Friday, July 2, 2010

An Observation About Myself

One thing I realize about myself - and it's a very dangerous weakness, especially in work - is that I don't always put in the effort to see something through to completion, especially when I'm tired. Maybe it's more of... I know that if I see the thing through, I'll be spending a lot of energy to hunt down every last detail and dangling bit.

I've done this a few times before and I felt very exhausted after that. So more often than not, if I don't deem it urgent, I'll just leave it for the next day.

I wonder how to resolve this issue, especially since wrapping things up to the very last bit takes a HUGE amount of energy out of me. Any advice on handling this weakness?

1 comment:

Robert said...

Hello bro,

just a tot - are you expending too much energy because you are looking for perfection? And you get upset that even though u have expended alot of energy, the silly project is still 'imperfect' cuz pple can still find amendments/improvements to it?

Just to share - I used to be like this too... I couldn't stand it when my boss edited my work cuz I would take it personally to mean that I had handed in a sub-standard piece of work and I was lousy etc... Until my boss reassured me that it's nearly impossible to hand in 'perfect' work, and we should do the work to the best of our ability... this does not mean we compromise on what needs to be done (e.g. checking for grammar and spelling errors, formatting and justifications for my work... hehe u know i 'write' for a living :p)

I guess what I'm saying is - if you're seeking for the 'perfect' piece of work, it's no wonder that you end up procrastinating since it will never be 'perfect' enough (i.e. chasing after every last detail and dangling bit). But if we already know that we have done our part to ensure that there are no longer basic errors (e.g. spelling etc which is fundamental because it shows the level of heart we put into our work) then we should be assured to hand it up, and above all, be open to suggestions and feedback (note the copious avoidance of the term 'criticism' haha) from our bosses.

And my suggestion is never to leave anything for tomorrow what can be finished today... because each new day brings new 'arrows and nukes and bullets' that you need to handle. If you spend today healing yesterday's wounds, your work today would always pile up for your tomorrow...