You may have heard of the Done Manifesto. It is a productivity creed that suggests that perfection is not necessary and that there should not be an editing stage (among other things).
While this will lead to getting through your to-do list faster, we are not sure if we completely agree with skipping an editing stage, pretending you know what you are doing and not working toward perfection. What do you think?
The Done Manifesto:
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.
You can download an A3 PDF of the Done Manifesto here: The Done Manifesto
What are your thoughts on the Done Manifesto?
I’ve spent most of my adult life as an editor, which means I’d like to take out my red pen and strike a line through item 3.
Otherwise, it’s an interesting idea.
Most jobs can be completed to within 15% to be enough. But there are some things which close enough is not good enough.