Do you think of yourself as a perfectionist? Are you a procrastinator? Do you think these two concepts are related? EPISODE RECAP Perfectionism: when you try to achieve the ideal as a minimum requirement Procrastination: refusing to take action until you can guarantee an ideal result At first glance, these two words don’t appear related. If someone is a perfectionist, it would seem unlikely that they would put something off that could help them create perfection. However, avoiding imperfection can sometimes lead someone to procrastinate. Taking action can sometimes be messy, and if we’re pursuing perfection we don’t want a mess! Are all perfectionists procrastinators? To answer this question, let’s look at the two kinds of perfectionists: * Healthy perfectionist: sets high standards, seeks excellence, is flexible in their strategies * Unhealthy perfectionist: sets impossible to meet standards, seeks absolute perfection, is inflexible in their strategies A healthy pursuit of perfection involves balancing the costs and benefits. An unhealthy pursuit of perfection is when the costs outweigh the benefits. A healthy perfectionist gets an assignment to create a document, starts it right away, completes the document and ensures there are no mistakes and that it is well formatted. The document gets delivered on time. An unhealthy perfectionist delays starting the assignment because he’s worried that he doesn’t think he can do it perfectly. When he finally works on it, all he sees are imperfections so he keeps working on it, perhaps even putting off other work that needs to get done. The document gets delivered late (and so does the assignment that follows). Balancing a healthy pursuit of perfection with a healthy pursuit of productivity can keep us from procrastinating. Some procrastinators do it either directly or indirectly as a result of their pursuit of perfection, while others do for reasons that are unrelated to perfectionism. Are all procrastinators perfectionists? To answer this question, let’s look at the typical reasons we procrastinate: The task/”to do” is just too challenging The more difficult a project or responsibility is, the more likely we are to feel that we don’t have what it takes to succeed. It’s true! We don’t know everything and sometimes we are challenged with the challenge of having to figure something out that doesn’t come naturally, or easy, to us. Hence, no rush to start that one! Inflexibility We get used to the way things work. We get comfortable with procedures for getting things done and the tools we have to do them. When those procedures or tools change, we may get hesitant to take action because we’re suddenly less comfortable that we know what the end result will be. Do you ever put off running the latest software update on your phone because you don’t want to have to learn a new way of doing something? Unwillingness to make an “educated guess” Making a decision – any decision at all – is ultimately the process of making some sort of intuitive leap. Between what is the “right” decision and what is the “wrong” decision, there is a gap of knowledge that you try to fill with research. If you try to fill that gap completely, however, you can find yourself in an endless process of research while you wait for some divine sign that you now have “all” of the information needed to make the decision. Do you always read reviews before buying something? How often do those reviews provide the absolute final 100% yes or no answer to your ultimate question of “should I buy this?” A final decision of any sort contains some measure of “cross your fingers and hop...
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