It Feels Great To Do Little

I can’t remember a single time in the past when completing less than 10% on any job would leave me with a true feeling of satisfaction. I think it is natural for most of us to focus on the 90% that is still undone, instead of then 10% completed. But ignoring whatever progress has been made can steal our motivation to continue work.

If properly done, tracking the progress of large tasks(those that take many days or weeks) can be very rewarding and can create a sense of accomplishment along the way.

The journey is the destination. I need to learn to focus on the process more than the outcome. Today, I started to keep track of a new project: compiling all the flash-fiction stories that I wrote daily last year for “101 Tales of Future.”

Somehow, making progress in this log feels like accomplishment already:

I set myself a goal to compile and review all stories in 12 weeks. Each line of the log is a week. After months of procrastination, I’ve started on this project and made as much progress in one day as I thought I would in a whole week.

Note: It was Austin Kleon who inspired me to make this log. In his blog he shows and explains his method for his Newspaper Blackout Poems Book Calendar.

Update Day #4

Update Day #12