Jacob Burgess is a voice actor currently residing in Seattle, WA.
“When [you] get a whole lot of auditions and they’ve got to get out really quickly? Sometimes, it’s no big deal.”
You ask a voiceover artist for a submission, you get a voice over. Our transcript below.
(Introduction)
“It’s a weird thing, because distraction happens a lot. Say [you] get a whole lot of auditions: usually, you get a whole lot of auditions, and they’ve got to get out really quickly. Sometimes, it’s no big deal.
Sometimes you’ll get auditions at three [in the afternoon] and they’re due at eight in the morning, and if you’ve already got plans for the evening, there’s a sense of urgency there; there’s no time to get distracted. You’ve just got to find a place to fit it in, to get it done, to get them the best that they can be and get them out the door.
That kind of urgency is really, really good fuel for motivation–but not always the best. It doesn’t burn clean.
A lot of times, you’ll procrastinate to artificially get that motivation because you put things off to the last minute, and then suddenly you have that urgency–[the urgency that] just naturally came in when something came in late. And this happens with any freelancer; it’s no different: from a voiceover artist [who’s just] getting out auditions, or if you have a remote client or something like that that’s just like ‘Oh, hey, get it to me whenever!’
Even for me, now, I had asked [Designing Sound] for a deadline, and they had said, ‘Sunday night.’ [At the time of this recording], it is 6PM on Sunday night.
…
This isn’t always the best thing to do, but a lot of times we artificially generate that urgency in order to make sure that we get things done. [Things] burn a lot cleaner and [work] a lot better if you can set a schedule for yourself.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]That kind of urgency is really, really good fuel for motivation–but not always the best. It doesn’t burn clean.[/pullquote]
Normally what I do is, as soon as I get something, in the first available moment that I get to have that audition, I get the prep work done, I get the audition, I send it out the door if time permits. That’s a way better way to do it.
(Craziness and circular ranting)
… That’s generally how I try to get things done. But, you’ve got to find your own way–you’ve got to find the way that works best for you and not always put things off to the last minute, because that? That’ll make you cray cray. [That’s my experience].
Yeah, so, hopefully, you’re not listening to this as a distraction–and if you are, you’ll eventually get your work done!”
[Jacob then goes on to thank us, which is completely unnecessary! And redacted herein.]