t sure what to look for, and once you find it, you don’t know if what you’re looking at is good or not.

Brands, hear this: A recommendation from a trusted source is the holy grail of marketing. You can’t achieve a more effective form of marketing than this. So when creators are on board for a paid sponsorship on their channels, let them recommend the product the way their audience is used to hearing from them.

This is the magic of the daily creative routine. Most days are good. Some days are great–lightning strikes and everything comes together. And even on the bad days, it’s still good.

“One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior. New habits seem achievable when you see others doing them every day.”

If you decide to take a week off, it’s unlikely most of your audience will notice. This isn’t a reflection of you or your content, but of the platforms. There’s an endless stream of content, personalized to each person. If you don’t add to the stream this week, no one will be knocking on your door.

You can be the most brilliant person in the world. You can know everything. But unless you’re kind and generous, no one will listen to you.

As a freelancer, I’m pretty protective of my time, as the optimal freelance business model delivers a high-quality service in the most efficient way possible. I didn’t want to spend time driving to pick up furniture, because that would mean I couldn’t spend time working or relaxing.

99 times out of 100, it’s unadvisable for a company to tell their history in an ad. Customers don’t care. But this video has 65 million views, a 95% like rate, and hundreds of super fans in the comments expressing how much they love the ad and the company.

The key concepts of The Power of Habit are in the title. Duhigg explains how much power habits have over our lives, as well as how to understand and leverage that power for our own good. He doesn’t just talk about snacking or fingernail biting either–he focuses on how community habits affected the social justice movement and how corporate habits destroyed massive organizations.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
–James Clear, Atomic Habits

If it’s taking you a long time get a quote over to a potential client, it might be a good indication that you shouldn’t be pitching for the project at all.

Creating work that serves your goals is better. If you want to get a job as an ad copywriter, write 100 ads and put them in your portfolio. It won’t grow you a huge audience, but it will serve as a key to the door you really want to walk through.