Member-only story
Learning Why Done Is Better Than Perfect
Free yourself of the perfectionist curse, once and for all.
We have all heard some version of this advice. From a parent or a teacher. A friend who hates waiting for the bike ramp to be complete. (Granted he is being a bit hasty.)
Perfection is a curse packaged with many creative professions. But we don’t get to claim it as our own. This ball and chain clamps to anyone with ambition.
Professors in design school gave me a disappointed-parent speech about perfection. And a bonus about time management. I would spend days working and overworking projects. Zoomed in to individual pixels. Talk about being stuck in the weeds; I wasn’t even aware there was a hillside.
Despite loving to procrastinate, I would remain caught up in that final percentage. The one last adjustment that would achieve [what I saw to be] perfection.
It wasn’t until further along in my career that I learned about the Pareto Principle; better known as The 80/20 Rule. Gabriel Medina does a fantastic job explaining it here.
Not only was I poorly managing my time but I was also ignoring any honest expectations. Done was not better than perfect; nothing was in my mind.