I’m Done!
A few days ago Delicious led me to The Cult of Done Manifesto. The basic idea is that breaking projects down into small deliverable parts, and then delivering them repeatedly, is a key to creative success. Try not to worry about the details as much. Instead, focus on getting done.
For those of us with perfectionist tendencies, this is a good habit to remember. Endlessly tweaking little pixels to the left or right can be your biggest enemy, because it stops you from being done. Just give yourself a time limit and call it done when time’s up. Now you’re free to move onto something else!
A few of my favorites from the Done Manifesto:
#2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
#6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
#9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
I was particularly struck by #9. People aren’t right just because they have dirty hands… but, it seems to me, the people with the dirty hands end up being right more often, simply because they have more experience.
So now, I’ve finally created a text blog: Something I’ve started but never finished for a few years now.
The goal of this blog is to:
- remind myself, “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”
- share some of the things I’ve done
- make sure my hands stay dirty on projects I care about
I told myself I’d be done with my first blog post by 3 pm, which is coming up right now.
Photo by yakobusan.
Also, this post reminded me of the old Ze Frank video about Brain Crack. http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/07/071106.html
Figured I’d share the link and use this as a chance to test out comments.
I look forward to following along and seeing what is new in your world.
Thanks, Laurie. Good to hear from you!
Great idea, something I should really do because a memo board covered in a sea of aging post-it notes occasionally fluttering to the floor isn’t cutting it.
Mmmm… Post-it salad.
Awesome. I hope you set this up on twitterfeed or a similar service so your followers can see this.
And thank you.. I will be reading this document in the next couple of days. It looks very good.
Cool… yeah, I have it feeding into Twitter and Facebook. Will be interesting to see how that all works.
Very useful advice Brandon. I rarely finish a project as I try to anticipate every detail. It then becomes overwhelming. Good way of rationalising things.
Welcome to the written world.
Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone!