If you’re like me, you never know if you’ve done enough research. There’s always more to look at and, God bless us, we can’t help ourselves—we keep looking.
In school, in business, and in a law practice, due dates and deadlines come to our rescue. We “call a lid” because we have to get the work out the door—or else.
When there is no deadline imposed by a teacher, a client or court, however, it’s a different story.
How long have you been planning and researching that book or business project?. Exactly.
You never know when you’ve done enough research so you keep doing more, just in case.
Perfectionism? Self-doubt? Imposter syndrome? Call it by any name, but it boils down to our fear of making a mistake.
But we can’t spend our life in perpetual research. At some point we have to say, “enough”.
But how?
One way is to redefine the project or goal. Instead of doing enough research to write the book, for example, the task is to do enough research to START writing the book.
But that’s only a partial solution because you will inevitably see something that calls for you to do more research.
What then? How do you know when you’ve done enough?
You don’t. Not by any logical metric, anyway. You’re better off trusting your gut. When you feel pulled towards the finish line more than you feel pulled to doing more research, you go with that.
It’s your only option. Unless you’re prepared to hold yourself accountable to someone else. A partner, spouse, or friend—someone who won’t let you get away with endless research.
Someone who will kick your butt for you. Like your teacher, your client, or the court.
