Perfectionism Won...

I failed. I admit it. It’s been almost 7 months since the last post in this new project. I’d like to say I was setting myself up for a loss. I mean, I created a blog on procrastination… You didn’t actually think you’d see regular updates, did you?

In trying to figure out what went wrong, I realized I wanted every post to be absolutely “perfect”. I’d start to imagine myself writing the next post and the weight of perfection scared me away and pushed me to do other things I thought were easier. Fear is just one of the powerful forces that can end in procrastination.

But I’m over it. Its 2016 and I really want this blog to flourish. I’ve heard a lot from Shawn Blanc in the past few months. He’s publishing a vast library of content about being focused and making meaningful productivity. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that I need a physical, time sensitive goal. That goal for me and this blog will be 1 post per week.

Having a goal won’t do much if I don’t plan a way for me to actually accomplish it. To do this, I’m going to schedule daily writing time. Just a little. If I can establish a “tiny habit” of writing for 15 minutes per night, that will help move writing from the part of the brain I need willpower for and into the more automatic region. Another benefit I’ve found in the past is that even though I set a routine for a small amount of time, I end up getting in the grove and keep going for a longer period.

Another problem that arose were times I wanted to just link to something helpful I found on the web and just write a few sentences about it, or respond about a current event that didn’t really need it’s own full blown post. So I’ve now created a new post “template” for these so I can quickly get a timely post out there when I need to. I think a constant stream of useful posts, be it short or long, will continue to help stop my procrastination.

This post is a way of forgiving myself, letting go of the past and moving on to a more productive future. While I might not have been working on my blog these past many months, I have been productive on some cool projects I really wanted to complete around my house. The next few posts will be showing them off, so stay tuned!

Keep moving forward.