- Cool, cool, cool,
cool, cool, cool, cool.
Many of us may find
ourselves at home right now.
Maybe we thought we would get things done
but we're not doing 'em.
I have a solution.
You already know that, from the title.
(banging)
The rule is simple.
Just say you're gonna do
a thing for 10 minutes.
Everyone usually has 10 minutes.
But a little is better than none.
You've got this, give it a try.
I'll show you me trying it,
because watching people
try to do stuff can be fun.
Especially when they fail.
Now there's some things
that I've been meaning to do
that I just never do.
So I decided this week, to
just do them 10 minutes a day.
Write a story.
Story, a book, I don't,
actually don't know what's
it's gonna turn into.
Write a song.
My band, Driftless Pony Club.
(electric guitar music)
We're working on a new album.
Clean the garage. We have
this dumb garage box problem.
Can you explain our garage situation?
- We bought this house last year,
we've done a lot of changes and updates.
That has translated to a lot of boxes.
- Did I fail? Let's see.
This is the first barrier.
Deciding what to write.
I have com across what
I think is my best idea
and it's intimidating.
So many obstacles to making it good.
Mmmm, half a page.
I've already decided I'm
gonna start it differently,
but that is progress.
We're working on a new album.
It's about female scientists of history.
I've been tasked with writing
a song about Ada Lovelace.
I've been sitting on this for so long,
not doing anything.
Now that I know it's just 10 minutes,
I am doing something!
Ada Lovelace's Wikipedia
article is quite big.
I'm halfway through, but I found a thing.
When she was a kid, she
became obsessed with flying.
Did a lot of research to figure
out how to fly, like birds.
That might be what the song will be about.
We'll see.
Why haven't we cleaned it?
- Cause it's cold and it's in the garage
and you don't see it that often.
- We have that recycling bin,
which is usually full
of our weekly recycling
so we don't have room for this stuff.
- The first thing I think
we're gonna need to do
is move this countertop.
(high energy rock music)
- And go.
- Go.
(high energy rock music)
- Oh, time's up.
- We got a little done.
- Tomorrow, just think about
what we'll get done tomorrow.
Okay, don't think of it.
I decided to do a time travel story,
which I'm now remembering
why I have avoided,
because time travel stories
are filled with plot holes.
I gotta start over.
10 minutes. Easy peasy.
Oops. And I feel like writing more,
but I'm gonna stop wanting more,
so that I will come back
to it rather than dread it.
Still in the research phase,
I'm gonna finish and pick up the guitar
and noodle around for a bit.
I got some parts I've
stowed away for an Ada day.
Wikipedia page is pretty long.
I'm still not done.
Charles Babbage referred to her
as "the enchantress of number".
I like that a lot,
I think that might end up
being the name of the song.
The way the shears are
around that cord right now,
that doesn't seem--
Just seems like bad positioning.
- Three, two, one, go.
(mellow rock music)
- This toilet's going to the dumpster?
- Yeah.
(mellow rock music)
(thumping)
- That toilet smells like poopy diapers.
- Our dumpster?
- I mean our dumpster.
(mellow rock music)
- Oh, time.
- Like each time, I'm like, ugh,
gosh, we're not gonna get anything done,
but then we do.
- So I've been thinking
a lot about this story.
And if I hadn't started,
I wouldn't have thought about it at all.
I feel like I could keep going,
but again, I want to keep it short,
so that I keep doing it daily.
Day three songwriting,
which is actually kinda just
reading Wikipedia so far.
Basically, Ada saw potential
for a calculating machine
other than calculating numbers.
Now I gotta figure out the song.
Part of the song.
(laughs)
We forgot we were gonna do it,
and I said oh yeah, we
gotta do the garage,
and you were like, "Aaahhhh",
but it's 10 minutes.
(sighing)
- Yeah.
- Tackling the big box.
- Two, one, go. Oh shoot.
(sighing)
- It went to black.
- Let's go watch TV.
(laughing)
(upbeat rock music)
(vacuum turning off)
- Operation big box of crap, complete.
Really do not feel motivated today at all.
Yet, it's only 10 minutes.
Almost to a full page of writing.
Still feels like progress
even though it's this much.
♪ Age 14 and paralytic ♪
(upbeat guitar music)
♪ Ada dreamed that she could fly ♪
♪ Observing birds and proper metrics ♪
♪ She was algor-- ♪
♪ She was algorithmically inclined. ♪
You have overalls.
