Three Maxims For Getting Things Out There
Following on from a post I made a few days ago, I realised that once again, I was complicating things.
My goal was to have the Vault up and running by the end of this week. It’s now Thursday and as part of an attempt to actually live as opposed to sit typing all day, every day, I’ve decided that my week finishes on Friday.
So, tomorrow.
Yet the Vault isn’t ready yet, and maybe will not be.
As such, I’m writing this out as I go, but if you’re like me with a bunch of to-do lists that never seem to get finished, then you might need these three maxims for getting work done quickly.
#1: Output Over Optimisation
Something that exists is inherently better than the best thing that doesn’t exist.
So it is with work; at least in the sense of writing. For instance, I had in mind to write about something else today, but I realised that due to time constraints, I’m not going to be able to do a decent job and so I’m writing this quick article instead.
Because I could just leave a blog update until tomorrow; there is nothing stating in a contract anywhere that this has to be a daily blog. Arguably, it shouldn’t be.
However, follow the maxim, and a blog post that doesn’t exist is inherently worse than one that does.
Such is the case with a product you want to put out, a service you can deliver, and so on.
#2: Perfection Comes With Repetition
Generally speaking, your first attempt at anything won’t be the best you can muster.
In fact, it’s likely that your first attempt will be terrible. Your second attempt will be a little better because you learned from the first time, but you’re still not going to be Shakespeare, Mozart or Michelangelo.
People tend to want to create a body of work that’s perfect, and realistically, that never happens. You look to the geniuses and they all have their apprenticeship periods or, in some cases, periods of quiet where they inevitably threw everything away and simply curated the good things where they occurred.
Perfection come from repetition; you get better with each iteration. (Some caveats apply.)
So start getting the rubbish out of the way now.
#3: Day Two Objectives Are Done After Day One Is Complete
No plan survives first contact with the real world.
As such, when you live in conceptual-land, you can think about what happens when you do this; maybe when you do X you get Y, but maybe you get Z.
While in conceptual-land, anything is possible, but nothing is a probability of 1 because, as we discussed in the first maxim, nothing exists.
Day Two follows Day One. In terms of setting things in concrete, you can only do Day One first. Then you go to sleep, objective accomplished, and Day Two takes care of itself.
Final Thoughts
These three things are reasons for getting started. They’re little thoughtforms you can think out as well, and maybe even prove wrong if you feel inclined.
But they’re a simple call to start, really.
I’ll see you in the next one.