Rule 7 – Do the work
As a college professor, I’ve long been giving my students (what I hope is) useful advice. Here’s one of the best pieces of advice I know for doing well in college:
Rule 7
The only rule is work. If you work, it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.
I found Rule 7 years ago in Learning by Heart, a book by the artist Corita Kent. It appeared in an informal list of rules, some funny, some serious, made by the students and faculty of a college art department. Rule 7 seems both funny and serious: a Zen-like joke, abolishing all the rules that precede and follow it, and a statement that’s absolutely true, for makers of art and for anyone engaged in learning. Note that Rule 7 doesn’t say that the only thing to do is work. Rather, the only necessary thing is work. The only way to catch on to things (or to make them happen, to change metaphors) is to put in the necessary time doing the work, whether that work is sketching, practicing scales, memorizing a declension, mapping out an argument, studying a timeline, making notes on an article, or looking up words in a poem.
Whoever thought up Rule 7 caught one of the key points of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: deeply-rewarding activities require a significant investment of time and effort before they show any return. In this respect, Rule 7 differs greatly from Nike’s more facile “Just do it.” Rule 7 acknowledges that learning involves some struggle, that matters may not be clear at first. If you’re just beginning Homer’s Iliad, you are likely to feel quite lost. You can’t “Just do it” when it comes to understanding an epic poem. But it’s easy to catch on if you give yourself a chance by putting in the work.
It makes me happy when students recognize the truth of Rule 7 and make it their own. My students (who get Rule 7 at the start of the semester) often say that the way to do well in my classes is to “do the work.” One of my wife’s students just reinvented Rule 7 on his own. Seeing her on campus, he announced with delight that he had finally figured out how to do well in college: “Do the work!” Nothing could be simpler, or more profound.
Michael Leddy teaches college English and has published widely as a poet and critic. He blogs at Orange Crate Art.
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Comments
hikaru says on October 22nd, 2005 at 8:20 am
i will loudly disagree here.
there are situations where acting is the worst choice. deciding without properly understanding the situation, acting without properly considering the consequences, working without understanding the how or the why. it is true, if you work, it will lead to something. however, it may lead you down an irrevocable path.
it’s not about doing the work, or just doing it. it’s about doing the right work, just doing it right.
analogAI says on October 22nd, 2005 at 10:55 am
“The only rule is work. If you work, it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.”
If you read the rule in more detail, it says it will lead to “something” even that something is failure. It’s about making a change, for better or worse, it’s your choice. Making only decisions without actions (work) is failure in the sense of making a change from the current state in our physical world. That change of state may lead to something totally unexpected, sometimes favorable, sometimes otherwise. You’ll never know if it’s the right work until you reflect on it from the perspective of the hindsight.
The rule is rather vague, but I don’t expect any not-up-for-interpretation ideas coming an Art School web page. The quote triggered some thoughts and I’ve interpreted it. Hopefully this “work” help some of you on productivity.
Brett says on October 28th, 2005 at 1:11 am
I’ve come to embrace another saying that I think is sliced from the same stuff as Rule 7: Sometimes, “the only way out is through.”
Michael Leddy says on October 29th, 2005 at 9:11 am
Hikaru, certainly there are situations in which acting rashly or blindly can be disastrous. I think you need to consider the context for this rule–”for makers of art and for anyone engaged in learning.” The idea of Rule 7 is not to do something right away, without weighing the consequences; it’s just that work is the one necessary thing when it comes to learning. I’d see doing the work and doing it right as being synonymous–doing the work, to me, means really doing it, doing it as it’s supposed to be done, as opposed to going through the motions.
Dan says on December 9th, 2005 at 6:22 pm
Combine Rule 7 with the E3 objective for a basically unfailing strategy to life:
Excellence in Every Endeavor.
If you can remember that work is the only rule, and you’re working for excellence in every endeavor, you’re ready for life. E3 also means that you need to choose your endeavors carefully: pick the ones you’ll be able to learn how to excel at. Also, your life is an endeavor. To excel, you have to do something new.
Rule 7 and E3 are quite a formidable kick in the pants toward the “right thing” if you use them early and often.
Rachael says on February 26th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I have come to learn this is true as well. Amazingly, it only took 5 years of undergraduate work to realize that studying and “doing the work” pays off with better grades and a deeper understanding of course material. Better late than never!