not me. but you get the vibes.
4 hours.

sit down. film. edit. publish. don't stand up until it's on youtube.

not my desk. yet.
paris. week zero.
week 01

coming soon. i'm on a plane.

one video.

every week. no matter what. shipped is shipped.

the jail.

this site is the deadline. if no video is up, i've failed. in public.

hi, i'm gibran.
this is my future wife rach.

i'm lazy. so i built a jail for myself.

4 hours a week. one video. every week. no matter what.

→ @gibraninc

i'm lazy. everyone's lazy.

i procrastinate. i have 47 half-finished projects. i open twitter for one second and lose three hours.

but when i set a 4-hour timer to finish one specific thing, i turn into a different person. i don't eat. i don't check my phone. the excuses stop being interesting.

so here's the deal. i'm going abroad for a few months. every week i set a 4-hour timer. film, edit, publish. one video on youtube. ship or don't. in public. no hiding.

why 4 hours? because i've tried 48 and i always bail. 4 is a commitment i can 100% keep. a smaller container that ships beats a bigger container that doesn't.

/ gibran
j@JackHardglow · 4 months ago

"i need to sit there.. in that room"

a real youtube comment. proof the room matters.
bee vs. mosquito.

a bee and a mosquito can both hurt you. you fear the bee more. why? the bee isn't afraid to die.

if a bee wants to sting you, it will. it doesn't care how hard you swat. a mosquito is cautious. it wants your blood, but it also wants to keep living. that's what makes it unsuccessful. you scare it, or you slap it.

everyone you meet is a mosquito. kinda wants a better life. flinches at the first sting of hard. bees put 100% of their life force into one thing, and when you meet one, you know. because until then, you had no idea a person could want something this badly.

this site is me practicing being one.

taped above the desk
cold open / every video
the format.

welcome back to locked in camp. the internests biggest tax write off. we are here with gibran. im sure you've heard of him but i dont think you know what hes like on a random tuesday. today we're going to do a few things. At the very end we'll play one of the most intense game of uno for $500 dollars. we're going to go try the best coffee in lisbon. but thats later. for now. Gibran. how are you doing.

verbatim. typos are the point.

4 hours. one video. every week.

sit down. timer starts. don't stand up until it's on youtube. same shape every week. nothing to decide on the day.

0:00
sit down. phone in a drawer. timer starts.
hour zero
0:15
film. one camera. one take mostly.
fifteen in
1:30
edit. rough cut. structure first.
ninety in
3:00
music. color. sound. kill the darlings.
three hours in
3:45
thumbnail. title. description.
fifteen to go
4:00
publish to @gibraninc. walk outside.
done

four rules. non-negotiable.

01
phone in the drawer.
not airplane mode. in the drawer. four hours without your phone is not going to kill you.
02
one video. one week.
not five drafts. not a series. one thing that goes from unshot to shipped every 7 days.
03
ship when the timer hits zero. ready or not.
a worse video that shipped beats a better video that didn't. if it's rough, the log says so.
04
one honest line, after.
what worked. what didn't. for the version of me who has to do this again next week.

every drop. live.

every week, a new row lands here. timestamp. location. link.

wk dropped location watch
01 soon tbd standby
02 +7 days · ·
03 +14 days · ·
follow along on youtube @gibraninc ↗

what people keep asking.

why 4 hours? that seems short.

because i've tried 48 and i always bail. 4 is the smallest window i can actually commit to and 100% deliver. a tiny container that ships beats a huge one that doesn't. if it works, i'll make it longer.

what if the video sucks?

i ship it. that's the whole point. the log says it sucked. next week's will be better.

why publicly?

because the version of me only i know about is not the version that ships. if you're on this page and no video is up, i've failed and there is nowhere for me to hide about it.

isn't this just a youtube channel?

yes. also a jail. also an experiment. also probably a book eventually. i'll figure out what to call it after i've done it for a year.

or don't. i'm doing this either way.

the whole point of doing this in public is i can't back out. if you want the first video the second it drops, tell me.

hello@lockincamp.com follow @gibraninc ↗
ian fleming at his desk. goldeneye, jamaica. c. 1964.
ian fleming's typical day.

ian fleming wrote 14 james bond novels in the same room, in jamaica, on the same schedule, for 13 winters. not on inspiration. on a routine.

7.30am
get up with the birds and bathe in the ocean, then back for breakfast, scrambled eggs and sit in the garden until 10am.
10am
sit down and write 1,500 words without looking back.
12.15pm
snorkel around the bay looking for lobsters, then come back and have a couple of pink gins with lunch.
2.30–4pm
siesta.
4pm
sit in the garden for an hour, then go for another swim.
5pm
write another 500 words, number the pages, put them in a folder and have a couple of powerful drinks.
7pm
dinner and scrabble with his wife ann.
10pm
to bed.

i can't get jamaica. i can keep the schedule.