Learn to taste the frog

In the last week, I spend most of my free time rewriting the static site generator for this website. It has been a fun and, in some sense, necessary project. The static site generator was the first project I wrote in Rust, and the way I organised it was a mess in several ways. Applying what I learned about software engineering over the last year to restructure it will make it much easier to implement some ideas I have for this blog. But doing it right now has been nothing but a big distraction. Everything I want to implement for my website, I could have tried out without changing anything about the generator. And even then, trying out these new projects are mostly a distraction from some private things I've been procrastinating on for a long time.

I know the way out. Answering the question "What is the one thing I could do right now that makes everything else easier or unnecessary?" and planning in longer timeframes. Looking for the projects or tasks that have the highest impact. Instead, I'm procrastinating by optimising systems that aren't the bottleneck. Because it's more fun. And because they don't have an impact, I can't fail when I work on them. They don't put me on the hook. Optimising these systems isn't essential. It is a waste of time.

Even though optimising these systems is a waste of time, there's still value in doing it. Most and foremost, it's fun to do. And time you enjoy wasting isn't wasted time. But it's not the same as doing the necessary work. Even if it's related to your project you're working on, and it has some productive qualities, it's a diversion. Focusing on the fun, but non-essential aspects of your project are the traits of being an amateur, and a hobbyist. There's nothing wrong with being a hobbyist. But if you want to be a professional, these projects don't lead you anywhere.

I believe one thing that every successful creative has is the ability to find the most important thing and to execute on it. However uncomfortable it might seem. Sometimes, this quality is described as eating the frog. It involves a lot of discipline and delayed gratification.

And there's only one way to learn liking the taste of frog. You just have to eat it.