Why Perfection is Ruining Your Productivity

How to Ditch Unrealistic Expectations and Get More Done

AuthorAuthor

Anna Seirian & MJ Mayes
April 26, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

“YOU’VE DONE IT! THERE’S NOTHING MORE TO DO! YOU’VE HIT YOUR PRODUCTIVITY QUOTA!”

Wouldn’t it be nice if you got this notification every day at 5pm?

Subconsciously, many of us are chasing this fantasy. We’re all guilty of trying to find the perfect stack of productivity tools, softwares, hacks, and tips that help us reach the bottom of our to-do list. Even when we realize we’re chasing an impossible goal, we internalize it and assume there’s something wrong with us, because what we are actually chasing is not the bottom of a to-do list but a sense of feeling okay with ourselves.

No amount of shiny new softwares can fix the internal assumption that you’ll feel okay about yourself only when you achieve Ultimate Optimization… because it doesn’t exist.

HERE ARE 3 RESULTS WE NOTICED WHEN WE STOPPED CHASING THE PRODUCTIVITY QUOTA:

🏁 IT’S EASIER TO START THINGS
When you expect perfection & criticize your every move, it’s easy to fall into a cycle of procrastination. But when you lower the bar and allow yourself to start before having all the details perfectly worked out, it makes big projects more approachable.

🗓️ IT’S EASIER TO STAY ON SCHEDULE
Setting unrealistic timeframes for yourself is basically signing yourself up for stress, overwhelm, and calendar-shuffling down the line. When you get real with yourself and become okay with how long something actually takes (and not how long you think it should take), it becomes easier to stick to your plan.

🚫 IT’S EASIER TO SET BOUNDARIES
When you’re nicer to yourself, it’s easier to identify your own needs and limits, and then enforce the boundaries that keep you feeling good. Advocating for yourself becomes second nature once you realize that prioritizing your own needs actually helps everyone win — and nobody is mad at you!!!!

The idea of Ultimate Optimization is measuring ourselves by a standard that isn’t even real. The more effective way to get where we want to go is by prioritizing realistic goals and feeling okay about what we can do instead of chasing an elusive and unrealistic standard.

HERE ARE 3 STRATEGIES THAT HELP US FEEL BETTER ABOUT HOW MUCH (OR HOW LITTLE) WE GET DONE:

🎨 PRIORITIZE PROCESS OVER OUTCOME
Honestly, Miley Cyrus has been right this whole time. There’s always gonna be another mountain promotion to chase, boss to impress, achievement to unlock, but none of those milestones are guaranteed to make you any happier than you are now. And most of the time, we end up with the shiny trophy in our hands thinking, “This is it?” because we’ve been conditioned to believe that reaching the outcome = reaching happiness.

Sure, getting the reward at the end might feel sexy and satisfying, but there’s no reason the process to get there can’t be just as enjoyable. We’ve noticed that the more you’re present with the process of what you’re doing, reaching the outcome within a certain time frame becomes less important.

🗺️ GET USED TO ZOOMING OUT
Michael Jordan has failed over and over — he’s missed more than 9,000 shots in his career, lost almost 300 games, and was cut from his high school basketball team. His ability to understand failure as a piece of information— not a character flaw — is part of what made him one of the greatest athletes of all time

Taking the long view of something will always take you further than than zeroing in on those 5 or 6 things that didn’t get done today. Zooming out means we begin noticing things that we don’t normally pay attention to — like the sustainability of our pace, if we’re prioritizing things that get us closer to our goals, and how we’re actually feeling.

One really helpful element of zooming out is that it helps us accept feelings of challenge and failure as a part of the process — ups and downs are no longer an indicator of who we are, they are simply data points in a larger story.

💙 TALK TO YOURSELF LIFE A FRIEND
Have you ever given advice to a friend that you don’t actually follow yourself?

If your best friend told you they were too drained to meet for dinner, needed an extension, or felt overwhelmed by a project, you would likely meet them with compassion & understanding rather than criticism & judgement. You! Deserve! That! Too!

Pay attention to the critical voice in your head (no, it’s not just you. We all have it!). Your inner critic is a narrator, so figuring out who your narrator is can help you reshape the story — is it Regina George or is it Bob Ross? Whenever you notice the critic, think about this paragraph right here.

HERE ARE A FEW PROMPTS FOR THE NEXT TIME YOU’RE SPIRALING:

  1. What do you need to feel more content and inspired by the process? Can you find little pockets of joy inside an otherwise mundane daily routine?

  2. When you notice yourself inside a story about failure, can you think about how this moment may be contributing to a win you can’t see yet?

  3. If a friend were in your shoes, what advice would you offer them?

👋 THANKS FOR READING

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