When I started writing random blurbs in 2021, I promised to myself (and to you) to publish at least one article per month. That unfortunately never happened…To be fair, I have started many blog posts in my repo throughout the year, but never ended up publishing them. Today, while I was talking to my wife, I was reminded again that I did not fulfill my promise.Here I am to write about my patterns of Procrastination and the path forward.

Habit makes you perfect

Like it or not, the only way to get better in anything is to do it more often and correct the course through this process. Something like a feedback loop process. You execute on something for the first time and you probably suck at it. You learn from it, you do it again and you are better at it this time. You keep doing this process until you are satisfied with your execution. Many, including me, do not get to the routine of this repetition. They start something. They do it once or twice or maybe for a short while and then stop doing it. That is where ordinary and great people separate ways in my opinion. In my case, I published a few articles and then I stopped. The breakage of the routine is a killer and should be avoided with all costs.

Your mind always makes excuse and it is good at it

At the beginning when you skip what you promised to do, you feel bad about it. At least you feel something is missing and you should do something about it. The logical response is to correct the course and to get back to what you used to do (be it publishing a blog, going to the gym, writing songs etc.). You start analyzing why you should/shouldn’t do the thing you are supposed to do and as soon as you get to that conversation with yourself, you enter a lost battle. Your mind always find excuses why you should/shouldn’t do something. The bad news is that your mind always win. In my case, when I skipped a few blogging sessions, my mind gave me logical reasons of why it was okay to not do it. “Amir, you have a toddler to spend time with and it is okay to miss a week or two”, “Amir, you are responsible for all of the forecasting projects at the company, it is okay to miss a few blogging sessions or two” etc. Even though I knew that I had promised myself to do something, my mind convince me that it was okay not doing it. Mind is very powerful and it wins every single time.

Perfection

Many of us are looking for a perfect moment, perfect blog, perfect training session etc. The bad news is that there is no such a thing as perfect. It is always work in progress. In my case, I have over ten unfinished articles. Well, probably some of them are finished, but I am not happy with their flow. I think they need to be polished. I think there is something more to be added to them. That perfectionist obsession should be anchored. As long as you are looking for something perfect, you will never end up releasing the next song, blog, algorithm etc. The art of iterative process is more impactful than perfection.

Solution

So what is the solution? You might ask. Short answer: “just do it!”. Never get to the battle with your mind and never get to that internal conversation. Stick to what you promised to yourself and just do it. Do not worry about how imperfect it is. Do not skip a session. Just do it.

Me moving forward

I tame the perfectionist side of me. I stay true to myself and will not get into conversation with my mind. I will just do it. I will do it every month.

Until next time.