(Music-matching!)
When is enough, enough?
It is a question that has been brought to my mind quite a few times in the last few months. I guess it always happens. The need to stop, the need to finish. When you’re in a creative process or in a project, there is always the need to finish —it has to be. You have to draw the line somewhere. Usually, that is given by your boss, the project’s scope, or if it cannot be another way, a deadline. Looking at the other side, if the project is personal, things change. You’re your own boss; you determine your project scope —a scope that you regularly extend cause you’re in love with your little baby— and deadlines tend to be blurry.
That is precisely what happened to me when writing this letter. The only constant is the deadline, marked by the weekly frequency. Some weeks I feel like writing, or I have pretty clear the topic I want to talk about. Some others, things get messy, I’m traveling or with friends or simply not inspired cause the week has been awful, and I feel I don’t have anything interesting to tell. I’m tired of writing by impulses and without structure. I’d like to have a few issue types and a bit of a backlog to deliver structured quality content that follows a system. I’m tired of writing in a rush to deliver on time each Saturday —and with that and all, I’ve skipped two in these months. Sorry. I’m tired of prematurely drawing the line because of the deadline, constantly feeling that I’m sending an unfinished publication that cannot capture all of the thoughts and nuances I want to imprint.
This is the 10th issue. Round and beautiful number, and the perfect number to take a little break.
It has been a great experiment. I’ve reinforced my taste for writing, and it seems that you enjoy reading it too. Now I have a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t. I also know better what I want to write about and the time it takes me to complete a piece without that feeling of force-ending.
Thank you for being part of this test run. See you soon in the second concept iteration.
And you? Do you know when enough is enough? Do you know when it is time to finish? When is time to stop working, or stop parting and going home, or stop meeting someone, or stop reading, or stop worrying, or stop asking? Do you?
If so, you can tell me by replying to this mail or leaving a comment on the web version. If not, you can also tell me. During the break, my inbox will still be open for you —always. You can reach me at tu@josealbertolab.com
Y esto no es un adiós, es un hasta luego.
¡Hasta luego!