“Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems” – James Somers°
The obvious benefit to working quickly is that you’ll finish more stuff per unit time. But there’s more to it than that. If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will seem lower in your mind. So you’ll be inclined to do more.
[…] Time is especially valuable. So as we learn that a task is slow, an especial cost accrues to it. Whenever we think of doing the task again, we see how expensive it is, and bail.
That’s why speed matters.
[…] The prescription must be that if there’s something you want to do a lot of and get good at—like write, or fix bugs—you should try to do it faster.
That doesn’t mean be sloppy. But it does mean, push yourself to go faster than you think is healthy.
[…] Being fast is fun. If you’re a fast writer, you’ll constantly be playing with new ideas. You won’t be bogged down in a single dread effort. And because your to-do list gets worked off, you’ll always be thinking of more stuff to add to it.
I have a tendency to try and perfect things and do them too well. ‘Good enough’ is something I need to say way more often.
I’ve known that for a while. But what this article made me realise is that if I am faster – and tasks are less arduous – I might be more likely to start tasks. And struggling to start tasks is something I severely suffer from daily.
I’m going to start right now, in fact.
I have blog post I drafted earlier. I’m not going to perfect it. Instead I’m going to set myself a 15 minute timer and get it published.
Update: I did it.