Understating and insight can illuminate the magnificence of being perfectly imperfect

Good morning,

As we start to get back into the daily rhythms of life, now that offices are opening back up here in Ontario, there will be certainly a lot of focus on productivity. It will be interesting to see if after working from home for a few years, if there are opportunities for us to find more balance and alignment between our busy work lives and our busy lives at home.

With this in mind, I thought it useful to share some of my weekend reading around the theme of productivity and our constant desire to perform at our best, perfectionism.

According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), perfectionism is on the rise….this might sound like a positive at first glance, but as it’s been said (and it’s true), if we are in constant search of perfection, you will never be content.

Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it can motivate you to perform at a high level, it can help ensure you are organized for any tasks in front of you, and it can certainly help you overcome challenges you may face. On the other hand, it can cause you unnecessary anxiety, slow you down and impact your productivity and even damage your relationships and your family dynamic. Perfectionism is often driven by striving for excellence, but it can be selfsabotaging if it leads to suboptimal behavior like continuing habits beyond their usefulness, over delivering when you don’t have to, or overthinking every decision you make.

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” Aristotle

According to Psychology Today (PT) “Perfectionism is a trait that makes life an endless report card on accomplishments that leads to unhappiness. It’s that thing that you do when you see every flaw or negative and it’s holding you back because your expectations of perfection are unrealistic.

If you take some time to reflect on how you can relate to perfectionism and it’s tendencies….whether it be in your profession, throughout your business or within your family system, being aware of how to harness these traits can be powerful for you and lead to more productivity through your days. Productivity isn’t about getting more done, it’s about what you are able to accomplish. Through a focus of enhanced insight and increased self-awareness, we are able strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.

“Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.” Voltaire

Alice Boyes, a former clinical psychologist and author of The Healthy Mind Toolkit and The Anxiety Toolkit and Matt Plummer, founder of Zarvana, an online coaching service that helps workers become more productive, provide a few recommendations for you as you project your perfectionist energy into positive improvement

See the big picture

As any perfectionist will tell you, being perfect isn’t easy. Your diligence “takes a lot of effort,” and your attention to detail is “incredibly time-consuming,” says Plummer. Of course, as a perfectionist you’re never going to aim for merely adequate — nor should you. But you must also “recognize the opportunity cost and time” of your behavior. “Ask yourself: Am I using my time wisely? Am I being productive?” He recommends focusing on “maximizing the impact” of your work. “You can spend an extra three hours making a presentation perfect, but does that improve the impact for the client or your organization?” Boyes concurs. “Shift your mindset,” she says. You’re going to be “less perfect about some things, so you can concentrate on what’s important.” If you’re continuing to tinker on an assignment that most others would consider complete, try to “recognize that just getting it done” is a decent goal. “There’s a point of diminishing returns” when it comes to sweating the small stuff and nitpicking niggling details.

Adjust your standards

Managing your perfectionism also requires you to “calibrate your standards,” says Plummer. Say, for example, you’re grinding out an important memo for your organization. He suggests showing your efforts to a colleague or supervisor early in the process. You may discover it’s “already good enough” and “that task you thought could take 10 hours could really take only five.” Don’t be shy or embarrassed. “It’s your first draft,” says Boyes. And even if you need to continue to work on it, the “feedback you receive will help you improve.” Keep in mind, too, that this memo needn’t be worthy of a Pulitzer. “What you’re saying doesn’t have to be the final word, it just has to contribute something useful.”

Create a checklist

The pursuit of perfection is a bit like wandering on an aimless journey, says Plummer. “You keep walking and walking, but you’re not sure that you’re getting any closer to your destination,” he says. Similarly, “a perfectionist is always going to want to keep working…..but the end result is rarely satisfying.” So, rather than toil “in search of this amorphous goal of perfection,” he recommends, “creating a checklist” for each task.. “You’re following a process with discrete and measurable goals,” he says. Once you’ve ticked off the items on your list, “you’re done.”

No matter what stage of the business cycle or wealth cycle you are on, we all look to be more productive with our time and strive to be mindful of where we are spending our focus and our energy. This makes it important for us to learn to recognize the point of diminishing returns, to constantly reflect on your progress and proactively and identify examples of when you successfully moderate your perfectionist tendencies. Allow yourself to calibrate your standards and, it’s always important to remember, you will always be perfectly imperfect.

“To appreciate life’s small moments, it helps to have a sense the whole can never be made perfect.” Alain de Botton

Be well & enjoy the moments

Derek