Just checking the box

Are you doing good work, or are you just checking the box?

If your work is definitive and does not need to connect with another human, checking the box might be good enough. If your work needs to connect with other humans and you only “check the box” you might as well have not done anything at all.

Doing good work one time is more important than doing mediocre-to-bad work one hundred times.

Stop just checking the box. Find a way to do better work. Find a way to be more authentic. Find a way to make a genuine connection with a little bit of work.

It’s 2025. No more checked boxes for the sake of marking a task finished. Do good work.

The order of things

If you’re ever truly alone, doing the right thing is always the right thing. However, if there is any level of cooperation with anything other than yourself, we need to do the right thing and we need to do it the right way.

If you work with a team and you get the job done, great. If you get the job done by running over everyone on the team, not so great. The correct order of things in any collaborative environment is to do the right thing the right way. That is the way to success. Find the right thing and the right process and do it over and over again. (Worry about innovating only after you’ve earned some influence and respect.)

To love the process

When it’s over, I’m practically never satisfied with the result. It’s remarkable. I can spend weeks working on something and when I deliver, I fixate on the things I think I should have done better.

It robs me of the joy I should feel. Also, this is the mentality that drives me to always be better. I love the process. I love doing the work. Part of me doesn’t care if any results come. The results are only proof that I did some kind of work–hopefully well.

I’m ever working to fall further in love with the process and even like the bits I don’t like.

It doesn’t bring much joy, but it does bring balance and a sense of giving what I can and doing my absolute best at all times.