To All The Perfectionists

Image Source: Renjith Krishnan
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=721 

What is one of your weaknesses?

I wouldn't advise answering "perfectionism" if you are asked this in a job interview; interviewers hear it all the time, like an overplayed Gaga song.  Nonetheless, perfectionism is a weakness, and if it is one of yours I hope you'd like to move past it.  

I have been a self-proclaimed perfectionist, and have heard others say the same about me.  Time after time I put forth great amounts of time and energy to complete tasks with a high level of quality.  Sometimes this strategy works, but other times it limits me.  I tend to take more time than necessary to do certain things, and often decide not to take on tasks because I know that even with the the time and energy I would put into them there stands a great chance that they might not end up the exact way that I'd like them to. 

When you move past the need to consistently perform at high levels and meet ridiculous standards you become more productive and will most likely produce higher quality work.  

I have outlined three strategies that I believe are helpful in breaking from the limitations of perfectionism.  

Prioritize your tasks

When it comes down to it, 80% of the things that you do during the day don't matter.  Okay, they matter in the sense that you do them, but regarding the quality by which you accomplish these tasks it makes very little difference.  The other 20% are things that require an extra amount of effort.  The next time you are doing something, categorize it into either the 80% or the 20% to know how much time it really needs; when actively categorizing the tasks it should be apparent which belong where, and if it requires more than 10 seconds to decide then it should be part of the 80%.

Go!  Forget about "ready" and "set"

Start something.  Make mistakes.  Deal with them.  Don't let the perfectionist mentality keep you from doing difficult things that you know will not end perfectly.  You wouldn't slowly creep into a freezing body of water if you wanted to get in; you would do a cannonball straight in.  My post on failure builds upon this idea.

View everything as a work in progress

When you begin looking at large tasks or sets of tasks, think of them as works in progress.  This takes your mind off of the end result, and gives you more motivation to put work in and you'll become more able to complete tasks.  With less pressure put on final outcomes you will do more work, and with a higher quality in the long run because you'll consistently be working on improvements as opposed to trying to be perfect the first time.

A great example of my effort to move past perfectionism was a few days ago when I set out to make my first video blog post, about perfectionism (foreshadowing).  I haven't had much experience with video, and I knew the end result would not meet my usual standards yet I set out to do it anyway.  After a few hours of hard work, due to some technical problems, the program wouldn't respond and everything had been lost.   I saw the video production as part of the 20%, began working on it right away without too much concern for the end result, and viewed it as something I would get better at with time and work.  I moved past the limitations of perfectionism.  I think it is definitely a lesson.  I could have not tried the video, and learned nothing, but instead I tried, and even though nothing resulted I was able to learn from it to do better in the future.  

There will be a video post eventually!  It won't be perfect either!