Set An Output Schedule

There’s a reason Lorne Michaels is the most-nominated individual in Emmy history. With Saturday Night Live, one of the longest-running television shows ever on-air, Michaels has accomplished something that very few entertainers ever do: sustained creative excellence.

The secret to his success lies in his consistent delivery schedule, captured succinctly in a pithy quote that countless SNL collaborators have publicly referenced. As Lorne says, “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; the show goes on because it’s 11:30pm on Saturday.”

Having invoked Michaels’ counterintuitive wisdom myself, multiple times this week, I can see why so many of his writers and actors recite it almost as a mantra: perfectionism runs deep in our veins! The desire to make it perfect is so deeply engrained that, if it weren’t for absurd deadlines, we’d probably never actually ship anything.

Instead, we’d polish our work to oblivion.

I’ve discovered that what’s true of SNL is true of a book — it could always be better! And my tendency is to think, “There’s no way this thing can go to print! It can be so much better!” And yet, the editorial calendar looms large, and I’ve found myself strangely comforted to know that the secret to one of the most celebrated creative efforts of the modern era isn’t perfection, but shipping consistently, on time, no matter how “ready” it feels.

I’ve felt this dozens of times before, while writing blog posts — where I’ve learned firsthand the immense value of an output commitment — but I believe Michaels’ aphorism applies equally to a book: “The book doesn’t go to print because it’s ready; it goes to print because it’s the publication date.”

I was talking with very successful author earlier today, someone who’s written more than ten highly regarded books, and I tested this theory on her. She told me, “An author feeling ‘It’s not ready yet’ is completely normal. Everyone feels this way. In fact, I’ve never put something out that felt ready. There’s never a point that it feels perfect.”

Here’s to that wondrous creative catalyst, the deadline.

Related: Set An Absurd Deadline
Related: Make An Output Commitment

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