How to plan your summer

August is here

Summer is hot in the north hemisphere

and most studios and clients give us a break these days

This can be a great time to enjoy some vacation, travel with family and friends or just lay down in the beach all day long 🏝️☀️

But it is also a good moment to do some personal projects and improve your showreel for the next season!

Is not always easy to find the moment to explore and learn new things

You are probably watching a lot of tutorials during the year

Waiting to apply something in your next project

But learning should have a limited space in our real productions

This is my approach:

Ensure the 90% Explore the 10%

This is not always posible but…

Take time between projects to learn what you wanted during the year

This can keep us inspire and motivated in our career

But it is common to get lost on personal projects

We want to explore and learn something epic

We don’t setup a clear goal and direction

So we finish frustrated with the results

Don’t waste your time!

To fix that, I like to define clear limits to my personal challenges as well

Try to replicate a nice Look & Feel I found in my inspiration board

Learn another skill that will improve my work in the future

Play with AI to create a 1 minute short film just for fun

Something specific that keep me motivated and I can complete on time

Treat your personal projects like a real production to success

How do you plan personal projects? Do you share my approach?

Would love to read your thoughts on this!

Guillermo