Saturday, 22 December 2012

Perfectionism Prevents Action

This line caught my eye when I was reading the book Promodoro Technique Illustrated.
Perfectionism prevents action. Waiting until you have devised the perfect solution to something is merely a form of procrastination. Procrastination is not an option in the Pomodoro Technique. You just go ahead and get started on a Pomodoro, and you don’t have to worry about being “totally perfect.” Winding up the clock and putting in 25 minutes of effort will reward you with being able to write an X and then take a break.
I feel that this has been plaguing me in terms of coding, and maybe other things. Before I start writing code, I spent a lot of time thinking about what is the best way of the doing that, what kind of design patterns I should use, what is the most efficient way etc. I think this is not entirely bad, but I should also limit the time spending on those kind of thinking. Sometimes I feel really torn between certain design choices and couldn't make up my mind. I think during these situations, I should just pick one action and proceed. Some of the indecisiveness may be due to my inexperience. By picking a course of action and moving on, I will later discover whether this choice is good or not. Even though I may redo certain things, along the way I'm also learning and gaining experience. After all, this may just take the same amount of time as pure thinking and speculating.