If youâre a perfectionist, youâre probably a âdoer.â But hereâs the thing â doing is not the same as achieving.
When it comes to productivity, being a doer doesnât mean youâre actually being productive at all. In fact, it means quite the opposite.
You may have a hard time letting go of tasks, you might think that the more you work on something, the better it will become.
But while this can be true in some situations, over-perfecting is actually hindering your productivity.
Perfectionism is a trait common to many entrepreneurs and business owners, and weâre often our own toughest critics.
But it can be counterproductive if you let it get in the way of productivity and innovation.
Here are a few reasons on how perfectionism destroys your productivity.
1) Perfect Is Subjective
Aiming to do your best job is always a good thing, but if it hinders you from completing your tasks, it may be a problem.
Perfectionism ties closely to fear as you are afraid your work is not up to standards but remember that perfect is subjective.
You may think that your work is âperfectâ while others find that itâs not.
This can affect you emotionally due to the expectations of your own work which leads to poor performance in the future.
You can take a look at this article which talks about the fear of getting started on your side hustle which can also be linked to perfectionism.
2) Procrastinating Or Perfectionism?
Are you aiming to be perfect or are you really just procrastinating?
Procrastination is the shadow of perfectionism. Things canât get done if you dwell too long.
Take a look at this article if you find yourself procrastinating instead of moving forward and being productive.
Now that we understand the difference between a procrastinator and a perfectionist, we should aim to do our work the best we can while not dwelling too long and not moving forward.
3) Using Your Time Unintentionally
Diving in deeper on how aiming to be perfect leads to procrastination which affects your productivity, we can look at how we use our time.
The longer you take to complete your tasks thinking you want to do it better leads to you wasting your time unintentionally.
Imagine working on a project or writing an article, you start to do your research and find ways to improve your work, youâll start to find yourself falling into the âinfinity poolâ of distractions.
The âinfinity poolâ is a concept from the book âMake Timeâ which I wrote about in the previous article.
It teaches us how to use our time intentionally and avoid distractions such as social media.
With the endless distractions on the internet, you may lose yourself in the realm of Instagram or Youtube while you do your work.
The longer you take to complete your work thinking that you want to make it âperfectâ will slowly turn into procrastination as these distractions take over and itâs not even your fault.
The difference between procrastination and using your time unintentionally is, you can consciously know that you are procrastinating while unintentional time wastage can be of instinct, which makes it scarily unproductive.
Conclusion
These are some of the reasons how perfectionism destroys your productivity.
By taking the first step in understanding and acknowledging these reasons when they creep up, it will help you to stay productive instead of using âperfectionismâ as an excuse.
So are you a perfectionist? Or really just a procrastinator?
I hope this helps you to understand that itâs better to make mistakes than to aim for perfection.
At the end of the day, itâs more important to learn from your mistakes and improve along the way while putting the fear of not doing your best aside.
Hereâs a good quote from the book âMake Timeâ
You only waste time if youâre not intentional about how you spend it
Thatâs all for today, thank you for reading and I hope you understand how perfectionism destroys your productivity now!
See you in the next one!
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