A Journey of Anti-Perfection
An overview of why “done” is better than “perfect”.
I’ve been a perfectionist for as long as I can remember. For every single school assignment or project that was given to me, I would aim for 125% instead of 100%.
Although that may seem like a great thing at first glance, what did I get out of it?
Honestly, not much. To summarize, I got about two less hours of sleep, far less free time, and just about the same grade. Instead of learning something new, I spent most of my time revising my notes for the fifteenth time or making my slides look just that bit better for a random History presentation.
When it comes to school, you can’t get above 100%, and there are clear diminishing returns for going above and beyond, especially since you rarely apply the skills from school in the “real world”. Knowing that extra little bit on photosynthesis won’t exactly help me if I’m not going to be able to apply that knowledge.
With that being said, deciding to go above and beyond isn’t necessarily perfectionism, and the important distinguishing factor is whether or not there is enough of a benefit to you doing all the extra work. Here’s where the idea of anti-perfectionism comes in.
What is anti-perfectionism?
Simply put, anti-perfectionism is the idea that not everything that you do has to be perfect, and by extension, it almost means that you should avoid perfection. This mindset has extraordinary benefits, and while that may seem counterintuitive, hear me out for a little bit.
First of all, something being done is better than it being perfect, but having something done shouldn’t be the only motivation. It’s also important for the end product to be correct/functional while having high standards for the work.
My Implementation
I was extremely hesitant to try out the “done is better than perfect” mindset at first, but 3 months ago, I decided to give it a shot. The reasons for doing so were as follows:
- I had a lot of commitments, and there wasn’t enough time in the day to do all of them justice.
- Not getting enough sleep isn’t exactly the healthiest option, and changing that was important to me.
- I felt like I wasn’t getting enough done, and that I lot of my work time I spent working was not being put towards useful work.
I started by implementing the mindset in phases, starting with my projects, articles, and videos outside of school. I shifted my focus from creating something fully-featured and well-polished to something functional. Most of my work involves programming, and by prioritizing the technicals and ignoring the fluff, I was able to create far more content than before. This also allowed me to learn new concepts far faster.
Looking back on those projects, they’re not the prettiest, but they work. That’s what maximized my learning in the shortest period. When it came to school, the change was surprisingly simple. I stuck to the rubrics, cut the fluff, and that was that.
What were the benefits for me?
Now that three months have passed since my experiment started, I thought that it would be a perfect time to outline the benefits of anti-perfectionism that I experienced first-hand.
- Instead of spending 3 months on a single project, I was able to fast-track it to 3 projects in a single month while allocating the same amount of time per day on average.
- By not spending as much time on school work, I was able to get more sleep than before, also finding time for fitness. In terms of grades, there were no significant changes.
- I found myself procrastinating far less, as anti-perfectionism let me focus on getting things done.
I feel like having benefits in text form is good, but to better illustrate them, here are some graphs of how I spent the average weekday. I took numbers from before quarantine so I could better account for going to school.
As you can see, prioritizing “done>perfect” has been a positive experience for me. It may sound odd, but there weren’t any apparent downsides to adopting the mindset. My plan was fairly simple, and I only focused on two aspects of my life, being school and my other projects. All of that is great, but how can we make anti-perfectionism work for you?
How to Tackle Anti-Perfectionism
When it comes to this mindset, it’s important to note that anti-perfectionism isn’t exactly a universal solution. For example, if you are a web developer or are working on an end product, you’ll want to aim for perfection.
However, that’s not to say that the Done>Perfect mindset is limited to school or programming projects. You can apply it to many parts of your daily life.
One general application is to learn faster. To explain this concept, let me ask a question. Compare two friends who wanted to get better at drawing. One spent a month on just a few pieces, and the other drew a new piece every few days. At the end of the month, who do you think would be the better artist? My money is on the second one.
Although not every one of the second artist’s drawings may be the best, they’re gaining experience with the fundamentals of art and can try out and learn many different concepts. In comparison, the first friend may have a few polished pieces, but by the end of the month, the second friend will likely be significantly better.
Not only can you learn faster, but you can use the mindset to finish things quicker. We spend more time on things than we usually need to, whether it’s taking notes or even writing up e-mails. Trying to be mindful of anti-perfectionism can completely change your approach to seemingly trivial tasks, and save you a significant chunk of time.
We spend a lot of time trying to make things better or perfect, and it seems that we do that the most for things where it doesn’t matter.
After taking a step back from my granular school-centric view of the world, I was able to shift my focus from perfection to anti-perfection.
Although I’ve only embraced the mindset for about 3 months, it has definitely had a positive impact on my lifestyle. Aiming for done instead of perfect can help you learn new things, finish tasks faster, and free up time to do more of what YOU want.
In the wise words of Shia LaBeouf:
Resources to Check Out on Anti-Perfectionism
- Reasons for why “Done is Better than Perfect”
- How Something Done Might Seem Perfect
- How Anti-Perfectionism can Silence your Inner Critic
Please feel free to contact me through email for any inquiries or corrections in the article. Feedback is always appreciated as well!
E-mail: vedaant.varshney@gmail.com
Website: vedaantv.com
LinkedIn: Vedaant Varshney
