This week was my sons last week of his school term. I found that many of his homework assignments were not turned in throughout the year.

When I confronted him about it he told me that he did not finish the homework all the way, so he did not turn it in. He told me that one of his teachers from the past told him to never turn in homework unless it is all the way done. This philosophy has been stuck in his head ever since. I ended up explaining to him that not turning in an assignment and getting no credit is much worse than turning in homework that is not all the way finished.

I told him that many times he might end up having a teacher that does not get back to him on all the details, or in some cases may not supply him with everything he needs to get a project done. Many times in work you will deal with a customer or client where you run into this issue. This is a time you improvise and do the best you can with the knowledge and resources you have.

Time is Not Renewable

Remember Time is not a renewable resource and is like wood or coal, once you use it up it is gone. There is always something more that can be done on a project. More tweaks and adjustments can be done to your design, more details to your work, additional proofing, alternatives to explore, more renders to run, etc..

If you’re anything like me, you will find yourself wanting perfection. You’ll think to yourself that if you can just get this one thing right, you can move onto the next stage. Remember most people will see the forest, when all you see is trees. As a professional in the field I have no choice but to keep a lid on the time I spend on a project because otherwise expenses outweigh income at the end of the month, which will put any company out of business , unless you’re the government, but we will not go there since we are not able to print our own money.

As I read somewhere you need to Embrace the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi. It’s a worldview that accepts transience and imperfection, pursuing beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.” In other words, imperfection is actually okay, don’t stress.