Jeff Wang Blog

When I look at my procrastination self, I can’t help but parallel it with my perfectionism.

Why do I procrastinate so much?

Well, probably because I don’t want to do accounting. But those are mundane rudimentary tasks.

Why do I procrastinate on creative things? Like writing longer essays, or start drafting ideas for a future book, or learning more magic, or reading books, or starting a podcast or YouTube channel?

I procrastinate on these things because I fear my inability to be perfect. I’m afraid to perform new magic tricks for the first time because I know there will be many flaws: I’ve never done this illusion in public! But how did I ever perfect the routines I currently do? I haven’t perfected them, but I sure as hell am way more confident to perform them than I would with new tricks.

I’m afraid to start a podcast because I know the first episode will be terrible. And I want it to be perfect. So instead of starting the podcast, I just think about starting it. I imagine how all the parts will come together to make sure the first episode is perfect.

And I can’t write long form blog posts. These shorter ones give me room to have error and quickly fix. If I write too long of a post, then there are too many potential opportunities for error and imperfection.

Here is my downfall: nothing will ever be perfect.

If I have a perfectionism mindset when approaching creative tasks like magic, writing, poetry, and content creating, then my procrastination self will control me. I’ll be stuck in a rut forever.

Perfection does not exist in creative fields.

It does in accounting. Because you can’t be creative in accounting. Oh ya, let’s just be creative and add a couple zeros here to my bank account statement. So yes, in objective fields, there are “perfect” ways of completing tasks.

But if I continue to procrastinate on the things that truly matter to me, and continue to only beg for perfection, then I’ll never be able to create quality art.

I’ve written 405 daily blog posts. That’s insane. I can maybe recall only a handful of really good posts off memory. Most of my posts are mediocre at best. Nowhere near perfection. But at least I haven’t procrastinated on my writing these posts. At least I’ll have gotten the bad content out of my system, leaving me more room for the good stuff. 

If you want to achieve perfection, then prepare to procrastinate indefinitely.