Having made the effort to stop procrastinating and making tangible steps towards my own goals I found another problem I kept hitting.
It was the kind of problem that made something that should take an hour actually take a day or not get finished at all.
Whatever it is that I want to do - I always want to do it properly.
For me, one of my goals is becoming a writer, it is a step towards what I wish to achieve later, admittedly I have a lot to learn but at least I have made a start.
However, one of the most annoying things for me is that I want to write the perfect article each time - and logically I know that I cannot, realistically.
I found myself wasting loads of time trying to get it right.
Even to the point I kept giving up because I couldn't achieve what I wanted to the quality I expected - so many things were now getting written but never finished and lots of time wasted.
I beat this by understanding one thing...
'STOP trying for perfection' for each step...
Obviously perfection is the DIRECTION, it should not be the GOAL.
Once this idea had sunk in it I found I could make progress.
So now, as quickly as possible, I will throw all my ideas in together and produce a quick draft.
This may in fact be unreadable to anyone else but at least it contains the essential idea for the article.
This idea of actually producing (what I feel is) rubbish does go against my preconceptions or even education but at least I have put together something tangible.
I have in effect achieved my goal but I know it is not perfect.
The next step, in quick little cycles of review and improve, I keep improving the article until either I feel it is enough or until a certain time is up.
The timing of this is important and I feel there is a subjective formula in there that determines the square of the length of time you spend is proportional to the quality of the article.
Obviously this cannot be measured directly but I feel it roughly works that way.
It means that the most benefit is in the first cycles and it tails off the more time you spend on it.
If you keep going at this one article you may produce something that is technically great but sadly it may just be about something that nobody is interested in and you have wasted a tremendous amount of time for nothing.
For me I have learned long term - your DIRECTION is perfection, but don't let that be a GOAL.
Learn from your mistakes.
You will get most benefit if you have ALREADY MADE loads of mistakes already to learn from.
See what held me up was trying to avoid these mistakes all at once, at all costs.
But now I have learned to make them, quickly, but to take time later to learn from them and correct them and not to let the flow of ideas stop when it comes.
So in short - Not just 'DO IT NOW!' but also 'Finish What You Are Doing!' in tangible steps and stop trying for Perfection!', just learn to get better.
It was the kind of problem that made something that should take an hour actually take a day or not get finished at all.
Whatever it is that I want to do - I always want to do it properly.
For me, one of my goals is becoming a writer, it is a step towards what I wish to achieve later, admittedly I have a lot to learn but at least I have made a start.
However, one of the most annoying things for me is that I want to write the perfect article each time - and logically I know that I cannot, realistically.
I found myself wasting loads of time trying to get it right.
Even to the point I kept giving up because I couldn't achieve what I wanted to the quality I expected - so many things were now getting written but never finished and lots of time wasted.
I beat this by understanding one thing...
'STOP trying for perfection' for each step...
Obviously perfection is the DIRECTION, it should not be the GOAL.
Once this idea had sunk in it I found I could make progress.
So now, as quickly as possible, I will throw all my ideas in together and produce a quick draft.
This may in fact be unreadable to anyone else but at least it contains the essential idea for the article.
This idea of actually producing (what I feel is) rubbish does go against my preconceptions or even education but at least I have put together something tangible.
I have in effect achieved my goal but I know it is not perfect.
The next step, in quick little cycles of review and improve, I keep improving the article until either I feel it is enough or until a certain time is up.
The timing of this is important and I feel there is a subjective formula in there that determines the square of the length of time you spend is proportional to the quality of the article.
Obviously this cannot be measured directly but I feel it roughly works that way.
It means that the most benefit is in the first cycles and it tails off the more time you spend on it.
If you keep going at this one article you may produce something that is technically great but sadly it may just be about something that nobody is interested in and you have wasted a tremendous amount of time for nothing.
For me I have learned long term - your DIRECTION is perfection, but don't let that be a GOAL.
Learn from your mistakes.
You will get most benefit if you have ALREADY MADE loads of mistakes already to learn from.
See what held me up was trying to avoid these mistakes all at once, at all costs.
But now I have learned to make them, quickly, but to take time later to learn from them and correct them and not to let the flow of ideas stop when it comes.
So in short - Not just 'DO IT NOW!' but also 'Finish What You Are Doing!' in tangible steps and stop trying for Perfection!', just learn to get better.