perfectionism

I hold myself to very high standards, particularly when it comes to my work and my education. It means a lot to me that I do quality work. My perfectionism does not extend to my family and friends usually, except that it is also important to me to be on time. I hate being late, it causes me a great deal of stress. In fact, in many situations, I prefer to arrive much earlier than what is actually necessary, just to avoid the stress. Some of my friends have been subjected to that, and I thank you all for your tolerance. :-)

This week, I deliberately turned in something late for my class.

I did try to get my blog done by Friday at 5 p.m. I did not get the topic until Monday morning and I worked on it on-and-off all week. No procrastination here (though I have been guilty of that in many past courses). I use Word when I'm working on my draft and only publish to the blog when I'm ready. However, I had my brother visiting from Tuesday evening until today. His presence, while welcome, also was a bit distracting in terms of getting my work done.

On top of that, it was actually a very intellectually challenging topic for me. I kept running into mental roadblocks. I took my laptop to work on Friday and worked on it at lunch to try to fit it in before the deadline, and while I did get more accomplished, it was in no way ready to be submitted for a grade.

So, Friday afternoon, I put a note on my blog saying that I did not have it complete and would post it by the end of the weekend. See, we lose 2 pts (out of 10) if we turn it in late, and she absolutely will not accept a post turned in after Sunday. I tried working on it some more on Saturday, but still ran into the same mental blocks.

Finally, late last night, I figured out how I could get around the biggest mental block. I also decided that I would start again from scratch today. I spent a few more hours on it today, using a little bit of what I had previously written, but probably 2/3 was all new. I finally submitted it at 3:30 p.m.

Yes, it is important to me to do things on time. I cannot think of the last time I turned in an assignment late, but it probably dates back to high school or even earlier.

But it is also important to me to do things right. I would rather lose points for timeliness than to lose points for content. Here's hoping I get an 8/10. :-)