Let Go of Perfectionism

When someone is a perfectionist, the job has to be done perfectly. These types of high achievers can experience more stress than someone who is not a perfectionist.

When it comes to time management, perfectionism will work against you.

This is the third in a series of posts on productivity and time management tips for mompreneurs.

If you missed them, the first was about how to manage interruptions. The second was about how to prioritize your time.

In this post we’ll tackle perfectionism.

Know that it’s okay not to do it all 🛑

Forget about multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is synonymous with doing several jobs poorly all at once – and that’s very frustrating to someone with perfectionist tendencies.

You don’t have to accomplish everything in one day. Instead, concentrate on what’s right in front of you that has to be done first. Get that finished and then move on with the next item.

Give everything you need to do a time limit ⏱️

Whether you’re a perfectionist or not, this is a good rule of thumb for anyone looking for better time management. Open-ended tasks have a tendency to pile up because there’s no finish line.

So when you look at the whole picture of what has to be accomplished with the time you have, it can feel overwhelming. It’s better to break the things you have to do down.

For example, if you have a project that has to be completed by a certain deadline, you need to divide that project up by how long it will take to get the work done.

If the project will take 40 hours to complete and you have two weeks to get it done, you know you have to work on it 20 hours per week or 5 hours per day. And take into account interruptions and other obstacles that will get in the way.

Don’t schedule anything back to back 😰

You have to have some time – even if it’s just a few minutes – where your mind can relax and get away. Mental exhaustion is often more draining than physical exhaustion.

Like your body, your brain can’t go full speed ahead on something without needing a time out every so often. In between your to do list tasks, break and do something enjoyable – or do nothing at all.

Divide all of your tasks up in your personal and professional life by hours, days, months, seasons or year 🍁

For example, if you know that every fall the gutters on your home have to be cleaned from the leaves that fell, you’ll want to put some time for that task on your schedule.

If you know that every year, there’s a Christmas party at work and you’ll need to bring something as well as show up, put that on your calendar, too. If you own a business that has seasonal items, you’ll want to schedule to take care of releasing those products, press releases or email newsletters ahead of time. You don’t want to wait until December to talk about December projects.

Look over your to-do list – you should have one for both home and office – and cut it down ✂️

Most people end up with poor time management because their to-do list has too many items on it. That’s because we all like to achieve things and even the possibility of achieving things makes us feel good.

But people often set up tasks that they can’t accomplish because there’s just not enough time.  It’s like setting yourself up for failure. Break the list down and if there’s time left over, you’ll feel a bonus that you got something “extra” done rather than failed to complete something important.

Perfection is the enemy of progress.

So let’s defeat this enemy once and for all, and get things done. Hit reply and share your best tips with me and I’ll share them in the group, so we all get the help that we need.