Keys to work-life balance
Lifehack has an article, 10 Keys to Work/Life Balance.
I thought #8 was interesting:
8. Get it wrong the first time.
Bon Temps at Le Bon Temps Roule offers this tip as a way to get last-minute projects and other time-consumers out of the way so you can get on with your life. The idea is to give yourself a set amount of time — say, an hour — to do the job, no matter how poorly. Let go of your perfectionism and just do as well as you can in the set time. You may have to go back and fix it up — but you’ll be charged up by knowing the “heavy lifting” is already done. Plus, by forcing yourself to cram the whole job into a short time period, you’ll give yourself a more “global” view that might help you see things you wouldn’t have otherwise. Obviously, this isn’t going to apply to every situation — if your boss comes to you with a last-minute report that has to be generated, this will work great; if your boss asks you to fill in for the other neurosurgeon, who got caught in traffic, a little perfectionism is probably in order.
It’s something I probably ought to take note of, as I’ve written before about my raging case of perfectionism paralysis. I’m bad about not starting something if I don’t think the conditions are right or I don’t think I can do it perfectly. As a result, my undone “to-do” list weighs heavily on my mind and that stress tends to come home with me.
Men often take this approach to household chores, but the idea is to do it so badly that their wife won’t ask them again!
(Sorry, couldn’t resist)
When my head is straight enough to do this, I find it does work. If I have a heavy drafting job to do at work (lawyering) I usually aim to produce something -anything - and then save it leave it, preferably overnight, without looking at it again. Come back to it after a decent interval and I am often amazed by how good the first attempt is because there was no pressure. I don’t think I have ever had to scrap it and start from scratch.
Sounds like a good approach to me and one that I use regularly if I have been procrastinating about a task for too long. I often find that what I produce in the assigned time is sufficient to do the job with little change required. I also find that once I get started the creative juices start flowing and I am more motivated to produce quality output.
#4 Sounds good as well. I’ve stopped making lists about two years ago, and my stress level definitely dropped after that.
Someone said to me a long time ago “Just get off to a rough start” and that’s stuck with me.
I like this post! I can do imperfect!