Reason #1

I'm not a problem solver

Instead, I pride myself on being a problem avoider. That means thinking through the best approach to each job before putting pen to paper. Following processes that have been proven to promote efficiency and accuracy. Avoiding the pressure to parallel-track things that clearly should be done linearly. And always asking the question, "Are we really saving time by taking a shortcut up front... or are we going to spend twice as much time making it right later on?”

Look, I've been in this business long enough to know that tight timelines and late-in-the-game audibles are going to happen. And when they do, we deal with them. But I think we tend to compound our own misery by falling into some of the bad habits I mentioned above. When Crisis Mode becomes Status Quo, we’re doing ourselves—and our clients—a profound disservice.

Reason #2

I'm not very big on multitasking

It’s simple math, really: If you’re doing 2 things at once, you’re not giving either one 100%. Sure, you may be able to check more boxes throughout the day if you’re answering emails during the input meeting, or writing a manuscript in the back room at market research. But at the end of the day, you haven't done any of those jobs to the best of your ability. Don’t we owe our clients at least that much?

Reason #3

I'm prone to thinking small

I believe no detail is too insignificant to deserve my best effort. And I'll never feel as though any task is "beneath me." Pawning off referencing on an editor or junior writer so I can move on to something more glamorous? Not my style. I'd much rather see the whole process through, from initial concept through MedReg approval. Some might say that makes me a control freak. But I just feel it's the best way to cultivate the intimate, 360-degree knowledge I need to do my job as well as possible.

"Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree

and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe."

— Abraham Lincoln

“There is time enough for everything in the course of the day,

if you do but one thing at once. But there is not time enough in the year if you will do two things at a time."

— Lord Chesterfield

"Excellence is sanctuary. I have never been stressed

or upset after I did something perfectly.

It's when I half-ass it that I grow a tumor."

— Christopher Titus