Horse Sense

"Learning to stop is an ultimate exercise in patience; the urge to continue includes a big component of impatience about not being finished, about not being productive enough, about never again finding such an ideal time for writing.  Stopping is also an exercise in building confidence and trust; without establishing enough self-esteem to stop midstream we deprive ourselves of chances to find confidence and control.  And, finally, learning to stop is a fundamental exercise in time management.  The most difficult but fundamental lesson about time use is learning that important tasks (especially those we tend to delay) can be carried out most efficiently in brief, regular periods."

--Robert Boice, How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency: A Psychological Adventure (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994), p. 33.

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