In Pursuit of Excellence

I’m going to start by apologising for this sounding so conceited; I hope my point comes across OK.
I am trying to finish my most recent commission, I told myself I would finish today. Did I? No way. Why? Design tweaking. In my desire to create something fresh for my clients I try not to give the same design over and over again. I won’t recreate the wheel but little touches keep things interesting, (and to be honest keeps me from getting bored). So far, so good right.
Here’s where it gets sticky.
Trying to keep a deadline and stay on budget is not that easy to do when you are constantly making changes to your designs. You may end up using more materials than you anticipated; you will most definitely spend more time than you did. Now of course one must develop their designs, but as the wise man said, there is a time and a place for everything. The time is not when you are in the middle of a project.
What to do?
If inspiration hits you while working on something, keep a notepad handy and jot down your idea. Then when your project is done (on time and on budget) you can tweak the design on paper at your leisure and test it out in the shop when you have some free time (what is that?).
Hope this helps ;-)