If you’re prone to procrastinating, it can be very hard to get things started.

If you’re a perfectionist, it can be very hard to get things finished.

If you have a wonderful combination of both of these attributes (like me), it’s sometimes a miracle that you get anything done at all…!

Joking aside, procrastination and perfectionism can be unhelpful traits. They can stop us from starting new projects. They can stop us from moving forward. They can stop us from us from getting things done. They can leave us feeling overwhelmed.

Perfectionism particularly can be the enemy to progress. We set extremely high expectations for ourselves – ones which are often unattainable. It can cause us to become frozen by the thought of making a mistake or getting things wrong. It’s exhausting to be striving that hard, all the time. At its worst, it can be debilitating.

And this is where the problem lies. If nothing is ever good enough for you, how do you ever finish it? How do you share it with others? How do you ever charge someone for your services or your creations?

There is a proverb (often attributed to Voltaire) which says “Perfect is the enemy of the good”. Aiming for perfection is unrealistic. We shouldn’t let striving for perfection stop us from creating or achieving something that is good. Something that is great. Something that is imperfect but that is still really valuable.

When my clients are struggling with perfectionism, when they are setting impossibly high standards for themselves, I ask them “What does ‘good enough’ look like for you?”

If you struggle to answer this question, it can help to think about the ’80/20 Rule’ (also known as the Pareto Principle). Put very simply, it’s the principle that 80% of results come from 20% of the effort. Imagine that! Putting in just 20% effort and getting an 80% return. That kind of return from that kind of effort sounds like ‘good enough’ to me.

So how can you apply this principle?

Here are a few things to try:

• Challenge yourself to do tasks more quickly. For example, if something usually takes you 3 hours, try setting yourself a goal to achieve it in 1 hour. Time yourself. See just how much you’ve achieved after that hour. Have you finished? Have you almost finished? Is spending another 2 hours on this thing justified? Try really testing yourself, here – just how quickly can you get something to a good standard?
• Try asking several people for feedback when you’re only half way through a project. What do they think of it? If their feedback is already positive, how much more effort you need to put in to finish it?
• Regularly review your priorities. Look at where are you spending your time and focus – and what return for your effort are you getting. What activities are getting you the best results? What’s bringing you the least results? Be honest about what’s working and what’s not. And spend more time on what’s working.

So, go ahead. Find your ‘good enough’. You will find yourself worrying less, doing less – and getting just the same outcomes.

What’s not to like?