Don’t plan yourself to death.

There is a quote I like that says, “Perfect is the enemy of good.”

I often find myself falling into the trap of trying to make a plan “perfect,” often when it’s good enough. In the pursuit of perfection tomorrow, it’s easy to miss out on opportunities available today.

I am a plan maker. I love to script out a project, layout action items and milestones, and create exquisite plans that exist on neatly hand-written pages. For me the planning process and working for perfection it seductive.

And while I’m busy chasing the beast named “perfection,” my contemporaries that know “good” is what is needed are moving ahead of me.

Do you let your desire for perfection create immobility in your life? Do you wonder why you can never seem to get a thing “perfect” or why you’re never 100% happy with a project? If so, you might also be suffering from the affliction that is perfectionism.

I’m going to tell you why you should strive to be merely “good” instead.

As a perfectionist, let me first tell you that I sympathize with the pain you’ll feel when you make sure your work is “good” and not “perfect.” It’s tough to let go and cast off the shackles of being a perfectionist.

But here’s something you should know; while you’re trying to be perfect, your competition is busy beating you to market with products and services that are good enough (sometimes even great), but never perfect.

Something that I’ve come to learn is that no matter how many hours I pour into my proposals, no matter how many expertly crafted charts I include, no matter how many perfectly worded and phrased arguments I make, no matter how many pages I write to show mastery of my subject - others very rarely care beyond what information is relevant to them. Decisions will likely come down to a face-to-face meeting anyway.

About six months ago I crafted a proposal for a new technical service I believed my company could employ to great benefit. The R.O.I. and cash analysis was a little tricky to understand, so I wanted to make sure the proposal was perfect to help our senior executive team understand all the ways the project could benefit the company. I spent two weeks writing the proposal and a third week editing and re-writing.

I left copies with the relevant members of our senior management team and I waited anxiously for their reply. After a month ticked by with no reply, I started talking to the senior executives, asking them what they thought of the proposal.

Several were able to poke holes in my “perfect” plan that they wanted to see addressed, and our key decisions makers were far to busy to do more than skim over my proposal. They wanted a sit-down meeting anyway.

When I sat down with our key senior executives and outlined my thoughts - a process that was far from “perfect” and took only 30 minutes - they said, “Why are we sitting here talking? Let’s do it!”

In my pursuit of perfection I let two months slip past me with no action that benefited the company taking place on this project. I had planned myself to death!

When a recent project appeared on my radar screen, I typed up an executive summary and passed it around with a hand-written post-it note that read, “I think we should sit down and talk about this.” I was able to get that project reviewed and approved in a week.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t create plans and you shouldn’t do things consciously and with care - you should. I’m saying you should know that a mediocre plan with action taken will beat a perfect plan every time, because there is no such thing as a perfect plan.

So how much is too much planning? That is a tricky thing to define. You want a good plan - even a great plan - without tipping over that edge towards trying to create a perfect plan. For me, there are a few tell-tale signs I’m slipping into my perfectionist habits - I suspect some will ring true for you too, and that you’ll have your own signs to add. I now try to notice when I’m acting on these behaviours and correct myself:

1) I can’t get something “just right.”
Usually I will be stuck on an aspect of something and I’ll revise it and not be happy; I’ll revise it again and not be happy. If I don’t notice myself doing this, I’ll keep doing it over and over again. When I do catch myself doing this, I put that work away for a few hours or a few days and I’ll come back to it once. If I still can’t get it right, it’s very likely “good enough.”

2) I’m getting long winded.
I never seem to have a problem filling pages and pages when I write a proposal. I am a very detail oriented person, and I have a tendency to want to fill my proposals with details. I try to employ what I call the page-to-title ratio; I limit the number of pages in my proposals to the same number of letters in an executive’s title (CEO, CFO, etc.).

This helps me force myself to be succinct, plus it keeps our senior executives happy because they are already inundated with informaiton. I’ve fount nothing makes a CFO crankier than handing them a thirty-page proposal. If he wants more detail, he’ll ask for it.

3) I lose sight of why I’m working on something.
If after working for a period of time I realize that I’ve lost sight of the end goal or I’ve lost perspective on why I’m working on something, then I’ve probably let myself get buried trying to make it “perfect.” When this happens it’s usually a good indicator that my perfectionism is starting to emerge. Always keep your end goal in mind!

With all I’ve said about the evils of perfectionism, is there any place for it? I think there is, but only when you (and you alone) control and dictate the results. If I’m trying to photograph a flower, I may spend hours getting the image I create to be a perfect match to the image in my mind. I don’t depend on photography to pay my bills, I’m creating my own vision of perfection for myself.

For the vast majority of the things you do, you’ll find that “good” or “great” is far better than “perfect.” You can take action on a good plan today. You can take action on a great plan today. If you look for a perfect plan, you’ll always be waiting to take action.

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Here are some related articles you might also enjoy!

• Success is spelled with 4 S’s
• Motivation from your own printer
• Stop listening to negative people!
• How you influence others (even if you don’t know it!)
• How to “only” yourself to death.

January 21st, 2006

Entry Filed under: Productivity, Success, Improvement