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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