Progress Not Perfection

It’s easy to get caught up in trying to make something perfect, especially when it comes to personal projects. For me, I’ve gotten stuck in the cycle of trying to edit and revise a project or parts of a project trying to make every part perfect. This type of procrastination took away from the progress I wanted to see in my personal projects and in myself as well. To help me focus more on progress and not perfection, I set up three steps for myself. Through these steps, I have refined my process for working through some tasks needed to complete projects within areas of interest. If you find yourself in a similar cycle, these prompts might be helpful for you as well.

Create a list

To help increase my level of progress with projects and everyday life in general, I create lists. Lists help identify areas of importance and what items should take priority over others. Creating a checklist is very helpful and can be done in many ways. You can create a digital list in software like OneNote or keep a notebook to handwrite each thing you want to complete. Be sure not to confuse making a list with setting goals. Although goals can come in list form, they are destinations not just items to be checked off. I am excited to share my thoughts on goals in a later post. For now, create lists with action items you want to complete toward a specific project or toward a specific skill.

Set priorities

As I mentioned earlier, creating lists can help you identify priorities. There may be several items on your list, but not all of them hold the same level of urgency. Selecting which items on your list are more urgent than others will help you prioritize your time and how much of it you devote to that particular step or action item.

Adhere to deadlines

Once you have set your priorities and determined how much time it will take to complete the task, then it is time to set a deadline for completion for yourself. If you know you have tendencies to procrastinate, then set a forward deadline ahead of the final deadline. This will help ensure you complete your task in a timely manner.

On a final note...

The last thing I want to mention is that even though you may create a list, identify your priorities, and set deadlines to complete them, you must also allow yourself the freedom and ability to be flexible and pivot according to outside forces that may delay or hinder a project. These forces that are out of your control do not have to stop a project, but once they happen, they can cause delays. And that’s all right. Just be sure that you “don’t get stuck in the squat” as Zig Ziglar would say.