HOW TO KNOW WHEN DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT?

While I was creating the content for the CharmedGTD Productivity Bootcamp last month, I stumbled upon a question about productivity that seemed to really resonate with those participating in the challenge. How do we know when done is better than perfect? It was something I discussed as part of one of the prompts, to Choose 5 Projects to Focus on for the Week. The premise of the prompt was that sometimes, overachievers such as myself who like to be super productive, will say they limit their focus on projects to just five, but then ultimately schedule more than that into their week. Thus, creating a situation where we don’t have focus, our attention is everywhere, and even though someone like myself who may do this sort of thing regularly might be able to complete all the work, it raises the question of if we are doing our best work?

Those of you who have been following me for a while know I am all about the line “done is better than perfect.” You could say it happens to be my personal productivity motto. For me, it addresses the essential truth that perfect as a standard doesn’t exist and those who keep striving for this standard are often allowing fear to rule their actions by putting off finishing a project or handing in work or releasing a creating into the world because it doesn’t meet the standard of perfect. The connection between fear and perfectionism often holds people back from moving on to the next thing and enjoying the fruits of their labor, which is why my general opinion of perfectionism is that it’s a lie that fear tells us to prevent us from success. It’s a way of self-sabotaging our work and productivity so we never have to face the criticism that ultimately comes when people are doing any sort of work really. Truth is, even the most beloved and celebrated work throughout history has received heavy criticism, you can’t please everyone, so why try?

But, I also have come to an equally problematic realization about the concept of done is better than perfect, that hits close to home for me. What if we use this concept to continue to move on to the next thing and the next thing as a means of never having to go too deep or put in too much effort into our work? It’s almost like the flip side of perfectionism, a defense mechanism against criticism that keeps some people, myself included, putting in as little effort as possible so that we can create a higher output, but at a lesser quality than we would achieve if we slowed down and created a little less but created it a little better. I definitely recall situations when I used my done is better than perfect mentality as an excuse to move on from a project without having to put extra effort into it, perhaps now I can see it was a defense mechanism I created to shield me from criticism. After all, I know criticism is inevitable, so if it comes, what better defense can I provide myself then “well, you may be right about what this is lacking, but I did all this in only a week/month, I’d like to see you do better!” It’s hard to argue with a statement like that. Yes, it’s not perfect, but how could you expect it to be in such a short time. I have to admit, I know I’ve used this anti-perfectionism stance as an excuse before, if not to others but mostly to myself, but why?

Well, again, I think this comes down to the vulnerability that comes from creating and putting out work over and over and over again that specifically goes out to the public eye, and wanting a defense mechanism to protect from criticism. For a very long time, I’ve operated under the personal belief that my lazy effort was better than most people’s “perfect.” This belief originated in college when I would very often write a paper in about two hours that received an A (I called this my two hour term paper) while my classmates would toil for days writing a paper that resulted in a C. I know that I’m a good writer/communicator/teacher so when it comes to any project that involves these strengths, I’ve essentially brainwashed myself into believing that I can get away with handing in my lazy effort because it’s worked for me for so long. Even this post I am writing right now, I am nearly 800 words into this and I started writing maybe 15 minutes ago. I have had to edit very little and so far I am very pleased with the flow of this so, guess what? Once I’m done writing, I am going to slap a photo on this and post it without thinking too much about it so I can go about my day and move on to the next thing I need to do! Maybe this sort of done is better than perfect attitude is acceptable for my free content, and maybe it works for some of my paid content too, but where do I draw the line? How do I know when done is better than perfect or if done a little better, or a little slower, or a little more is actually the standard to hit?

How to know when done is better than perfect?

Okay, so I hope we can all agree at this point that the standard of perfect doesn’t actually exist. Perfect is too vague, too non-specific, too immeasurable to base the vast majority of our work off of. That being said, I do think there are things in life that do deserve for us to reach towards an ideal of perfection, but since this isn’t a measurable objective, our standard of perfect will ultimately only be met once we have the feeling that our work is finally ready! Since there are truly no actionable tips I can share with you on how to reach that state of feeling like your work is ready, let me focus today on sharing some important questions you might want to ask yourself to double check your work to see if it’s ready for the world or if you should do a little more work on it.

How important is this work?

When thinking about whether you’re ready to finish a project and move on to the next thing or to release said project to its audience, think first about how important the project is to you and to your audience. Let’s take this post for example, I’ve already explained that this wasn’t much work at all for me to write and that I know I won’t be putting very much time and effort into this after I’m done writing, and that is because this one single post isn’t incredibly important to me. I didn’t have to write it, it was an idea I had that I wanted to share but I don’t have anything specifically important I am trying to achieve with this other than simply sharing an idea and hopefully inspiring my audience to think about this and apply it in their lives. Now, if this post were part of some content marketing I was doing, meaning it’s part of a marketing campaign for my business, well then I would probably take a little more time with it making sure it was as well thought out as I could make it. And if this post were not a post and where instead a sales page for a product, well then, you’d bet more planning and strategy would go into the time I was spending working on it. So, when it comes to whatever you are working on, before marking it complete and handing it in, determine how important the work is to you and to the audience you are creating it for. If your working on a report you send out on a weekly basis with updated sales figures for your team, yea that’s probably important to the people who get it, but you do it every week so it’s probably more important that the numbers in the report be right as opposed to you getting fancy with graphics and extra language or analysis since the life of the work is only about 7 days. If the report is meant to be shared at an annual operating meeting for your entire company, well then by all means spend some extra time on the quality of your analysis and graphics because this is a one time event you are preparing for.

