Done Is Better Than Perfect

 There is no such thing as perfect. There is always something to improve on. If you believe it is already perfect, you have not reached true perfection.

Why Strive For Done, Rather Than Perfect

 Emphasise where you want to put your effort into: the process or the results.

 Done means commitment to a process. Striving for perfection, you will never be done. A perfect process does not exist. The 'best thought' process may become obsolete with the discovery of something new.

 Results will never come from continuous planning. Results will only come from action and commitment to execution.

 We may fear we do not have the perfect plan, because a natural result of our action-taking will be mistakes. We want to get it perfect the first time, rather than fumbling around and tweaking the process.

 We'll research 'the best way' or 'most efficient'; the 'perfect method'.

 What matters is you start.

 Do the fundamentals, and let the results take care of themselves.

 Take these articles for an example. I let ideas flow until I re-read and edit to become succinct. I'm not aiming for perfection. I'm aiming for 'good enough.' This alleviates pressure giving myself permission to make mistakes. If I kept re-drafting, believing I need to 'get it perfect', you wouldn't be reading an article each week.

 What matters is I get the ideas to your eye balls. Whether or not it is articulated correctly is a question of revision not production.

The Museum Of Old And New Art (MONA)

Australian music composer Dean Stevenson has an exhibition in MONA, Hobart called '4PM'. Each day, I think for about 150 days, he'll write one new composition of quartet music. I've been to two 4PM concerts, the most recent one where he explained his idea behind the experiment.

 He emphasised the process.

 He forced himself to make something, anything. To not let perfection stop him from putting his main focus on the creative process.

 His method was simple. Sit down at a piano, play the chords, write each part for the string instruments with an idea in mind. He says some days the music is only one line long. Others is a couple of pages. However, he related it to the problem of most creatives: starting things but never finishing them. We never complete our works because we believe it is not good enough to compare it to perfection. However, if you can bring yourself to accept the nature of your work, that it will never be truly perfect, it becomes liberating.

 Instead of the pile of unfinished projects, you charge forth into tackling them. With a vision of completion and focus on action and process, rather than the results themselves.

Showing Up To Get The Job Done

 I've been using Google Calendar and a habit tracker recently. It's a form of self management to plan and hold myself accountable to the things I want done. Usually, I break up the day in 1.5 hour sessions of deep work.

 There are days where I don't want the full session.

 Instead, I tell myself the goal is to simply show up to the day, not achieve the full productivity session. The barrier to entry for some is too high. Having a planned out and disciplined schedule might be too hard from the current lifestyle they live.

 The goal is to achieve what we set out. But, how about we let it be 'we show up'? Not try to have perfect day.

 This gives leeway for our own imperfections. Still, do not let it be an excuse to be undisciplined. What matters is you showed up, even if you didn't feel like it. In a way, you will be more inclined to get the work done if you take the first step.

 Gym: don't want to go, put on your gym clothes first.

 Productivity: don't want to write, open an empty document.

 It does not have to be hard. Just take the first step, and let inertia do the rest.

In Projects And Achievement

 Quality and quantity is a relationship that gets brought up a lot in business.

 I'll use my articles as comparison again. I aim to publish an article a week to continually refine the art of communication and articulation. If I needed to do an article a day, the quality of these articles would fall off a cliff.

 Why?

 There are so many hours in a day to get it done. It will be rushed, ideas cannot incubate and grow. It takes me about three deep work sessions to get one article done. But, I still want to refine my work such as learning how to run a advertising agency and YouTube.

 I reflect upon my last year of high school. Mathematics was much about putting the hours of practice into doing questions. You did not have to be meticulous with each question, perhaps the first or second times, but afterwards you just get it done.

 Perhaps there is a 'perfect' way to study, but some study is better than being paralysed by the idea of attempting perfect study. However, I attribute people's apathy and procrastination to be their downfall, not the comprehension of perfection.

Aim High But Not Perfect

 Perfection is potential, and done is actuality.

 An idea; a physical proof.

 Deadlines create execution, but creates the possibility of procrastination. An action must be done at a certain time.

 Execute on ideas. Plan a method. And ruthlessly execute.

 Perfection should be aimed close to but is not the goal itself.

 If action becomes the main goal, then let the results take care of themselves.

 With enough time and effort, you will see results. Just depends on how long you're willing to commit.