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Re:Sabotaging projects by overthinking, scope creep, and str... by jiggawatts on Friday April 24, 2026 @05:21PM (#47895963)
I have a crippling guilt about not keeping my apartment as spotlessly clean as my parents did theirs, to the point that I end up procrastinating, which just makes it worse.

The trick to overcoming this is not to aim for "clean" but for "cleaner than before".

Just keep chipping away at it, whether it is a messy codebase or a messy kitchen.

Re:Sabotaging projects by overthinking, scope creep, and str... by zoogeny on Friday April 24, 2026 @06:31PM (#47896623)
I use it for cleaning all the time. Whenever I have dishes, I always give myself permission to do as little as I want knowing that one clean dish is better than nothing. Most often I end up doing them all.

The other saying I say is "completion not perfection". That helps me in yard work especially. I'm not going for the cover shot of "Better Homes and Gardens", I just need the lawn to be cut.

Re:Sabotaging projects by overthinking, scope creep, and str... by Waterluvian on Friday April 24, 2026 @05:36PM (#47896103)
I call it “sweeping back the desert.”

The sand blows in endlessly. You don’t aim for a pristine, sandless land. But you can’t ignore it or it takes over.

I’ll just pick up a few things and ferry them towards their “home.” Or go do a small amount of yard work. Etc.

Re:Sabotaging projects by overthinking, scope creep, and str... by YZF on Saturday April 25, 2026 @01:24AM (#47898890)
weeding the garden is another analogy.