Avoiding All-or-Nothing Mindset

Hi,

Today’s email is about how you can handle a common perfectionistic pitfall that often causes procrastination.

In the context of procrastination, an all-or-nothing mentality is when we think that if we can’t do something perfectly, then there’s no point in doing it at all. For example, if we want to start exercising, we might keep waiting to start until we can have an absolutely perfect exercise plan in place, even though it would be much better for us to start with some basic exercises while we figure things out. Similarly, if we want to write a book, we might feel paralyzed by the thought that writing something with any flaws is unacceptable, even though it's fine and we should just start writing a rough first draft.

This kind of thinking is often subconscious, but even then, it can still demotivate us in a way that causes us to procrastinate instead of take positive action.

To avoid this issue, there are several things you can do:

• Consciously tell yourself that by aiming to do things perfectly, in practice you’re just ending up stuck with nothing, or at least with way more delays than is good for you.

• Consider all the value that you can get from doing things imperfectly—often, the first 20% of the effort that you put in will lead to 80% of the benefits from your work, so even a little work can take you a long way in many cases.

• Actively give yourself permission to make mistakes, while setting “good enough for now” as your main standard.

A related tip is to avoid comparing yourself to others in a way that makes you afraid of being imperfect. Remember: no one’s perfect, even if it sometimes feels like it when you’re comparing your actual reality to the highlight reel that other people are sharing publicly.

I hope you'll find this helpful.

Have a great week,
Itamar