The problem with open ended

A huge benefit of focus and time blocking is that it helps counteract perfectionism.

Those of us who have tendencies towards perfectionism will be able to relate.

We can keep working on projects and never deliver them, ship them or press send.

And open-ended timelines are a perfectionist’s worst enemy. With more time, we can always tweak and improve what we are working on and this results in spending way more time on a single project than is optimal. In fact, we can end up in a situation where nothing is ever done because it is never perfect.

Perfectionism also prevents us from sharing our work out in the world where it might actually do some good rather than sit with us and endure endless iterations.

Do you know what I am talking about?

With time blocking we give ourselves a set time to work on something. Once the time is up, we have to say "good enough", "ship" the product, share the content and move on.

This way we can create much more content which may be of value to others rather than sit with us, drain our energy and be of no use to anyone.

So, are you ready to experiment with Time Blocking? You can start with blocking off just two hours to work on a single project and switch off all other distractions. It will take some discipline at the beginning but you may find yourself in flow and enjoying what you are doing.

And once you are done, it is time to move on to the next time block.