Stop Wasting Time On Perfectionism
Learn To Differentiate Between High- and Low-Impact Activities
Takeaway: High expectations on every task leads to a lot of wasted time. Knowing when to pivot from ‘all-in’ to ‘good enough’ is a matter of knowing what’s important.
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Stop Wasting Time On Perfectionism
When is good enough, good enough?
Like many people, I can fall into the “perfectionist” trap. I’ve learned over the years that knowing when to aim for high expectations, and when to aim for just good enough, is vital for making the most progress.
High expectations on every task leads to a lot of wasted time.
Have high expectations on things that make a big impact.
I have high expectations for the structure of my coaching program. I have high expectations for myself when I show up to coaching calls. I have high expectations for members of my coaching staff. These are high-impact roles, so we set out to be the best.
Aim for ‘good enough’ on low-impact activities.
I recently took a continuing education course that I needed to recertify. It’s a behavior change course—much of the information I already know. Other parts of the course, frankly, are complete nonsense. Very few pieces of the material I can see adapting and applying to parts of my program to make it better.
Instead of combing through every paragraph, watching every video, and wasting countless hours on the material, I find the stuff that’s important and make sure to consume it in its entirety. I skip over everything else.
On quizzes, I’m using the “control-F” trick to search relevant topics within the text for the questions. It’s saving me a lot of time. Some may call it cheating. Others might feel like they’re going to miss material. I just want to get through it.
Good enough.
For unimportant matters, I just want to pass. I don’t care by how much. I don’t need a perfect score, I need to be able to move on.
For important matters, I want my full attention and effort.
Knowing when to pivot from ‘all-in’ to ‘good enough’ is a matter of knowing what’s important. High-impact vs low-impact.
Try to be perfect at everything and you’ll waste time and nothing will be perfect anyway.
~ Coach Alex