180 | GETTING STUFF DONE with HIGH IMPACT ACTIONS

Carter Ferguson
13 minutes ago
10 min read

This episode is sponsored by Matt Herbert

Vision without execution is hallucination. Thomas Edison

In the last episode, EPISODE 179, I talked about how toxic people poison creative drive. About interference, momentum theft, tone policing, and the ways projects are stalled or killed once the wrong voices enter the process.

Today I want to stay with momentum, but shift the focus inward.

Because even when toxic people are removed, even when the noise is reduced, there is still a problem that almost every creative person faces.

Finishing things is hard.
And it isn’t hard because you’re lazy.
It isn’t hard because you don’t care enough.
And it isn’t hard because you lack ideas.
It’s hard because making things carries friction at every stage.

Completing creative projects, taking them from inception to completion, creates resistance all the way through.

This episode came out of a conversation with my friend Ian O’Neill from The How They Did It Filmmaking Podcast. He asked me a question that sounds simple, but isn’t easy to answer.

As he’s got older, and now that he’s retired, he finds it harder than ever to pull his film projects together – to get them prepped, shot and completed.

I immediately knew what he meant because I feel it too. I’m not retired, but I’m older than I was, and the friction that he was referencing is – in my opinion - always there. The people we knew when we were younger are often not doing the same things as me anymore, so my pool of allies shrinks. The work that pays my bills distracts me from the time I need to commit to our own projects. Energy is lower. Recovery takes longer. Money can be tighter.

The people we knew when we were younger are often not doing the same things anymore, so the pool of allies shrinks.

Some are simply finished with the chaos of making things for very little return.
Some have moves away.
Many have different priorities.
Some are unwell.
And some, bluntly, are no longer with us. That’s the ultimate version of “I’m not available to contribute”.

But coming back to Ian’s question – simply stated here as Why does it feel so difficult to get projects completed from A to Z? and How can I get around the issue was the follow up.

The more I sat with that question, the clearer something became. This isn’t only an age problem. It’s a reality problem that hits at any stage. When you’re early in your career, friction comes from inexperience, lack of access, lack of confidence, and limited resources. You’re learning how everything works while trying to make something at the same time. Later on, the friction comes from responsibility, distraction, financial pressure, and energy management. You may know exactly what to do, but the conditions are heavier. Different obstacles. Same result. Projects stall. Momentum fades. Work remains unfinished.

So today I want to talk about a practical way of dealing with friction, not by pretending it isn’t there, but by working with it honestly. I want to bring to you the concept of High Impact Actions.

Clarity is power. James Clear

That’s a great message from someone who’s name is clear btw…

When people talk about high-impact actions, they are usually pointing at work that feels uncomfortable but changes the direction of things. Writer Leo Babauta frames that idea when he says “ The tasks with the biggest impact are often the ones we resist most.” He argues that avoidance is a clue. If a task carries uncertainty or emotional friction, it is probably important. His solution is not grinding harder, but creating deliberate focus sessions where you sit with that discomfort long enough to move the needle.

Management thinker Andy Grove, in High Output Management, takes a more systemic view. Grove talks about high-leverage activities - actions where a small input produces a large amount of output. In his words, managerial work matters when it “increases the output of others.” A short conversation, a clear decision, or the right piece of information at the right moment can save dozens of hours downstream. Delay and indecision, by contrast, create what he called negative leverage.

Author Cal Newport approaches impact through attention rather than effort. He argues that work which creates real value requires sustained, distraction-free concentration - what he famously calls deep work. Newport’s point is blunt. If your time and attention are constantly fragmented, high-impact output becomes structurally impossible, no matter how busy you are.

Engineer and author Addy Osmani echoes Grove’s leverage idea in modern teams, emphasizing work that scales beyond you. He describes high-leverage activities as those that shape future behaviour. Building systems, standards, or documentation once allows many people to benefit repeatedly, instead of solving the same problems again and again.

Across all of these perspectives, the pattern is consistent. High-impact actions are not about doing more. They are about choosing work that multiplies effort, demands focus, and changes the system, even when it is uncomfortable. That is the difference between staying busy and actually moving forward.

All of these people are pointing at the same underlying truth from different angles. That impact comes from focus, not volume. That leverage matters more than effort. That attention is a finite resource. What I’ve done over the years is strip those ideas down into something I can actually use when I’m tired, busy, distracted, and still trying to finish things. What I call High Impact Actions isn’t theory. It’s the practical version of all of that, reduced to something I can actually use.

It’s Cal Newport’s interpretation of this that guides my understanding. He says “If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive - no matter how skilled or talented you are.” And that’s what brings me back to Ian’s question. Cal Newport also says that “Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.” And that’s the angle that I take to help me to find out where exactly my focus should be in the first place.

I’ve talked before on this show about brain dumps, getting everything out of your head and onto paper or a whiteboard – I’ve done a whole show on it in fact – but let me revisit the topic in this context. A brain dump is not about organising your life. It’s about seeing what to ignore and what to focus down on. Once everything is visible, you can start to separate what feels urgent from what actually matters. And this is where most people go wrong. They create long to do lists. They spread attention thin. They treat small low value tasks as equal to things that genuinely move the work forward. And momentum dies.

High Impact Actions are a response to that. A High Impact Action is not a goal. Finishing a script is not a High Impact Action. Getting healthier is not a High Impact Action. Creating a podcast season is not a High Impact Action. Those are outcomes. A High Impact Action is a small, specific, realistic and achievable action that meaningfully advances a goal. It must be concrete. It must be measurable. And when it’s done, something real has happened. Whatever your goal is has been advanced in some way.

This is what I have found works best for me. You only ever have three High Impact Actions at a time. Not ten. Not a massive list. THREE.

