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Friday, October 19, 2012

Input Sabbatical

I love ideas.  New ideas, new concepts, new perspectives.  Innovation and invention are my drugs and, like any good addict, I've invested a lot of time and energy into getting my fixes.  But also like any drug, too much can do you harm.

Lately, I've found myself in that very position.  For a while I've been riding a great "high" of ideas.  My notebooks are overflowing and it seem as though every project I have has a buffet of new thoughts or directions to choose from.  It's been fun, it's been exciting, but it's become overwhelming- paraylyzing even.  I'm unable to get anything closed out, or move anything forward, because the vision, or the path keeps changing.

So I had to stop.  I had to stop reading my blogs, my Twitter feed, and anything else that I normally turned to for inspiration.  I need to back off the new ideas.  Because the ideas I already had need to ship.  Remember- if you don't ship, you're not accomplishing anything.  Many good ideas have died in wait because we wouldn't ship until it's perfect.

So I took an idea sabbatical.  Instead of finding new ways, new ideas, and new perspectives, I'm focusing on shipping what I have.

Because we can always improve it later.  It can be refined, improved, or polished down the line.  If you wait for perfect to ship, you never will.

So if you're finding youself overwhelmed and falling behind because you keep refining the process, consider an idea sabbatical.  Block out the new ideas just long enough to ship the ones you have.  You have to clean your plate before you go back for more.

(PS- that's not permission to ship something sub-par and clean it up later.  Standards still matter.  This is about how ideas evolve.  Quality still matters.)

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