Doechii made her mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, in a month. She says, “If I sit with art for too long, I start to overthink. Then you start over editing. Suddenly you can find yourself with a completely different picture. That’s why I set a hard time limit. I told myself: ‘Whatever I get done by then is whatever it’s going to be.’”

What a powerful lesson: to accept the limits that time will allow. You need constraints and structures like this to channel creative energy—which tends to be obsessive—into something constructive. 

Sure, maybe the work could have benefited from more time (or money, or focus, or something else!), but the missed potential is nothing to be ashamed of.