This post definitely falls into the category of “Advice I Give Myself.” It’s good advice. But I don’t listen. My problem is that it doesn’t feel like being a perfectionist. To me, a perfectionist looks like Marta Steward, putting final touches on an already amazing cake. My last-minute attempts feel more like putting on a seatbelt before driving off a cliff, Thelma and Louise style. But I also know that when I look back at my blog posts, portfolio projects, or stuff I’ve designed and made, I’m generally pleased and proud of my efforts.
Here’s my list of strategies I’m using to dig myself out of the frustrating habit of producing content that I never publish…
- Publish without promoting. This gets around my imagined embarrassment at hundreds of people seeing my typos. Seth Godin says if you blog everyday for 3 months, you’ll want people’s to see it because you’ll be proud of it.
- Publish for 2 days in the future. Sometimes I’m bogged down in indecision about how or even whether a paragraph or graphic needs to be fixed. 48 hours gives me enough time to revisit any egregious errors.
- Ask for a safety net review. I have a couple people I can ask to review my work before I click Publish. The key is to frame my request as finding egregious errors, not making it perfect. Because, I can do that myself!
And as evidence that it’s working, I’m publishing my imperfect post!
