Are you a perfectionist?
Let’s talk about perfection.
Nothing is perfect. Nothing will be perfect. Nothing you do will ever be perfect.
I know these newsletters I write will never be perfect. I always make sure they’re the best they can be, but I know they’ll never be perfect.
I self-edit each of my newsletters five or six times (I'm doing it right now), and every time I do this, I always change something. Maybe it’s a word, a sentence, or an entire paragraph. (I rewrote the sentence you just read.) And even after I publish, I always see something I could have reworded, or a new thought I could have added.
Oh, and I still catch typos after the sixth time reading through, and there are typos I never catch until a reader points it out. Doh!
But I have to be okay with that. I have to be okay knowing that my newsletters aren’t going to be perfect. There will always be something I could change or improve, but at some point I have to put down the keyboard and just ship it.
Are you a perfectionist? If so, stop it. Easier said than done, I know.
But nothing will burn you out quicker. Nothing else will make you more frustrated or dissatisfied. It’s a disease, and I’ve personally seen it eat someone alive. Not literally, but they were never happy with their work, and it was really hard for them to enjoy projects. Instead, they spent every second scrutinizing every detail. And if the tiniest thing wasn’t right, they had to take as much time as needed to fix it.
“But Craig, you can’t rush art!” Sure, if it’s a personal project and you’re working on your next big art piece on your own time, take all the time you need. But if you’re at work and you have deadlines to meet, perfectionism is the brick wall blocking your path, and you’ll end up with a lot of coworkers frustrated with you. But more importantly, you’ll be frustrated with yourself.
I’m not saying you should be careless with your work and avoid the finer details, but there’s a point of diminishing returns. Is it worth spending 80% of your time on the remaining 5% of a project’s quality? At work, where there are deadlines, definitely not.
Reflect on your past projects, or think about your current projects. Were there areas you spent way too much time on in order to get it juuust right? Did it matter in the end? Probably not. And even if it did, did it make a huge difference? Again, probably not.
Overtime
Other work-related stuff I want to talk about without dedicating an entire newsletter to it.
This one isn’t specifically related to work—at least for me—but I stopped using reminder apps and went back to good ‘ole sticky notes. I don’t know why, but I could never get any reminder app to work right for me. The default iOS Reminders app is ok, but it would never actually ping my phone. Other apps are just too convoluted, requiring several taps to jot down a quick reminder.
So I started using Sticky Notes on my Mac and placing reminders right on my desktop, and it reminded me (ha!) how great sticky notes are. I still don’t have a solution for my phone, so if you have any ideas (or if you have a reminder app you really like), let me know!
Happy Hour
Fun things I’m doing, TV shows and movies I’m watching, games I’m playing, music I’m listening to, and other neat stuff I want to share.
My wife and I bought these cooling pad systems for our mattress and they’re a game changer. We both sleep better when it’s cool, and these prevent us from having to crank up the AC. The only downside is it looks like a medical device and makes me feel old, but it’s worth it.
I recently got back into Animal Crossing after about a year of not playing. I didn’t get bored with it before, but I guess other stuff just came up. I got the itch again, though. (I also upgraded to the Switch OLED model, which is honestly what the Switch should’ve been from the start, but I digress.)
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you in two weeks. In the meantime, catch up on some older newsletter issues if you’re a new subscriber, and feel free to follow me on Twitter or Instagram for my off-hours shenanigans.
Also, let me know if there are topics you want to hear—I'm all ears! And if you think a friend or family member would enjoy this newsletter, feel free to forward this email and tell them to subscribe!