Revision
Well, hello. This is The Daily 5 with Aurooba. That's me. Where we reflect on creating our best lives a little bit every day. Here we go.
Aurooba Ahmed:No city was built in a day. No single part of a city was built in a day either. And just like cool, complicated cities, works of art and other complicated things that I can't think of right now. Our work, whether it's a project, a report, or a simple task, need revision. I have this wall that I wallpapered recently, and I am trying to paint some gold stripes on it.
Aurooba Ahmed:First of all, I have not made enough progress on it, but those stripes, they don't look right, quite right with just 1 or 2 coats of paint. It's a very dark background, in order to get that metallic gold paint to really show up, I have to go back. I have to revise. I have to repaint, make more layers in order to make it look the way I want.
Aurooba Ahmed:Revision is important. I feel like I shouldn't have to give reasons why it's important, but I'm going to anyway, because perhaps not everyone realizes revision is important. Revision allows us to spot errors, inconsistencies, but most importantly, it allows us to improve areas that we may have missed in the 1st draft or a second draft.
Aurooba Ahmed:It's like cutting and polishing a gemstone, you know, the initial cut, it gives it the shape and then you might refine that cut more and then eventually you polish it. So that actually starts to shine in that way that we all recognize gemstones for.
Aurooba Ahmed:Besides fixing errors, revision is also an opportunity for, you know, just doing it better. It's our chance to go back, reflect on work and ask ourselves, how can this be better? And it's how, because you can always make things better, especially in complicated multi part work. But that's not all that revision is about.
Aurooba Ahmed:It's also about learning and growing.
Aurooba Ahmed:Every time we revise, we learn something new about our work, our methods, and even our own approach to doing things. And sometimes, you know, we learn something elsewhere and now we bring that back to this body of work and improve it. So it's not just about learning by looking at your own stuff again. It's about, hey, what else have I learned in the meantime that I can introduce into this body of work now? When you have to just finish something, you just have to finish it.
Aurooba Ahmed:But there is always value in revisiting something and revising it because it's in the fixing and the polishing where good becomes great or okay becomes good at the very least.
Aurooba Ahmed:In the moment, let's say you have only one day to do something, do something. Sometimes it's just the simple practice of stepping back and revisiting it after maybe an hour. And even that can make a pretty big difference in the quality of our work. And here's the thing, our work, the things we do, they are worth improving.
Aurooba Ahmed:I finally improved my technique for making a particular pilaf enough that it actually tastes like the dish I always intended to make. It took 2 years, I kid you not, but I got there.
Aurooba Ahmed:Not all periods of revision are going to be that long, of course, but what I'm saying is revision, improvement, attempting, attempting to do things better. It matters and it's worth it. Thanks for listening.
Aurooba Ahmed:Same time tomorrow.