How to beat perfectionism with the 80/20 rule (2024)

Perfectionism is a major obstacle when it comes to productivity. Instead of focusing on what's important, we waste time trying to make everything perfect.

How many days have you wasted obsessing over unimportant details? And when it was all over, did you wish you still had that time to invest it in something more important?

When you work on a project or task, what matters is the goal you have in mind. The goal you are working towards.

But we don't always consciously think about the goal or purpose. In most cases it is even unconscious.

Here are some goals you may be thinking about while your perfectionism is running high:

• I want to be satisfied with my work.
• I want to do better than everyone else.
• I want my boss to like me more.
• I would like my colleagues to respect me more.
• I want a lot of money to be made from this.
• I want my mother to be proud of me.

These “goals” sound a bit ridiculous. It's like a 7 year old wrote them. But that's exactly how our brains work in the background. We have unconscious needs and motivations that creep into our work.

So instead of focusing on what's really important and what our real goals are, we end up serving our unconscious needs and wants. Like the desire for approval.

Instead of submitting to your subconscious, you will be much better off if you set the goal consciously. If you are really clear about your goal. Or as Stephen Covey said, “Begin with the end in mind.”

Write down what you really want to get out of your work and what you are willing to give in return.

For example, if I applied the concept to this article, it would look like this:

1. Contact us and help as many people as possible who struggle with perfectionism.
2. Spend up to 4 hours on the article and move on.

The first point is to make sure I focus on the actual purpose of the article and what I want to achieve from it.

The second point is to define the constraints. To make sure I don't waste time obsessing over small, unimportant details.

If I didn't have these two points to guide me, I would be constantly wasting time serving my subconscious needs, such as, "I want to do better than everyone else."

Even if you consciously set your goal, the perfectionist impulse won't magically disappear. You'll still have to make an effort to stay focused on what's important. But being aware of the goal makes it much easier than just going with the flow.

A very simple way to overcome that perfectionist impulse is to apply the 80/20 rule. Also known as the Pareto principle.

The rule goes: “80% of results come from 20% of effort.” This means that when you have spent 20% of the time on your task, you are already 8/10 done.

The more time and effort you put in after that, the less effective you become.

For example, I can write the draft of the article in about 60 minutes. In the 60 minutes the article is approximately 80% complete. You get 80% of the value, although I stopped after an hour of work.

In the remaining 3 hours I can do things like:

• Format the article so it looks good.
• Correct spelling and grammar errors.
• Check the facts to make sure they are correct.
• Find a suitable header image.

All of this would add much less value to the article than stating the main idea in the first 60 minutes.

The 80/20 figures are a very broad generalization, but the rule is based on the idea of ​​diminishing returns.

A point at which the level of profits or benefits received is less than the amount of money or energy invested.

Or in other words: the more you keep working on something, the less results you get in return.

Saving 80% of your work time doesn't automatically get you the most efficient work. The 80/20 rule applies to tasks and chores, not time. The rule only works if you know which of the tasks are on the 80% side of the equation.

So how do we do it? We start with the end in mind. The target.

Using this article as an example again, I'll take my two goals:

1. Contact us and help as many people as possible who struggle with perfectionism.
2. Spend up to 4 hours on the article and move on.

So my 5 tasks:

1. Write the draft.
2. Format the article so it looks good.
3. Correct spelling and grammar errors.
4. Check the facts to make sure they are correct.
5. Find a suitable header image.

Now that I've written down my goals and tasks, it's easy to pick the top 20% of tasks that will give me the most results for that goal.

For me, the top 20% just writes the draft. This is where I need to spend most of my time if I want the most results.

In the case of an article, it is very easy and obvious. But when you're working on more complicated projects, prioritization is essential. It doesn't help to get lost in the trivial tasks and get the most out of your money.

What are you currently working on and trying to perfect? What is the real goal of your project? What are some of the tasks that won't make much of a difference?

Originally published ongeorgehalachev.comon January 2, 2017.