Don’t Let Perfectionism Slow You Down

As a medical school professor and physician, I strive for perfection in every facet of patient care. There really is no room for error. Workers in many other fields, from coding and financial analysis to automobile repair and manufacturing, reach for (and are expected to have) the same goal of perfection. Inattention to detail during critical tasks can result in a car malfunction, many millions in stock market losses, or a surgery gone wrong.

Unfortunately, when your job demands perfection in certain areas, it is common for perfectionism to creep into every facet of your job. When this perfectionism turns from useful ambition into a barrier that begins to inhibit your performance, however, it can become a problem. Some psychologists call this phenomenon clinical perfectionism.

Clinical perfectionism is defined as striving to meet demanding standards despite the negative consequences of doing so — and it’s problematic because those who experience it often measure their self-worth by their level of achievement. Like perfectionism, clinical perfectionism is not a formal diagnostic category, but it has been tied to other mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, depression, and others, sometimes affecting focus and productivity. A study of psychology professors, for example, showed that the academics with higher self-oriented perfectionism had a lower total number of research publications and citations.

If your perfectionist tendencies have turned from positive motivators to obstacles holding you, how can you manage? Note, this advice is not meant to serve as a medical diagnosis. If your perfectionism has begun adversely affecting major domains of your life, it may be time to seek the help of a mental health professional.

Based on my experience, I can say that learning when perfection is required (such as patient care) and learning when it can be counterproductive (such as drafting emails or completing a report), may offer you some much-needed relief.

I learned my lesson early in my career when I was asked to give a lecture to a small group of resident physicians preparing for their medical board exams. I spent weeks preparing this lecture, creating slides with images, cases, and up-to-date research studies. When the day arrived, I was excited to present my one-hour lecture. At the end of it, 10 people filed out of the room without a word. Only one stopped to thank me.

I realized at that moment that my striving for perfection had not helped me. This one lecture had consumed hours of valuable work time and a large number of cognitive resources — all for a project that had probably only marginally benefited its audience and that would not be valuable for my own career advancement.

Since that epiphany, I have worked hard to keep perfectionism from impeding my career development, and set better boundaries around when to lean into it and when to loosen my grip. These are three strategies I turn to often, and I hope that they can help you too.

Use the effort-to-benefit ratio.

The preparation for my lecture had taken great effort, but the benefits were minimal. I may or may not have helped these 10 individuals. The slides were so specific that I may not have been able to give the same lecture to a different group of learners later on. Furthermore, the work for this lecture had limited utility in other areas; it could not be expanded upon in another project and it would not be listed on my academic CV.

This experience led me to develop the concept of the effort-to-benefit ratio. In medicine, when prescribing treatments, we consider the risk-benefit ratio. Specifically, you need to weigh the risks of a particular medication versus the potential benefits before starting treatment. Similarly, before undertaking any new project, it’s important to do an accurate pre-assessment of the effort involved and compare that to the potential benefits.

When it comes to providing patient care, the benefits are so important that it justifies the effort expended. When it came to giving lectures, however, I learned that I needed to both decrease the effort involved as well as exponentially expand the potential benefits.

I now try to give lectures within specific niches where I provide specialized expertise. The subject matter of these lectures, and the research used to prepare these lectures, have now been used as the basis for multiple medical journal articles. As I have developed this expertise and continued to present these lectures, the effort involved in developing each one has been reduced. By paying close attention to both aspects of the effort-to-benefit ratio, I was able to dramatically expand my professional accomplishments while maintaining sufficient time and brain energy to focus on other goals that were important to me.

Say, for example, you’re tasked with creating minutes of a meeting. Instead of writing down what was discussed verbatim, ask your colleagues what would be helpful. One of my colleagues incorporated this strategy when she was tasked with creating meeting summaries. She learned that few attendees were reading her detailed notes since they had already attended the meeting and were instead jumping to the action items. She decided to create much shorter summaries, making use of headlines instead of detailed notes. This saved her significant time and effort, while still being helpful to her colleagues.

Learn how to start.

Perfectionistic concerns have been linked to procrastination in some studies. The thought of having to turn in a perfect article or analysis can lead to stress and anxiety, and task avoidance is one way to deal with these emotions.

Here are some strategies you can use to deal with perfection-related procrastination.

Be accepting of imperfect first drafts. Author Anne Lamott is famous for her advice to writers. In her book Bird by Bird, she writes that “almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. Start by getting something — anything — down on paper.” She goes on to talk about how her first efforts would often be long and incoherent, but that the next day, after taking out everything she possibly could, she would find usable material that would help her write a second draft. In other words, once you complete an imperfect first draft, it’s much easier to iterate for better later drafts.

Practicing imperfection also has another important benefit: reducing perfectionistic tendencies. In one study of a two-week online intervention, researchers asked volunteers to “practice making mistakes over and over again in order to get used to the feeling of not doing things perfectly.” This was done via a series of simple tasks repeated five times during the study. Compared to a control group, the intervention led to lower overall perfectionism.

