I’m giving a workshop soon in Sioux Falls. It’s one I’ve done before, Build Your Digital Writing Toolbox. The most recent deck and materials, from Confab Higher Ed, were in pretty good shape. I cleaned up some typos and alignment issues, added presenter notes for things I was feeling rusty on, and — this is where the problem starts — I added one new slide. I didn’t have to add this slide. I’ve given the workshop plenty of times without it. But it’s for a tool I think this audience will find useful, and it connects nicely to other themes in the workshop. So I added it.
And now I’m losing my goddamn mind: I can’t find a good example for the slide. That’s the one little thing I need to call the deck, and all of my prep for this workshop, done.
I could put in text instead of an image.
I could create my own example.
I could drop the slide.
I could trust in the universe (and the various Slack channels where I’ve asked for help) to deliver an example to me before the workshop.
But I have it in my head that I want a real world example, and I can’t shake it, and it’s not done, and it’s driving me nuts.
This is that perfect storm of perfectionism and procrastination. Avoiding doing the work that would get it done in anticipation of finding a more perfect solution.
So I’m going to mark everything complete and move on. If an example finds its way to me, great. If I have to drop the slide or put text on it five minutes before my workshop, great. And if none of those things happen and I accidentally put a half-done slide on the screen, I’ll have a funny story to tell and a chance to plug my blog. The project might not be “done” in the GTD sense, but I’m done obsessing over it, and that’ll have to do.