By Y K Gupta Updated on April 19, 2020
In the process of producing high quality work, you have to produce enough work to reach at a minimum threshold level.
This initial work which you produce in order to reach at a minimum threshold level will be your first step in the necessary three steps of producing high quality work.
What prevents you from producing high quality work is that, when you want to start any project you are so obsessed with, you witness a unique phenomenon that sometimes is very disheartening to you.
And the phenomenon is that the initial results fall short of your expectations. They aren’t good enough up to your satisfaction. And you give up without even showcasing your work before the outside world.
Your inner critic raises its ugly head and tells you that you can’t do it. It insists that your work is not good enough to be showcased before the outside world.
What to do now? The answer is not to give up. Instead, say the inner critic to please shut up!
And keep doing work!
I have discussed a wonderful time management technique to help you improving your productivity without feeling stressed, in my article- Improve Your Productivity with Pomodoro Technique.
The thresh hold level for producing high quality work
If you continue to keep doing the work you initially intended to do, you will certainly come to the level which is called the thresh hold level. This is the level which is the stepping stone for start producing high quality work.
Here the idea is to produce enough work to reach up to this level and treat it just a stepping stone, the threshold, the station in the journey, from where you start producing high quality work and ultimately master level work.
As without reaching at this thresh hold level; you cannot reach to the master level, it is an unavoidable process, a no escape process.
If you want to produce anything worthwhile, then your real challenge and of course joy, starts from this thresh hold level onward. However, for getting even up to this level, you have to put in some work, you have to get started.
I am going to elaborate the process further for you which will bring some more clarity to the subject.
Success in any endeavor has three phases. It is a three steps process and you just cannot escape any of these –
First step is producing enough work to reach at a threshold level
The first step of this three steps of producing High Quality Work is getting started, don’t be afraid of committing mistakes, in the process of getting mastery , you are bound to commit some mistakes.
The real mistake is not, committing mistakes while learning, but the real mistake is to get disheartened and stop learning and improving. Most people give up at this level, even worse a few will never get started to realize their dreams.
Reaching to this thresh hold level is the stage from where you as well as people around you start realizing the visible improvements easily.
Never be your own judge
Please never be a judge of your own work. Showcase your work to outside world and let them judge!
You will be surprised to know, when you showcase your work to the world, your work which you have considered is not good enough has been well received and the work you were so proud of, doesn’t get the response you anticipated.
Second step for producing high quality work is showcasing your work
As most people give up at the level of first step itself. So they never reach to the second level where you show case your work to the outside world.
However, those who reach up to the second step, journey is still not smooth to them. Yet they need to dare to show case their work to the outside world. And lo and behold, you already knew, it will happen.
The most dreaded non acceptance, discouragement and even some people around ridiculing you. I have further discussed how to avoid such people in my article-Don’t allow anyone to steal your happiness.
Don’t get discouraged now, as you have already completed almost two third of the journey. Just listen to the positive criticism and shun the naysayers.
Watch this wonderful video which has already attracted 7.8 M views, how well it portrays the fact that pain is temporary and greatness lasts forever –
So, don’t quit now. Remember how much pain you already have endured to reach up to this level. Quitting now will leave emotional scars of failure in your mind effecting how well you feel, which in turn, will affect your happiness and your self esteem adversely.
And therefore, right choice is not giving up at this advance stage but to keep improving with every passing day, continuing the good work and showcasing it again and again to the world.
Third step is keep on practicing and producing high quality work
Congratulations! If you have crossed these two stages, the real fun begins now on. At this third level, you don’t listen to nay Sayers, keep on practicing, keep on improving and keep on doing the work you love so much.
Suddenly you as well as world at large start realizing your potentials and starts respecting your work.
Once you have achieved high quality standards personally, you can also spread the highly developed culture of quality in your organization. Read this article- Creating a Culture of Quality – the research based scholarly article published in Harvard Business Review.
This article beautifully discusses how an organization with a highly developed culture of quality spends significantly less on fixing mistakes than an organization with a poorly developed culture of quality.
So, now you are through. You are a transformed person now, who has undergone the process, now you are not deterred even if somebody pours some occasional negative feed backs. You continue your work, passionately striving for the mastery.
I have further elaborated this phenomenon in my article -How to Attain Expertise in Your Field Part I and Part II, read here and here.
And here are some more tips for producing high quality work
- For producing high quality work, prioritize your work at least one day before you intend to do it.
- Do it in writing. As when we write something it results in ideas coming out from our mind to the realm of reality. As our mind imparts more importance to written instructions rather than cloudy thoughts whole day. For how to prioritize your goals read my article- 5/25 rule of Warren Buffett.
- For producing high quality work follow your passion. Do the work you love. If for paying your bills you are stuck in some job you don’t like then either find some other job or start loving what you are doing. But don’t continue to do the job which you dislike.
- For producing high quality work go for the deliberate practice. Deliberate practice basically means that when you are doing a task your entire focus or attention should be on the work in hand.
- For producing high quality work you have to work distraction free. You can learn further about deliberate practice by reading my article- how to attain expertise in your chosen field.
- For producing really high quality outstanding work you will certainly need a teacher/mentor/coach. If you can’t find it immediately until then make Google your mentor. I mean take the help of internet. Go for the online courses, classes and articles available at the internet.
- In order to make the work manageable break the task in doable chunks and keep an eye on daily improvement.
- Don’t repeat your mistakes. Learn from your mistakes, correct them and produce improved work next time. Keep repeating the process. To learn more about this concept read my article- how to learn anything in 20 hours.
For producing high quality work in abundance use pomodoro technique
- For producing high quality work in abundance use pomodoro technique. The pomodoro technique basically is a method where you work in small chunks of time but distraction free and fully focused on the task in hand.
- One pomodoro is of duration of 25 minutes and after every pomodoro of 25 minutes you get a rest for 5 minutes. And after completion of every 4 pomodoro of 25 minutes each you can take rest for 15 to 30 minutes. For learning more about the pomodoro technique read my article- how to improve your productivity with pomodoro technique.
Don’t get deterred by occasional pitfalls
Yes, as I warned you before, there will be disappointments, there will be discouragements and you may feel like giving up.
Whenever you feel like giving up remember, you are not the only person in the world to whom this is happening. Rather it happens to every person who wants to do anything worthwhile.
I repeat, these three steps is a process and nobody can escape this process. Trying to escape the process is like deciding to live a mediocre or below average life without ever doing a worthy thing.
So, right now is the time to take action. Just start working towards your dreams! Start the process now, one step at a time of this three steps process of producing high quality work.
Good luck!
Y K Gupta
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