I did this thing today. Give me a pixel's worth of an excuse and I'll bend your ear off about it, but the important thing is that it was an hour and a half at the Birmingham Rep. Ninety minutes. And I have no idea how many hours it took me to produce it, but I've been talking about it since December so the odds are that I have spent a wee bit more than 90 minutes on the job.

But all the time I spent producing it is why it was produced. Is why it happened. And, fortunately, why it went well. You can't put months into every ninety minute slot in your day, but an hour that works well for you needs more than sixty minutes.

Same thing, different example. I was just asked how long a particular script had taken me to write and the honest answer is that there are two honest answers. I can truthfully tell you that it took me an hour. And I can truthfully tell you that it took me three weeks.

The lesson I'm taking away from myself and what I've ended up doing is that in both cases, I got the time ready in advance. Planned what I wanted in both cases. I got the venue and the guests for the Rep, I got a lot of contributing material for the script. The only real difference is that then when it came down to the time that this had to happen, I was alone with the script and had to get it done. And with the Rep thing, I was far from alone and all I had to do then was watch as really interesting people did their thing for me and the rest of the audience.

I have a proposal to write on Monday. When I'm done talking with you, I'm going to make sure I've got everything I need ready for it. I'm going to produce the hour it'll take me to do the work. I'm going to produce the work.