Piece By Piece | A #SHITT Status Update
Words by JEREMY/HI54LOFI
So Here Is The Thing (SHITT) about the current 'unfinished-until-it-is-finished' status of the HIGH FIVE FOR re--build-whatever that was started all the way back in January 2018.
One of the many challenges of building your own website is finding the perfect balance between trying to get everything "perfect" and realizing it's impossible to get *anything* perfect. There are just too many moving pieces, and you can't afford to get caught-up obsessing over PIECE 005 (especially since PIECE 005 is going to change once PIECE 043 gets finished, but you can't start PIECE 043 until PIECE 017 is done). Queue favourite song about pieces:
I'm finding this especially true when, instead of building a new website from scratch, one decides to blow up an existing project that's been running for year and then rummaging through all the rubble to sort out which pieces can be reformatted & reused, which pieces can be recycled into something new, and which pieces need to be chucked directly into the sea.
Choosing that path really adds to the overall tally of pieces that need to be dealt with right from the start, which can get a bit overwhelming and does no favours for your anxiety.
< "I loved the book Anne, but where did the title for 'Bird By Bird' come from?" >
So Here Is The Thing (#SHITT)… don't even try to get everything perfect (and this does not just apply to website builds).
Instead, find that sweet point of "I feel like this is not the worst thing in the world" and "It's not logical for me to spend anymore time on this right now" and then tie a bow on it for now and move on to the next thing. Where that "sweet point" is for you will vary with practice, so as long as you constantly remind yourself that you can come back and make edits anytime you want, you'll be golden. Also, nobody else cares and it’s hard enough to get people to notice you even when you’re trying to get them to notice you.
Because no matter how perfect you think you can get something before finally letting it be seen, whether it be shown to one person or 100, as soon as it is shown to someone else you'll see some more changes that are needed. And they'll be the kind of edits that can only materialize once the possibility of someone else seeing your work has become a reality. So stop trying to get it perfect and just let it out into the wild already. Coming back to make adjustments is not just totally possible, it can become an important part of your process.
But don't take my word for it, smartr people than I tweet about this stuff too.
Anyways, I guess all of that was just to say: The current version of the HIGH FIVE FOR rebuild is not finished. At most, we are somewhere along the road where STAGE 1 has handed off the baton to STAGE 2.
THE HI54 RE-WHATEVER PLAN
STAGE 1: Using features from the old HI54LOFI blog that you want to keep using, put together a functional "good enough for now" version of the website so you can start testing things in the real world.
STAGE 2: Using the "STAGE 1" version of the website, start creating new content while also continuing to re-format old content. Try to figure out the right amount of effort you want to put into social media (ie. avoid getting to the point where you want to shoot yourself in the Facebook). Also, continue getting more features/sections to a "good enough for now" status and integrate them into the site. Make edits and adjustments and re-writes as needed.
STAGE 3: Wait for Stage 2 to finish in order to come up with the plan for the next stage, but the idiot in charge of Stage 2 duties is also “stage two-ing” 2 other sites at the same time (this + that).
There you have it: this is where things are currently at, and maybe that ‘currently’ will just become an eternally. And I’m ok with that (as I’m starting to realize that everything is a work in progress and everybody is just making things up as they go, even if most folks will stubbornly never admit it).
So please help yourself to a poke around the current version of the site, and if you have any questions or comments or et cetera, please feel free to holler on whatever medium you prefer hollering on.
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