Finish The Job Without Finishing Yourself
The compulsion to perfect a project can lead a person to ignore the clock--and a lot else.
Maybe it’s the fear of letting myself down or my work not being accepted by the rest of the world. It’s probably that once I hit that 100% point, I will have actualized my vision and it may not live up to what I saw in my head months ago when I started working on this. There are no more excuses like “I’ll get to that later” or “the final version won’t look like that.” It’s done.The trick is getting yourself to finish that last 10%. That’s where the magic happens; the part where you finish those little details that separate good work from great work.
Matt Birchler on his blog.
Soon billing extra hours became my primary focus, and I decided it was time to get my own prescription. Instead of realizing that the job was not for me, I was blinded by the professionalism I felt working in a Manhattan law firm. And I wasn’t about to fail at what I considered to be the cornerstone of the New Me, a successful, independent woman.
Kate Miller in The New York Times