Ethan Hawke’s Productivity Lesson: Set Simple Goals | Big Think

I have thrived on one simple idea which is placing achievable goals in front of you. I never would give myself a goal like writing a novel. I find goals like that really intimidating. I do well by saying I’m going to try and write every day for ten days.

I remember when I was first starting to teach myself to write. I would say I’m going to go away for ten days. I’ll go on a ten-day retreat and I’ll write every day for ten days with the goal of one short story. Let’s see if we can just – I’m going to come back with one short story I can hand to my friends. And usually, those simple actions give you confidence.

I did that. I wrote a short story and I gave it to my friends and they really liked it. I mean, they’re my friends, right? And they were encouraging. I knew that there were a couple of paragraphs that were really good. You know when you start accessing that part of yourself and you give yourself achievable goals –

I remember I didn’t decide that I wanted to direct films. I told myself that I was going to direct a short film and I was going to make it super manageable, something that I could afford to produce. I didn’t need to ask anybody. I took the money I made from Dead Poet’s Society and I made a short film.

You know, I’ve got a graphic novel coming out. That’s kind of weird, you know, for an actor to do. I made a documentary last year. I wrote a children’s book last year. I’ve acted in plays. To a lot of people, that strikes them as weird. Or they can accuse me of being a dilettante or something like that, right?

But I believe in cultivating the attitude of a student at all times and putting yourself out of your comfort zone. You know, if all I did was act since I was 13, I could do that, but it doesn’t help me become a better actor. Writing helps me become a better actor.

Directing, you know, I’m trying to direct a movie right now. I’m trying to talk other actors into being in the movie and they say no all the time, the bastards. And but it helps me understand wow, that’s how she works. I would have never thought that about the script. You know what? She’s right. It is strange. Why does that do that?

Now when I’m meeting a director who is trying to talk me into doing a movie, I know how sensitive they’re feeling, you know, and I know how to talk to them in a way that’s not going to be hurtful or disrespectful. I have had a lot of experience in different things and, you know, I’ll give myself a goal of a first draft of something with plenty of time.

But you have to make it. If you give yourself achievable – the great thing is you don’t want to position yourself to fail because failing is depressing and it makes you lose steam. Whereas if you say like I don’t have to direct a movie by next year or anything like that, but I will have a first draft or I’ll die. I’m going to have this first draft.

And so what do I really need to do that? Well, I need to have an outline by next week and then I’ll make that outline into a ten-page treatment. I’ll turn that ten-page treatment into a 20-page treatment. Then I’ll try to write a first draft of a screenplay with my goal of it being 60 pages. And like that. And okay. Invariably often you can get done sooner than that.