Are You Ready for Some Prufrock?

In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;

With apologies to T.S. Eliot and Hank Williams Jr., these lines are my way of introducing Lee Goldberg's survey of how writers measure daily success.

Lee blogged:

...I don't think that five pages of shit or eight hours spent staring at the screen until your eyes are bloodshot really measures anything. For me, it's quality, not quantity, whether you're measuring pages or hours. What about you?

I commented:

With most of my experience in short stories, I write as much as I can imagine clearly. I stop when the picture starts to blur. When I feel the need to be more careful, I hold myself to one scene each sitting; even if I feel I can write more, I tell myself to stop and study each scene.

I don't measure length so much as completeness. Some ideas need more words to be complete; others need fewer.