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3 simple ways to stop being a perfectionist and become more productive
The three priority levels
You may have to say yes to something that doesn't necessarily fulfil you. When in doubt about what to prioritize in your life, use the three-level prioritizing system.
- Escalate: Important and urgent. These tasks are pushing us toward long-term goals and have a pressing deadline.
- Cultivate: Important but not urgent. These activities will grow us and move us closer to our end goals but have no deadline. It's easy to let go of these tasks, but they deserve the most emphasis.
- Accommodate: Unimportant but urgent. These tasks have a pressing deadline but don't help us reach our long-term goals, such as a messy kitchen. Spend as little time as possible in this section.
When we use a priority list, we work by priority and stop wasting energy deciding what to do next.
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What you must know about procrastination
- You can put things off without being lazy.
- It's your emotions that decide to procrastinate, not logic. Emotions prioritize short-term gratification.
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Procrastinators severely overestimate how hard it is to finish a task.
While it can be very tough to start, you'll gain momentum and achieve ten times more work with the same willpower. The result will also be much more rewarding.
The optimistic procrastinator
You overestimate your skills and underestimate the challenge. Your goals may be too small, or you didn't break the big goals into daily tasks.
What you find yourself doing: You don't write a deadline on your calendar, but promise to start tomorrow. You may even tell everyone how easy it is or what you plan to do.
Solution: Commit to a deadline, or make it a challenge to get done as much as possible.
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Perfectionism and to-do lists
To-do lists can help perfectionists move past our paralysis. They may find making a list to be a reassuring guide to their day.
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Break down projects
... into manageable tasks.
This way, you're armed with a set of concrete actions to take rather a vague cloud of high expectations.
Define the next action
... rather than all subsequent steps.
Focusing only on the next action gives you permission to work on something even if you don’t have it all figured out—which is crucial to completing tasks that in the past have left you paralyzed.
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The Wild Procrastinator
You are indecisive and often deals with things in the nick of time. But procrastination has a physical and social toll as your body and your coworkers get stressed over it.
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The Perfectionist
You are obsessed with your idea of perfection and end up spending way too much time on a specific task. This leads to feelings of being overwhelmed, missed deadlines and delaying other priorities.
Solution: Make sure you have achievable standards that don’t get in the way. Train yourself to do things that fall short of your idea of perfection until you begin to accept that the “imperfect” but functional is enough for most things.
The Underestimator
You often miscalculate how long it will take to do something to the point of missing deadlines and having to reschedule.
Solution: Schedule more time than you expect to take to finish a task, learn how to work faster and to estimate time more accurately. Reviewing past assignments duration will give you good time estimates for future reference.