- Overall, I'm okay with this.
(cardboard crunching)
(smashing cardboard boxes)
- A minute 45 left, we did it!
- We did it!
- Slowly when there's room,
put 'em in that blue recycling bin
every two weeks.
I much rather would've
done it this way than
- All at once.
- All at once.
- It's not like painting.
- I'd do that in 10 minute chunks.
- That would be a very bad idea.
You'd get out all your paint--
- Okay, this doesn't apply
to everything, okay guys?
I have been thinking about
this story, all day, every day.
I have a scene here,
but I don't think this
is the opening scene.
I'm gonna move that block of text down,
start a new beginning.
Getting there, half a page again.
So, in total, we may have
a full page of writing.
Yet, so much more in my head.
This might be even harder,
because now I really like that verse
and I don't want ruin it
with other crappy parts.
(mellow guitar music)
I need to have a better idea
of who these characters
are and their motivations.
Cause really all I'm going on right now
is just like, an
interesting plot structure.
It's not enough.
Time travel's hard, you guys.
At some point,
you have to just accept
certain inconsistencies.
Now I have a choice.
I can continue brainstorming this,
or change it, move to a different story.
I'll decide tomorrow.
(upbeat guitar music)
All right, I think I have
a little bridge part,
so after the verse.
(upbeat guitar music)
And then maybe, right after that,
it goes into a little chorus
that's single chord-y.
♪ Doo, doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo. ♪
Mmm. Chocolate muffin.
Celebration.
I figured what the problem is.
At least I think so, for now,
these things change all the time.
In order for the plot to work,
main character has to think
something went wrong in their life,
and they wanna go back and change it.
Anything I come up with, to me,
is like, that's not
worth going back in time
and upending your life.
Too many variables,
who knows what would happen.
It could get worse,
depending on how time travel works
it might be inconsequential.
You might just go to another
universe, all this stuff.
But then I realize,
I'm assuming that the
main character is me.
I wouldn't make such a bold decision
to jump back in time to change my life.
So I need to think of this
character as someone else.
And I'm thinking of lots
of other decisive people
in my life, and I'm putting
them together in this character,
and it's suddenly all
starting to make sense,
and it's beautiful.
This is why your character is important
and I have to have a good
sense of them before I begin.
Anywho, I'm gonna attempt
to take this character
and outline a whole new plot.
Figuring it out, it's falling
into place a little better.
So that's seven days of
10 minutes for this story,
and I feel like I've
made a ton of progress,
despite having no real actual pages
that I love written.
It was a bunch of planning
that needs to happen
for this story to happen.
Hopefully I can keep doing
this 10 minutes a day.
And yes, same clothes as yesterday,
haven't showered yet today, see?
See the hair sticking up?
Enchantress of number,
this is as far as we've
got for this video.
I'm not gonna lie to you,
I worked on it longer
than 10 minutes today,
cause I felt like I was on a roll.
I was on a roll until I tried
to say "on a roll" just now.
(upbeat guitar music)
♪ Age 14 and paralytic ♪
♪ Ada dreamed that she could fly ♪
♪ Observing birds and proper metrics ♪
♪ She's algorithmically inclined ♪
♪ Countess of Lovelace ♪
♪ You were always ♪
♪ A difference engine ♪
♪ Number machines ♪
♪ You won't have to be ♪
♪ Number machines ♪
♪ You don't have to be ♪
♪ Number machines ♪
♪ You don't have to be ♪
♪ Number machines ♪
♪ You won't only be ♪
(upbeat guitar music)
That's pretty much all I got.
I feel like we really made progress
and this will eventually be
a Driftless Pony Club song.
Turns out, 10 minutes a day works for me.
And I hope it works for you.
Now, I would like to
thank our sponsor audibly,
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I will thank Audible.
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I don't know if that means
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I go for runs a lot, and I
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Really caused a lot of problems for me.
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(babbles)
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(babbles)
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That is all.
You can watch my previous video
about quitting alcohol for a month,
YouTube thinks you'll like this video.
I do a weekday vlog every
single day for patrons
over on Patreon, if
you want to support me,
you can subscribe right there.
(piano plinks)
And wash your hands.
And wash your hands.
And wash your hands.
And wash your hands.
And wash your hands.
And wash your hands.
And wash your hands.
And wash your hands.
And wash your hands.
