5 Ways to Stop Being a Perfectionist - #10 of 100
In my last post I explained why perfectionism is an advanced form of procrastination. But if you’re anything like me, you know this but still find yourself constantly perfecting but not completing.
Here’s five ways of building and maintaining creative momentum by avoiding that niggling urge to perfect.
1/ Treat everything as a draft
Think of everything as a draft, not the finished article. You’ll trick your brain into focussing on the big picture and not the details.
You don’t have to worry about the details now. You just have to finish this draft. Get it done. You can go back and perfect it later.
Because it’s only a draft, it’s not set in stone and you’ll finish it. At worst you’ll have something tangible to work on, but at best you’ll have it in the bag.
2/ Take a break
When you’ve completed your “draft” make sure you take a break. The longer the better.
Sleep on it if you can.
When you’re fresh go back to it and you’ll probably find that its not as awful as you thought.
(And it might even be done.)
3/ Rush it
Pick a creative task that should take an hour.
Set a timer for 30 minutes and attempt to complete it. Hold yourself to account here and just get through it. Even if you think it’s terrible.
Rushing it means you won’t have time to think and you might even release your inner creative genius.
4/ Multitask
Continue working while reading and replying to some emails, or reading some blog posts, or tidying your workspace. It’s amazing what you can come up with when you only have half a brain on it.
This is the opposite of what I’d usually recommend as you’re intentionally forcing yourself to lose focus. But if you find yourself getting lost in details try it occasionally and in short bursts.
5/ Play!
Take what you’re working on and mess with it. Change everything. Be ridiculous. Shock yourself. See how far you can push it away from what you were intending.
Have fun. Be stupid. Go wild.
You never know what inspiration you’ll find at the edges.
Are you a perfectionist? How do you stop yourself? Please share in the comments…
100 Things, The Creative Process | tagged perfectionism
Reader Comments (3)
Unperfectifying Perfect has been a huge help to me. I read some time ago from Derek Sivers to put yourself in a beginners mindset and I have found that helps tremendously.
I think the hardest one on your list is #3...the resistance hates just sitting down and focusing on one thing and getting it done. But I have found that this done on a consistent basis and not caring about whether it is good or not (your point #1)...leads to real creative breakthroughs & at very least some completed work.
I enjoy your blog, and it was the motivation that finally got me going on creating and completing songs over the past few weeks.
Cheers,
Kevin
Great post and very relevant for me.
One of my ways of dealing with this is to frequently stop and check what I'm doing. In other words, I ask myself if I'm obsessing too much over insignificant details. If the answer is yes, I stop it and move on :)
Kevin - can't tell you how happy I am that my words have motivated you to get going and (more importantly) completing your music. Keep it up!
Joe - frequently checking yourself is a good one. And much more simple than some of my convoluted strategies. And simple is usually the best...