i’m learning the value of creating consistent “work” – whatever you define work to be.

for me right now, the daily work i’m making myself produce is

one – writing a blog post in everyday in less than 1h.  this includes figuring out what i want to say to the world, formulating my idea and thoughts.  writing the post, finding an appropriate photograph i’ve taken that helps with that particular post, editing it, and watermarking it with my new stories worth telling watermark

two – checking in and doing my podcast homework for my stories worth telling podcast.

i’ve realised that i work best under pressure.  i’m not disorganised.. but i’m the sort of person that will want to try and perfect whatever i’m working on and use up my maximum allocated time to produce that piece of work.  and sometimes i might even overwork things.  i was watching this episode of masterchef, where one contestant was smoothing out the side of her cake in a cooking challenge and despite the rest of her friends telling her to stop, she kept going… to the point where she overworked it.  after a certain point of time, it actually got worse the more time she spent fiddling with that cake.  i’ve realised that spending double the time on something doesn’t necessarily double the quality of the end product.

to lead others, you first have to lead yourself.  and to do that, you need to know yourself – and that includes how you work, what produces the best work in you.   i have the tendency to let my need for perfectionism override taking action to completing something.  so setting myself a deadline works… even if it is an artificial deadline for only my own benefit.

another thing i found that helps me be my most productive is to set myself three goals everyday. three non-negotiable goals.  as i spent most of my time working from home, i need to be self accountable.

but don’t take this from me – check out seth godin’s blog post on this.

speaking of seth, i kinda got a thrill today when he replied to a forum post of mine… and i was actually speaking on this same topic on this blog post.  his reply of “go, go, go!” probably sums this blog post.  i found that as i did podcast homework every day, i was forced to give up my perfectionism bit by bit… due to the sheer pace of this course and keeping up with the daily homework we are allocated!

keep showing up!!  just like the rowers in this photograph who regularly practice together.  let’s encourage each other to keep showing up… and i have no doubt that the world will be a much better place as a result!

#keepshowingup