Procrastinating to Perfection? Learn to Love "Good Enough"
Melinda is a Post-It addict. Those handy little squares of paper
decorate her desk, her dashboard, even the bathroom counter.
With a job as an internet marketer, two daughters in grade
school, and a husband who works long hours, her head is always
popping with tasks she has to jot down before they're gone
forever. The trouble is, she adds notes much faster than she
subtracts them.
"I don't know where to begin," sighs Melinda. "So I don't begin
anywhere and I just have all this clutter stressing me out."
We all procrastinate now and then because we don't want to do
something boring or difficult, or just because we're feeling
lazy. But did you know that habitual procrastination can be a
sign of perfectionism? That might seem far-fetched, because
when you're the one doing the procrastinating, you feel anything
but perfect. But it's true. Here's now it works.
Melinda dreads attacking her Post-It's because her standards
for accomplishing each task are so high. In her mind's eye, each
task looms much larger than it really is. She intimidates
herself before she even gets started.
And when she tries to pick one job to start on, her
perfectionism throws up another roadblock. What if she picks the
wrong one? What if she starts with something non-essential and
forgets about another job that's really important?
Now she's stuck in the classic perfectionist pickle:
analysis paralysis. If you've been there, you know
demoralizing it is. That's when trivial pursuits such as T.V.
and the internet start calling your name. And longer you put off
your work, the more overwhelming it looks.
Does this sound familiar? If so, here's how to break out of
this cycle. Learn to love "Good Enough." Your
efforts are Good Enough when you've accomplished the real
purpose of the job. Melinda automatically aims for perfect no
matter what it is she's doing. And for some tasks, perfection is
the Good Enough point. But sometimes, you can do less and still
get the job done.
Melinda's current to-do list includes finishing a home page for
a new website, sending out several emails to clients, and
weeding the front yard. The web page is one task where her
perfectionism is a real asset. Of course, she wants it to be
impeccable. Her livelihood depends on it. But the emails and the
weeding are candidates for a lower Good Enough point.
Normally, Melinda would draft the emails carefully, let them
sit overnight, and then proof them before sending them out.
That's appropriate for emails that will become permanent
documents. But today, Melinda just needs to update her clients
about the status of their projects.
The Good Enough point for these emails means informative,
polite, and reasonably grammatical. And as for the weeding, how
about defining good enough as whatever Melinda can accomplish in
twenty minutes? Setting a time limit is a great tool for
perfectionists, by the way!
What's Good Enough for a given task is a very individual
matter. For example, if gardening is your passion, then
maybe only perfection is Good Enough for the weeding.
I have to give you fair warning: the first few times you leave
Good Enough alone, you can expect your anxiety to spike. Visions
of failing or being criticized may dance in your head. For some
people, doing everything extremely well is part of their
identity as a good person. Doing anything less can actually feel
disorienting.
If you feel anxious, think in terms of experiments. It will
help you lighten up. You're not abandoning your standards.
You're just experimenting with different Good Enough points. You
can always crank your standards back up again.
But I bet you won't want to. Once you experience the
newfound energy of the recovering procrastinator, it's hard to
go back. All that analysis paralysis is more draining than
you realize. It's huge relief to let it go.
"Aiming for Good Enough really takes the pressure off," says
Melinda. "I don't have that feeling of dread, so I don't put
things off as much. Amazingly, things run just fine even when I
cut some corners. I still have lots of Post-It's, but at least
they're new Post-It's." Are you cruising the Internet
instead of starting that report? Are those to do's on your list
looking way too familiar? It might be perfectionism that's
holding you back. Learn to love Good Enough, lighten up, and
start checking things off your list.