When is this work due and how flexible is the due date?

The next thing to think about when it comes to whether done is better than perfect in your work is the due date for the project. If you are done a project today that is due next month, well then you have some time to think about it and adjust. If your project is due tomorrow, there is only so much you can do in that time. If you have flexibility with your due date, meaning you can ask for more time because perhaps you feel like you really want to do the extra work, then ask for it. I don’t think there is anything wrong with pushing out a due date in order to get a better product if you just aren’t happy with it!

Who is going to see this and what investment was required?

I’ve mentioned a few times already the concept of the audience for your work, this is essentially the person or people who will see it and I’d say one of the most difficult things to determine when we are doing our work is guessing at the expectations of that audience so you can please them. In some cases, you can actually talk to your audience and find out what they expect so you can tailor your work to those expectations, but if you can’t, it’s up to you to use what you know about them to determine the standards. Another thing to keep in mind about your audience is the investment they have made into the work you’re producing. So, again using the example of this blog post, no one had to pay to read this, it’s freely available. If this were an article or content in one of my products however, then I need to evaluate my work in terms of pleasing my paying customers who’s expectations I want to meet and exceed with this content so that they find value in it and are willing to purchase again in the future. If you are doing a project for work, clearly you are being paid for your work, so there is a level of professionalism and standards your workplace may have, and if you are working on a project that might go out to a client or customer of your job, again, consider their investment or their potential investment in your company if their expectations are met or exceeded with your project.

Can you beta-test this with your audience before releasing it?

Something I try to do as often as possible is to beta-test my products with my audience, meaning that I will get volunteers from my community to try out a class or course before I release it publicly. That way I can make important changes before it is seen my a wider audience and I am actually able to consult with individuals who belong to the audience I am trying to please. Even if you are not running a business as I am and creating products for sale, this is still a concept you can likely use in your own life. When I was in college, something I neglected to explain to you about those two hour term papers was that I would very often write those papers a week or so before the due date and then hand them in as a first draft to my professor to review. They would gladly accept my paper early, would read through it in a day or so and return it to me with their corrections and input to make the paper better according to their expectations. So, once I had those corrections all I needed to do was spend a little time making the changes they gave me and then hand the paper back in on time for that A! Seriously, this process gave new meaning to the term easy A! It’s not just with business and school that this can be applied, you can likely also do this with certain work at your job- in fact, I bet for important projects your boss may even already schedule in time to meet with you to review your work which might seem daunting except for the fact that this actually makes your job easier because you can put less effort into the first draft than you might think, and then put in more effort once the project has been reviewed. This isn’t about getting out of doing work, but this is about knowing when to put in the most work, and for me, I have found that once you have your audience’ input, then you can do the bulk of the important work instead of doing a lot of work ahead of time before you know what they want and how they will react to what you’ve produced.

Could this work be changed or upgraded in the future?

The final question I always ask myself when I am working on a project is how permanent the results of this work really are, if I put out a post with a spelling error in it, is this permanent or can I change it? If I release a planner insert with a spread I’m not 100% thrilled with, can it be changed and released later? For much of my work the answer does tend to be yes, and I do spend a good amount of time taking feedback from my audience and upgrading or updating products in a stream of new iterations in order to bring the end result as close to perfect as possible over time. A great example of this from my business would be my Charmed Life Master Planner inserts. When I first released that insert pack back in the summer of 2015 I was pleased with it, I knew it worked and had value as it was, but I still wasn’t sure about a few pieces in the design. Year over year I have been taking the feedback from my community and those who purchase the planner to tweak the design. Again, because perfect isn’t a measurable objective, some people may have seen my first iteration of inserts and thought it was amazing, even if I felt like there was more potential. But, if I had no released those inserts as is back in 2015 and then every year since, I would likely not have refined the design to the place it is today, which I am so very pleased with! So think about your projects and what you are working on and if you can release it now with the intention in your mind to learn, adjust and refine as you go along!

So, I’m looking at the clock, it’s been an hour and ten minutes since I started writing this post and I have just hit the 2,600 word mark, so I think I’ve said everything I wanted to say on this topic. I hope this internal commentary on this post hasn’t turned you off, you know I don’t usually add these sorts of details, but for the topic of this post I thought it would be helpful for you to see in real time (sort of) what my unedited process for writing an article is like. If you have thoughts you’d like to share on this, please do leave me a comment below so we can discuss and I’d love for you to share more personal insight into how you determine whether your work is done and perfect or not! Thanks for stopping by and spending a piece of your day with me, I do hope it was inspiring and enlightening for you!

xoxo,