Counteract the cold start. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed at the sight of the blank page in front of you when you sit down to write a report, an email, or create a presentation, you’re not alone. Many creators who share the problem have identified techniques that help them overcome this barrier.

Some of my author colleagues report that they “delegate” the cold start. Some ask an assistant to do preliminary research on an article and develop several ideas. Others may ask an AI program to develop five metaphors related to the subject of the article.

My own approach on writing projects is to dictate a quick outline or first draft. Dictation works well, since I find it less onerous to simply speak my thoughts into my smartphone. This technique has dramatically improved my work output when it comes to composing challenging emails, writing articles, or writing outlines for book chapters.

I begin by marking out time on my schedule for creative thinking about a project, which may take the form of a long walk or conversation with a colleague. I then dictate my thoughts, almost in a stream-of-consciousness fashion. These may include personal stories, anecdotes, or simply ideas for framing a topic. When I sit down to write, having these initial dictated words on the page helps to warm up my thinking and gives me a place to start. I may delete 80% of what I dictate, but having this early material helps prime my brain and helps me sink into a project faster.

Invest time in learning how to maximize useful tools. Sometimes procrastination can be traced back to a sense of dread from having to deal with certain aspects of a task. For many tasks, though, using the right tools can significantly streamline the process. Whether you survey your network, investigate online, or task an assistant with the research, searching for easier ways to complete a task may pay dividends.

When I found myself repeatedly putting off my writing of a research paper, I realized that it was due to the very onerous task of completing my reference citations. I tasked my assistant with investigating potential technology solutions, and she came back to me with a digital solution that I find truly remarkable. I now use Zotero — a free digital research assistant. From collecting research sources to formatting citations, this tool has eliminated the sense of dread I used to experience when tackling a research paper.

One of my colleagues dreaded tasking her assistant with website changes, because this involved crafting long, complex instructions via email. Switching to a screen recording app means she can now easily record the requested changes and simply send a link via email.

Learn how to finish.

Learning how to say that a project or report is completed and ready to be released can be challenging if you’re aiming for perfection, but it is a vital skill. Here are some ways to do that.

Seek early feedback. When developing patient education materials, we often add infographics, which use both images and texts to better convey information. Once, I asked my assistant to create the first draft of a new infographic, it took her hours to bring the files back to me. Flustered, I asked what was going on. I learned that while I was seeking a quick first draft to prompt ideas on where to go next, she assumed I was asking for a perfectly completed design. The problem? She didn’t seek feedback before she completed the task. Had she asked for feedback early in the process, she would’ve learned that what she had put together was enough to give us a head start. But I was also at fault here — I hadn’t given clear instructions.

Early in your career, you may not have an assistant, but you may be the one receiving instructions. If your manager assigns a task without clear instructions, ask clarifying questions. Then seek feedback early in the process. If a course correction is necessary, you can do so before you’ve invested too much time and energy.

Late feedback is just as important. The last 20% of a project can be incredibly frustrating, as you’re trying to fine-tune every aspect. This is where feedback late in a project can be so helpful. Ask for feedback, and specifically ask “How close to done is this?”

It’s also important to ask yourself or your manager, “Is this acceptable or good enough?” The author Julie Morgenstern, who has written about thriving in the workplace, describes her conversation with a successful professional speaker. He had found that an audience could never tell the difference between a “seven” performance and a “ten,” so as long as he hit a seven, he would feel good about his performance. It’s also possible that your definition of perfection and that of your managers differs. Late feedback can help you decipher if your project can be handed over or if it needs more work.

Learn when to ship. For certain projects, the deliverable needs to be perfect. In other cases, your client or employer may be prioritizing other aspects of the final project, such as speed, efficiency, or the opportunity to solicit feedback. This is where it’s vital to understand the expectations of your client or employer.

In the world of tech start-ups, an important skill for employees is the ability to “ship” your project into the world. Sometimes releasing an imperfect product is acceptable. Eric Ries, the author of the book The Lean Startup, states that, “instead of spending years perfecting our technology, we build a minimum viable product, an early product that is terrible, full of bugs…Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready.” In the start-up world there is often a premium placed on releasing a product, seeking customer feedback, and then improving. Ultimately, there’s an understanding that a product may need to go through multiple iterations. This is considered a part of the process, and it’s why we have iOS 17.0 for our Apple smartphones!

In your own job duties, make it a priority to learn the difference between those functions that require perfection and those that prioritize other attributes, such as experimentation, efficiency, or innovation.

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Although aiming for perfection is necessary in many job functions, it can be counterproductive in other situations. Learning the difference is key to high performance, and utilizing strategies to keep perfectionism in check can be helpful. Using the effort-to-benefit ratio can prompt considerations of how to reduce the effort involved and how to maximize the benefit produced by your work. Similarly, strategies that make it easier to start and strategies that help you finish can help you become more effective and productive overall.