This little video about procrastination (brought to my attention by Jenny Jameson of Zero Gravity Life) made me laugh.
See if it rings a bell with you.
Do you recognise similar experiences of finding your day has disappeared before you’ve got started on what really matters?
Then join us at July Scanners Night when we’ll be discovering from Mark Walsh how to go Beyond Time Management and get the right things done, not just lots of ‘stuff’.
Watch this video of Suzy Greaves, named as “One of the top 10 gurus to turn your life around” by the Daily Mail as she interviews me, John Williams, about the challenges of being a successful Scanner and the secrets to conquering them.
It’s time Scanners knew how to become that very rare thing – The Super Successful Scanner.
Learn the secrets of the Super Successful Scanner
I’ve spent all my working life searching for the solution to the challenges of being a scanner.
Screw Work Let’s Play has been selected as a “Buzz Book” in Sunday Times Style Magazine this Sunday and described as:
“A compelling 10-step escape from corporate life that could spell a rash of resignation letters”
Fleur Britten, Sunday Times Style Magazine
Aside from this, I’ve been fortunate to achieve some remarkable things for someone so unfocussed and naturally lazy:
I quit my job as Deloitte Consultant to consult independently to blue chip organisations like the BBC, often at a rate of over £1000/day (meaning I only needed to work for 3 months a year)
I turned a full-time job offer into a 3-day a week freelance gig that paid me the same income – so I could do whatever I wanted 2 days a week
Cold-called the Guardian newspaper to win my first piece of paid writing with no prior experience and had some of my experimental music played on radio stations around the world,
I grew a meeting of a handful of people in a bar into the successful Scanners Night event with up to 70 paid attendees
I’ve built and managed over a dozen websites and blogs, and used internet marketing to build an audience of 1000s of email subscribers, blog readers, and twitter followers
Now I want to share what I’ve learned in all these adventures to help you become that very rare thing – the Super Successful Scanner.
So you too can enjoy the creativity, variety, and idea generation you love andhave the shear buzz of real world results: seeing your creations out there in the world, reading your words in print, sharing your ideas and expertise on TV, or building a successful business – and finally making great money from it all.
Welcome to Scanner School
For the very first time I am running a Scanner School to show you how to achieve serious success as a Scanner.
It’s a 3 week evening course at a very special price and it starts soon.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
WEEK ONE:
How to choose the right creative or business project to do next – one that you’ll love doing and will actually make some money! How to choose projects that don’t make you feel trapped but instead feed your need for creativity, ideas and self-expression.
WEEK TWO:
How to follow through to get stuff done without making yourself miserable. How to complete important stuff even if you have the attention span and self-discipline of a 2 year old on coca cola.
WEEK THREE:
How to be successful (and even get rich & famous) for something despite the crazy random diversity of your interests and projects. How to attract new opportunities and income without the usual hard slog of relentlessly selling yourself.
Sound good?
Download Scanner School Now
For a limited time, you can download the entire Scanner School lesson series for just £9.97.
Click the button below to find out more.
Listen to the founder of Scanners Night, John Williams anddiscover how to have your best year yet as a scanner or multi-faceted creative person.
Have a brilliant year as a Scanner without New Year resolutions, career plans, or SMART goals – and make more money than you have before!
Listen to the whole talk and you’ll go away with your own Back Of An Envelope Plan for the year that’s simple, exciting, effective, and doesn’t box you in.
Is this the year you make your own business work?
Do your plans for the year include finally making good money from work you enjoy?
Whether you’re self-employed and want to boost your business, or you’re in a job and looking to launch your own thing, don’t miss the chance to discover John’s Blueprint to do what you love and get paid for it.
Bestselling author and entrepreneur Seth Godin outlines a common creative affliction: sabotaging our projects just before we show them to the world.
Godin targets our “lizard brain” as the source of these primal doubts, and implores us to “thrash at the beginning” of projects so that we can ship on time and on budget.
We Scanners hate to focus on one thing for too long yet if we don’t focus at all, how can we ever bring all our great ideas to fruition?
At October Scanners Night Nina Grunfeld showed us the secret to “Effortless Focus”; how to find your natural way to focus without making yourself crazy with boredom! Nina Grunfeldis a Scanner and yet has created a business, Life Clubs, running weekly workshops in 12 locations around the UK and has still found time to write 3 great books.
Nina is a also an enthusiast of the Enneagram and explains why Scanners are “Epicures” and what that means.
Do have a listen – just click the play button below.
Nina runs an exercise in this recording with the balance chart. You can get your copy to fill on the LifeClubs website here.
At September Scanners Night, we met the superb Sarah de Nordwall, Professional Bard.
Sarah runs the UK’s only Bard School, was poet in residence at BBC Worldwide, and writes poems on commission. Sarah has performed as bard in locations from prisons to the House of Lords – and now Scanners Night.
Sarah captivated the audience with her ideas, stories and poems and she showed us the importance of story. Do have a listen to her – just click the play button below.
Here are several superb new videos from Barbara Sher who originally coined the term “Scanner”.
These were shot on her recent Scanner Retreat in France which she runs several times a year. The next one is in Corfu.
They’re short and well worth watching.
What you love is what you’re good at
Barbara says, building a successful life begins with seeing the importance of doing everything you love.
Barbara Sher talks about Happiness Levels
H-Levels are one of the many ways to find what you love.
Barbara Sher talks about Resistance
Barbara introduces the theme of Resistance. Getting to know the nature of your inner obstacles is one of the steps to building a life you will love.
Barbara Sher: Do you like to Design, Execute, or Maintain?
Who you are will determine how you do your best work. Are you a designer, or do you love turning plans into reality? Maybe keeping things running is what you do best…
You can follow Barbara on twitter as @barbarasher. And while you’re at it, why not follow me with news of Scanners Night and other creative tidbits – @johnsw.
Find out how you can use the power of youtube and twitter for your projects and businesses at July Scanners Night.
Here’s an item from a recent email I sent to everyone signed up on the Scanners list (enter your email on the front page to get meeting notifications & occasional updates).
Do you have 1000 True Fans?
Whether you’re an artist, performer, videomaker, photographer, writer, or freelancer, you don’t need an audience of millions. You just need 1000 True Fans according to Kevin Kelly in his recent article.
(Kevin is a fascinating guy – ex editor of Wired Magazine and definitely a Scanner.)
If you can attract 1000 True Fans who spend an average of $100 a year on you, your art, or your products ‘n’ services, you can make a living.
A True Fan is “someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work.”
I love this idea and thought it would appeal to us as Scanners who have too many interests to develop a huge audience for any one thing.
(There is a particularly brilliant idea for getting paid in advance to publish your own book, CD or film in the article).
Last year I won an international book deal (without all the usual slog that entails), wrote 70,000 words, and hit my deadline. 
Sarah runs the UK’s only Bard School, was poet in residence at BBC Worldwide, and writes poems on commission. Sarah has performed as bard in locations from prisons to the House of Lords – and now Scanners Night.