Perfectionism is optimizing at the wrong scale

December 01, 2024

Welcome to The Productivity Blueprint newsletter 🗞️

Last week we focused on time anxiety. The internal dread that comes with feeling like you are wasting your time. If you missed it, you can catch up here and learn some ways to alleviate this all too common feeling đź™‚

Today, we will go over the reality behind perfectionism, and how it may just be the thing holding us all back đź‘€

“Have the courage to be imperfect.”

This great article begins with the ultimate reminder: sometimes the perfect approach involves tolerating imperfection.

Perfectionism can be both a strength and a weakness. While striving for precision can lead to high-quality outcomes, it often comes at the cost of overall efficiency and practicality.

Balancing perfection with the realities of limited resources means accepting some imperfections in subtasks if they don't impact the final goal. To manage this, we have to make trade-offs between the positive impacts of the project on others, yourself, how much value can be created from your energy, and finally what will lead you to your end goal.

What approaches can we take to assess the irrelevant?

  • Triage nothing. Attempting to triage nothing usually results in triaging timeliness, or if there's a deadline, quality (or quality of life).

  • Triage quality. We can try to do everything, but at a lower grade.

  • Triage timeliness. We can try to do everything well, let timelines slide, and possibly never finish.

  • Triage projects. It’s possible to do a few things well.

  • Triage features. It’s possible to do the minimal version of more projects, instead of doing a few projects thoroughly.

  • Triage rest of life. We can temporarily take on more by drawing down some other area of our life, like sleep, health, or relationships. It can feel like free energy at the time, but it's more like credit card debt: it must be repaid at a later date, with interest.

So, what matters to you? Are the actions you’re taking leading to it happening?

How are you sticking to your priority, knowing some things will be left undone?

TL/DR: Perfectionism can reduce efficiency. Balance it by focusing on overall impact, making trade-offs between quality, timeliness, project scope, and personal well-being. Avoid getting caught up in details, as it can lead to missed opportunities.

‎MindShift

‎Manage your anxiety, relax & be mindful 🙏

An app that helps with anxiety, stress, and perfectionism. Some features include mental imagery, breathing exercises, and contains many “quick tips” that helps users control their overall emotions.

‎Akiflow Time Blocking Calendar

‎This addition to your desktop is another feature that allows you to use “time-blocking” techniques and can add structure to your schedule. This way, you are not wasting time on the small details of your work and can progress throughout your day easily.

đź’ˇ Challenge of the week

Pick one project this week and focus solely on its completion. Avoid obsessing over minor details and aim to finish it by the end of the week, prioritizing overall progress over perfection.

That’s all for this newsletter! We hope you found value in today’s discussion on perfectionism and how it can hinder progress if not managed wisely.

Until next week,

The Productivity Blueprint Team

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