“I don’t believe in draining the reservoir, do you see? I believe in getting up from the typewriter, away from it, while I still have things to say.”
Henry Miller, via MoveMe Quotes
Finishing before you’re done is a hat-tip to the next session. It’s a gesture of goodwill passed on to your future self. It’s a recommitment to the process rather than an overcommitment to the moment. It comes from the understanding that burnout is real, overworking is counterproductive, replenishing the reservoir takes time, and overcoming the resistance to get back to work never gets easier. It’s a conscious decision to leave some fuel in the tank and to walk away before you’ve completely exhausted your resources so that the next time, you can arrive more ready.
And that’s exactly how it works for me. It happens often that I finish my daily writing and don’t feel done. I get urges to further proofread; to elaborate; to shorten; to rework analogies; to think of better opening and closing lines—and all, of course, right before I hit the publish button! But, rather than deplete all that I have, I save that excess energy for the next one. I recommit to my pace and set myself up for success the next day.
“Done,” for me, isn’t when I have nothing left to give—it’s when I have something good enough to share.
To which you might reply: the enemy of excellence is “good enough.” Be that as it may, what you also must consider is that the enemy of making progress is needing perfection. The need for a perfect writing entry; a perfect workout session; a perfect rehearsal; a perfect drawing; a perfect production—is precisely what’s going to make finishing and repeating the process impossible to do. Don’t confuse a desire for excellence with an unattainable aim at perfection.
This is why I usually stop my workouts once I’ve reached my 70% limit. It’s why I stopped trying to do too much with daily videos, pictures, and audio and decided to focus primarily on text. It’s why I’m able to walk away from my writing once I’ve crossed the threshold from crap to good enough and don’t bother trying for perfect. It’s also why I’m able to keep showing up day-in and day-out and why I usually don’t miss—because I don’t believe in draining the reservoir, do you see?