Concentration is the secret of strength. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Why three? Because attention is finite and momentum is fragile. If everything is important, nothing moves. Those three actions can relate to up to three broader goals, but no more. And once one action is completed, it comes off the list. Only then do you add another. You do not stack endlessly. You do not future plan excessively. You deal with what is directly in front of you.

Let me give you a real example from my own life. One of my current goals is completing a new draft of a script. That goal is too big to act on directly. So, a High Impact Action might be rewriting Act One by Friday. Or cut ten pages that feel unnecessary. Or complete one focused ninety-minute rewrite session with no interruptions. Those are actions that can be finished. They are examples but I can tell you exactly what my high impact action is for this as it’s written on the board behind me – I don’t hide these things ion a notebook – or keep them in mind – I write them up on a a bit of paper r in my case a whiteboard and I see them every day. My next high impact action for the script is rework the structure draft I completed in December correcting location titles and character names, cutting any obvious errors I spot along the way. That’s it. Then I’ll wipe that off the board and give myself another task – that’s how it works. This gives me the sense of completion and that helps my inner drive.

Another goal I have is improving health and energy. Again, too vague on its own. High Impact Actions might be to remove sugar snacks from the house. Attend the gym 3 mornings a week. Take a walk every lunchtime. Prepare three simple meals for the week. Small actions. Real consequences. Again they are examples but what I have written up there is Focus on eating changes. My follow up to that once I have established them, is top Re assume the habit of DDP Yoga. I was so busy last year that I lost it along the way.

My third goal has already been completed and moved on from – simply to do a cv update for my fight and stunt work – that involved CV updates, showreel links and writing the copy. I also updated my contact lists in Gmail.

My new goal is creating this season of the podcast and finding sponsors – So my High Impact Actions might be outline the next episode. Record one episode. Email five potential sponsors. That’s it. At any given time, only three. My actual current high impact action is to advance the podcast as much as possible this week – moving quickly to prep new shows so that I can take advantage of the momentum achieved from the New Year Show. I aim to have all the promotion done and at least 6 shows written researched and recorded with the promotional stuff done by next Friday. I am prioritising this High Impact Action over the other two, as there is urgency to it. I need to also be dynamic you see in reacting to the world about me.

Life doesn’t stop while you do this. Paid work continues. Problems arise. People need things. That’s exactly why this system matters. High Impact Actions don’t require perfect conditions. They require honesty about capacity.

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. Michael Porter

This is where many creative people struggle, because choosing not to do something feels like failure. But it isn’t. It’s protection. Protection of energy. Protection of momentum. Protection of the work itself. High Impact Actions are not about doing more. They’re about finishing what matters before attention leaks away.

And here’s the reality we must all face. You can’t do everything, everywhere all at once. You never could. You just used to pretend you could. Completion beats optimisation. Done is better than perfect is still an amazing piece of advice. Momentum beats motivation. Once something is finished, confidence returns. And confidence makes the next thing easier to start. This isn’t a magic solution. It doesn’t remove friction. But it does make friction manageable. It turns progress into something visible again.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Walt Disney

So how does this help Ian actually get a film made.

The first thing I’d say would be stop thinking about “the film” as a single object. That framing is too big and it kills momentum before it even starts. The film is not the work. The next high impact action is the work. That might be locking the script. It might be reducing the script so it can be shot with fewer people. It might be identifying one location that can be controlled. Or it might simply be committing to one casting conversation this week. The mistake is waiting for the conditions to feel right. Deciding what single action, completed this week, advances the film more than it was last week.

The second shift is accepting that the way you made things before may no longer be available to you, and that isn’t failure. It’s adaptation. If Ian has fewer allies, less energy, and less money, then the project has to be shaped to fit that reality, not fought against it. High Impact Actions force that honesty. They surface the uncomfortable truth early. What can I actually move forward with the capacity I have right now. Not in theory. Not if everyone says yes. Right now. When you do that, the project stops being a fantasy and starts becoming a sequence of achievable steps. And that’s how things get finished.

I had a back and forth with Ian on this topic at the time and decided it was worth an episode but I could tell that he was already narrowing down his thoughts on it and that things were beginning to click. I wish you well with this one Ian, and I’ll keep checking in.

For my other listeners, here’s your action for today.

Do a brain dump. Identify what actually matters right now. And remove the stuff you are not passionate about. The stuff that doesn’t matter and the stuff that seemed like a good idea at the time but which has just been clogging up your brain capacity and look at what is left. Identify three goals, from that list. One you know where your focus is heading, you can start by deciding on Three High Impact Actions, no more, and commit to finishing them. Not perfectly. Not heroically. Just deliberately. When one is done, replace it. Keep the list at three. Keep the work moving. These can be three high impact actions for the same goal, or one for each.

Theres no hard and fast rule for this.

Do that. And watch you creative projects slowly build momentum and complete.

Action is the foundational key to all success. Pablo Picasso

Before I wrap up, thank you once again for giving me your time and attention today. I don’t take that lightly. I know everyone is busy, and I appreciate you being here with me in such a noisy and difficult world.

I’ve already used the Sheryl Sandberg line “Done is better than perfect.” So instead I’ll end today with these words from

Peter Drucker, who said “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

Now, take control of your own destiny. Keep on shootin’ and join me next time on FILM PRO PRODUCTIVITY!

Thanks to Ian O’Neill for inspiring this show today. Your friendship and support are greatly appreciated.

The music you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu.

You can read the full transcript for this episode only at the official website filmproproductivity.com where you can also get in touch if you have any questions.

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Please check out my friends shows:

FILM FIGHTS WITH FRIENDS PODCAST

THE FILMMAKERS PODCAST

THE HORROR CUT

WILDE WORLD

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