My Struggle With Perfectionism and Procrastination
September 17th, 2008 by
This post may seem different to you from what you generally get from me.
That’s because I am literally forcing myself to write it just once.
You see, I struggle a lot with perfectionism – wanting things to be done perfectly – especially when I write for you.
That’s a good desire. But I sometimes – okay, a lot of times – allow that to supersede the need for deadlines and regularity.
So I’ve published quite a few blog posts that probably took me several hours too many and generated an effect only slightly more powerful than the versions I had written in just a few minutes.
Not that it’s always best to shoot first and think about questions (or conversations) later.
Just that I personally need to learn to stick to a publishing schedule, come what may.
So as an exercise, I’m going to make myself publish this post, polished or not, 10 minutes from the time I write these words.
The second struggle goes hand-in-hand with the first. It’s procrastination. When I want something done marvelously, I often put off working on it until I’m “ready.”
Ever read that old email forward where it talks about how to write a college paper, and it gives like 40 steps and about 10 of them are “sharpen your pencil?” I’m not at that extreme, but I am definitely guilty of saying, “I’ll do that later when I’ve got a bigger block of time and fewer distractions.”
This isn’t an apology post (although of course if I’ve ever offended you in any way and haven’t resolved the matter, I deeply apologize and pledge my best efforts to make things right).
More like a conversation starter.
Guess who sparked these thoughts? My wonderful wife.
I’m one of those blessed souls who married not only their best friend, but also someone who is way smarter than them.
She toasts me every time at Scrabble. I’ve never beaten her at thumb wars.
And she has incredible wisdom that sets my blogging mind straight.
So she gave me some advice on how to be better in my business, which is blog consulting.
I’ve got a ton on my plate right now, but that’s no excuse for working ineffectively.
My wife’s advice was essentially this:
Do each thing once, for as long as it needs to be done, and then stop.
And in the case of a blog, it’s get the post up and pass the baton to the readers for conversation to flow.
I love her guts.
And I care about you who just read this post.
I hope you find this inspiring, or at least a small motivation and enouragement to get more done while “doing and redoing” less.
No more perf and proc!
Any tips on overcoming this two-headed demon? It sure is a blogger’s productivity nightmare.
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18 Comments - Publish a Comment
Hey Easton! What a great post. Your wife proves the old adage…Behind every great man is a woman. This post is very inspiring, thanks for writing it!
Thanks Claire. Glad it inspired! I was afraid people would be like “whuh?”
That adage is very true. In my case, she’s right next to me.
Great post, Easton! We’re so much alike: I’m the same in perfectionism, but similarly lucky to be married to a really smart girl who helps me tremendously.
I think the fact that you have identified and acknowledged your challenges will make it easier to overcome them.
Good luck!
When it comes to blogging and perfectionism, one of my irrational beliefs is that if I can just make the perfect post, if I can just come up with a truly useful and mind-blowing post, then somehow this will skyrocket my blog to popularity.
I’m starting to see that this is never true. It’s not that great and polished content isn’t important, or that it has no value. The real question I need to ask each day before pushing publish is: “is this content concise, and is it relevant?”
I think the irrational belief in my head is that the only thing that really qualifies as being “perfect” for a blog post is something that is:
1) Useful
2) In depth (long)
3) Polished (good grammar, no typos, maybe an inspirational pic or two)
But I’m starting to think that the better recipe for link-worthy posts is:
1) Insanely useful
2) Concise (shorter)
3) More relevant (the post delivers more thoroughly on what was promised in the headline)
I think those ideas work well with the concept of eliminating perfectionism and getting out concise posts that get to the point.
Heh. I am starting to think I need a wife:
Why does this so seldom work quite the same way with the other gender? Different-but-equal strengths, of course, men do have, but not so often that quiet sagacity that male bloggers are able to count on from their partners… or so it seems.
I’m forever finding I miss deadlines because of “Failure to begin”. Putting off and off and off a project until it’s too late.
Perfectionism and Procrastination notoriously go hand in hand. I love the way you approached this from the heart, acknowledging your own failings. It makes it much easier to come to the same conclusion.
It’s time to stop being afraid of imperfections and focus on getting the message out there, on time, and HUMAN, rather than perfect.
Gleb, Patrick, Jen, Rebecca – thank you all so much. I know that confession is just the beginning of repentance – there’s that whole “forsaking” part – but I feel good that I stuck this post out there.
Rebecca, exactly! And I know there’s a time and a place for perfect. It’s just that with blogs, most of the time you can probably get the best value when you plow ahead conversing imperfectly – not for its own sake, but as a natural counterpart to spoken offline conversation.
Jen, I honestly have no idea why that is. Well, I just think if women really ran the world it would be better. There’s just something in their general nature that’s a bit more effective and productive by default.
Patrick, great breakdown. Can I use that? Might be worth a post here.
Easton, I have the exact same problem. As a freelancer, I used to bill by the hour…but I found myself asking if I should charge the client for my perfectionism. The answer? Yes and No. Yes, to a certain extent as they get a great product. But then also, No, as most of my effort is tidying source code, speeding the website up per Yahoo rules, optimizing images I have already made for speed increases, ensuring I am meeting accessibility guidelines. If I charged my clients for all the hours I worked on my websites, they’d be billed triple what they do get.
Now I personally see this as a good thing, as it shows value for money, which in turn gets me repeat business and word of mouth, but the main thing is I feel good to not be ripping people off.
I know this has nothing to do with Blogging, but it’s the first time I have heard someone actually admit to the same thing I get ALL the time.
I too have an understanding and helpful wife and although the trade doesn’t line the table with caviar, we are both blessed by god to be in the situation to be able to work from home and therefore, we do not complain at my procrastination and perfectionism.
Enjoy it while it lasts, it’s not a bad thing.
Paul, nice avatar!
Glad to know I’m not alone in these struggles.
Counting one’s blessings is another one of those great virtues that can help in any area of life. Certainly I’m verging on spoiled what with being able to work at home.
Great advice from your wife, Easton.
Thanks Sharon! I ought to post more often about what she has to say.
Exactly right! Never let perfect stand in the way of making progress.
Last year, what started as an experiment — moving to a twice weekly post — left me wanting to make each post perfect. And then I procrastinated until they were. It didn’t work for me or anyone who read my blog … so I went back to dailies and everyone seems happier.
All my best,
Rich
Really great post, Easton! Man, do I have the procrastination bug (sickness?)…sometimes I just can’t get myself into gear until the pressure is on.
Thanks Richard and Mark for stopping by! Sometimes I just have to tell myself that it’s okay to put out stuff that I feel is unfinished.
Thanks for this post. I’m 100% guilty of everything you mentioned about perfectionism/procrastination. I’m always looking around the web thinking I need to first do this and that and the other before I make a post, but in the end nothing gets done. My weblog is woefully and embarrassingly outdated, but I let myself off the hook by saying it’s a hard hat area. Then I think about what my father use to tell us, excuses only satisfy those who make them. A friend recently told me that you don’t always have to make a home run, that a base hit is also a good thing. Thanks for the inspiration
Hello, Easton
Another great post and about something I’m dealing with now.
Many blogs ideas and nothing beeing done for 2 days now.
It makes me feel squashed.
Aaron and Maria, thank you for stopping by. We can’t say enough about the importance of consistency and endurance and the formation of good habits. All of this applies to life on the whole as well as to blogging in particular.
Hello, Easton
Thank you for answering.
I define a schedule for myself but the only thing I do is stop working 3 hours a day and do 2 important things everyday. It has helped me. I’ve managed to write 2 posts in a week and doing things that need to be done besides writing posts.
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