Bre Pettis, cofounder of NYC Resistor and MakerBot Industries, writes about making things and finishing projects.
HN commenters repeatedly cite his Cult of Done Manifesto as a useful guide to beating procrastination and perfectionism.
From "The Cult of Done Manifesto":
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.
http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html
Some no nonsense anti- procrastination/perfectionism tips:
Structured Procrastination
http://www.structuredprocrastination.com
The Cult of Done Manifesto
http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html
Merlin Mann on Doing Creative Work
http://www.maximumfun.org/sound-young-america/maxfuncon-merlin-mann-doing-creative-work-sound-young-america
Beating The Little Hater
http://www.podtech.net/home/4760/beating-the-little-hater
Ze Frank on Executing Ideas Vs "Brain Crack"
http://lifehacker.com/5142776/ze-frank-on-executing-ideas-vs-brain-crack
Yep, I think this was just on HN recently: http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html
I hadn't realized how accurately that describes my productive/unproductive periods.
Obligatory ref: http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html
(Bre Pettis is a cofounder of the NYC Resistor hackerspace, and of MakerBot Industries)
Im amazed that the answer pointing to "the cult of done manifesto" was downvoted!! ( http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html )