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Quality versus quantity – how much should you work?

So, lately, I’ve grown an obsession for a specific youtuber and if you’re into learning how to start your business/productivity tips, then you should check him out as well. I’ve been binge-watching (and listening) to Ali Abdaal. A bit of background on him, he’s a young (ex) doctor, a business guru and a productivity nerd. I absolutely LOVE his videos and what he teaches. One of the things he talks about is quality vs. quantity and I found it incredibly interesting being an (almost) perfectionist myself.

So he talks about this quality vs. quantity concept where he says that one shouldn’t worry about quality in the beginning stages of their business. Whether it be writing, graphic design, video production, etc… What you SHOULD be doing is focusing on quantity.

For example, I have this blog, if you’ve noticed, there has been a pretty big gap in time between my previous posts because I kept second guessing myself and re-thinking posts thinking no one will be interested in what I’ve got to say but then after watching his videos, I realised, if I’m thinking and wondering about what I’m thinking about, there are over 7 billion people in the world, I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering so I’ve set this goal for myself of (trying) to put out at least 1 post a week even if I can only write for half an hour or an hour a day. By doing this, not only am I putting out the value I have to offer straight to you and hopefully help you out in some way, shape or form; but, and the purpose of quantity vs. quality, I get to practice and continue to practice and improve on my craft.

Ali described this concept as well here (to read the whole article, check it out here):

There was once a pottery teacher called Brian. One month, he decided to split his class into two groups. Group A had to make a pot every day for 30 days (so 30 pots in total). Group B had to work on a single pot for the whole 30 days. At the end of the month, Brian judged the quality of the pots. Without exception, every one of the top 10 pots came from Group A, the guys that made one pot per day. None came from the group that focused on perfecting their single pot.’

Parable of the Pottery Class (adapted from the book Art & Fear

So the lesson here is when you’re first starting out with anything, no matter what it is, stop expecting perfection to come out right from the beginning. Nobody becomes an expert as soon as they pick something up, it takes time, it takes effort. Even if it’s 15 minutes a day, practice and keep plugging away and eventually it will happen.

This is a much shorter post than my last for sure but I really really wanted to write this post because I feel like it’s important for people, especially as women and even moreso, as moms, to understand that we can’t always be perfect but if we work hard enough for it, we can achieve anything as long as we keep on trying — I am typing this post with my 1 month old daughter in my lap and my 2 year old son sleeping in bed in front of me so, if I can do it, so can you!

And check out my last post about writing here!

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