# Austin Kleon - Keep Going (Highlights)  ## Metadata **Review**:: [readwise.io](https://readwise.io/bookreview/50621015) **Source**:: #from/readwise #from/kindle **Zettel**:: #zettel/fleeting **Status**:: #x **Authors**:: [[Austin Kleon]] **Full Title**:: Keep Going **Category**:: #books #readwise/books **Category Icon**:: 📚 **Highlighted**:: [[2025-04-20]] **Created**:: [[2025-04-23]] ## Highlights - “What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” ([Location 49](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=49)) ^878577821 - They have all identified what they want to spend their time on, and they work at it every day, no matter what. Whether their latest thing is universally rejected, ignored, or acclaimed, they know they’ll still get up tomorrow and do their work. ([Location 62](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=62)) ^878577822 - We have so little control over our lives. The only thing we can really control is what we spend our days on. What we work on and how hard we work on it. ([Location 64](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=64)) ^878577823 - It is not the experience of today that drives men mad. It is remorse or bitterness for something which happened yesterday or the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Let us therefore do our best to live but one day at a time.” ([Location 69](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=69)) ^878577824 - When you don’t have much time, a routine helps you make the little time you have count. When you have all the time in the world, a routine helps you make sure you don’t waste it. ([Location 82](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=82)) ^878841075 - there is no perfect, universal routine for creative work. ([Location 91](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=91)) ^878841076 - Rather than restricting your freedom, a routine gives you freedom by protecting you from the ups and downs of life and helping you take advantage of your limited time, energy, and talent. ([Location 104](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=104)) ^878841077 - I make a big list of everything that needs to get done, I pick the most pressing thing to do, and I do it. Then I cross it off the list and pick another thing to do. Repeat. ([Location 118](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=118)) ^878841078 - A day that seems like waste now might turn out to have a purpose or use or beauty to it later on. ([Location 158](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=158)) ^878841079 - There’s almost nothing in the news that any of us need to read in the first hour of the day. ([Location 198](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=198)) ^878841080 - “The phone gives us a lot but it takes away three key elements of discovery: loneliness, uncertainty, and boredom. Those have always been where creative ideas come from.” —Lynda Barry ([Location 220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=220)) ^878841081 - Lots of people want to be the noun without doing the verb. They want the job title without the work. ([Location 265](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=265)) ^879226483 - Job titles can also restrict the kinds of work that you feel like you can do. ([Location 274](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=274)) ^879226484 - Another trick: When nothing’s fun anymore, try to make the worst thing you can. The ugliest drawing. The crummiest poem. The most obnoxious song. Making intentionally bad art is a ton of fun. ([Location 310](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=310)) ^879226485 - And remember: If you want maximum artistic freedom, keep your overhead low. A free creative life is not about living within your means, it’s about living below your means. ([Location 347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=347)) ^879226486 - It’s easy to become as obsessed with online metrics as money. It can then be tempting to use those metrics to decide what to work on next, without taking into account how shallow those metrics really are. ([Location 360](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=360)) ^879226487 - Try it: If you’re bummed out and hating your work, pick somebody special in your life and make something for them. ([Location 393](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=393)) ^879226488 - Really great artists are able to find magic in the mundane. ([Location 420](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=420)) ^879690713 - Inspired by the slow food and slow cooking movements, he started leading “One Hour/One Painting” sessions in galleries and museums, in which he invited participants to gaze at a single artwork for one full hour. ([Location 442](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=442)) ^879690714 - To slow down and pay attention to your world, pick up a pencil and a piece of paper and start drawing what you see. ([Location 463](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=463)) ^879690715 - Your attention is one of the most valuable things you possess, which is why everyone wants to steal it from you. First you must protect it, and then you must point it in the right direction. ([Location 473](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=473)) ^879690716 - Set up a regular time to pay attention to what you’ve paid attention to. Reread your diary. Flip back through your sketchbook. ([Location 484](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=484)) ^879690717 - Art is supposed to make our lives better. ([Location 515](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=515)) ^879690718 - To have hope, you must acknowledge that you don’t know everything and you don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s the only way to keep going and the only way to keep making art: to be open to possibility and allow yourself to be changed. ([Location 551](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=551)) ^879690719 - Thinking requires an environment in which you can try out all sorts of ideas and not be judged for them. ([Location 554](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=554)) ^879690720 - No, if you’re going to change your mind, you might have to go off-brand, and offline is the place to be off-brand. ([Location 557](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=557)) ^879690721 - “Think for yourself!” goes the cliché. But the truth is: We can’t. We need other people to help us think. ([Location 563](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=563)) ^879690722 - When you’re only interacting with like-minded people all the time, there’s less and less opportunity to be changed. ([Location 570](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=570)) ^879690723 - Read old books. Human beings have been around for a long time, and almost every problem you have has probably been written about by some other human living hundreds if not thousands of years before you. ([Location 586](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=586)) ^880095426 - Creativity is about connections, and connections are not made by siloing everything off into its own space. ([Location 609](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=609)) ^880095427 - We don’t have to keep our spaces perfectly clean and tidy. We just have to keep them ready for when we want to work. ([Location 620](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=620)) ^880095428 - The best thing about tidying is that it busies my hands and loosens up my mind so that I either a) get unstuck or solve a new problem in my head, or b) come across something in the mess that leads to new work. ([Location 634](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=634)) ^880095429 - LEAVE THINGS BETTER THAN YOU FOUND THEM. ([Location 687](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=687)) ^880095430 - Worry less about getting things done. Worry more about things worth doing. ([Location 810](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07GNWXTKV&location=810)) ^880095431