Penelope Trunk, blogger and author of the new book Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, recently wrote about perfectionism and how to break the perfection habit as part of her Yahoo Finance column.

These are the reasons why she says she “can’t stand perfectionists:

• Perfectionists procrastinate because they’re scared of not being perfect.
• Perfectionists are hypercritical to the point that they can’t support people around them.
• Perfectionists can’t finish a project because they can always think of a way to improve it.
• Perfectionists are phony, because no one’s perfect and they can’t handle showing that in themselves.”

It’s a good article that received mixed reviews (some of those Yahoo reviewers can be pretty brutal). Many people agreed that perfectionism is a problem that can waste lots of time, and so do I.

However, others pointed out that some of her ideas could lead to carelessness and sloppiness…

“It’s easy to start something if you tell yourself that getting it done 70 percent perfect (as opposed to 100 percent) is OK.

Believe it or not, in most cases 70 percent perfect is fine for what we do. The trick is to balance fearlessness with attention to detail and understand when you need to concentrate on each.”

Their argument is that “70 percent perfect” all too often translates into shoddy work, poor customer service, and low quality products.

I think they make a good point, because there are many situations where 70% is really not good enough, or at least it shouldn’t be. For example, would you want your surgeon to tell you “I think we got 70% of that malignant lump out?” Would you be happy with a company that strives for 70% customer satisfaction? Of course not!

In True Success, author Tom Morris recounts his frustrating experience of having to return an expensive fountain pen several times before they finally gave him one that was not scratched and actually worked properly. He writes,

“What’s the explanation for all this? Often it’s quite simple. The people involved just don’t care. Too many people don’t really care enough about what they are doing at work. They are not emotionally committed to the importance of what they are doing. And so they don’t do it well. They’re inattentive, careless, sloppy. Going through the motions…”

I completely agree with this sentiment. Being against perfectionism doesn’t give you a pass to do careless or sloppy work, which usually comes back to haunt you in the long run.

For the record, I don’t think Penelope is promoting carelessness or sloppy work in her article, but it’s something that you need to be aware of while combating perfectionism. Don’t use perfectionism as an excuse for poor quality work.

In the end, neither perfectionism nor carelessness are good. What’s best is a happy medium between these two extremes, which the rest of this article will help you find.

What is perfectionism?

My definition of perfectionism is “continuing to work on something long after the point where any extra effort is adding meaningful value.”

The key is to realize that for every project, there comes a point where the outcome is more than good enough to meet your objectives, and that this point varies from project to project.

When is the task of writing a marketing report or doing research for a project completed? How good, polished, or thorough does it need to be before you can consider it ‘done’?

To answer these questions, you need to be clear on what it is that you are trying to accomplish, because it can vary quite a bit from one project to another.

For example, writing an email to a colleague to respond to a simple question is very different than writing a press release for your company. The amount of checking and polishing required for each task can and should be very different.

Triple-checking the email and editing it mercilessly is a waste, but it may be a valuable for a press release that could  be read by millions of people and have a significant impact on your company.

Then again, if you are sending an email with facts and figures that will be used in the upcoming board of directors meeting, checking over your email a couple of times before sending it might also be a good idea.

The point is that you can’t use a hard and fast rule. It all depends on the project or task in question.

Going the Extra Mile

There are times when going the extra mile and putting in extra effort is definitely worth it. Customer service, product quality, and tasks where small mistakes could make a big difference are examples where the extra effort to go from “good enough” to excellent is necessary and is not a waste of time.

For example, making your product 10% better than your competition could result in 50% or even 100% more sales. Markets are often dominated by companies that do things just a little bit better than their competition.

You need to have a clear understanding of what you are ultimately trying to accomplish and use your good judgment to decide when the “extra effort” is really a perfectionistic waste of time, or a justified case of going the extra mile to add meaningful value to your work.

Perfectionists Can’t Tell the Difference

The key is to realize that not all tasks deserve the same level of excellence. Perfectionists have trouble making this distinction and suffer from a lack of perspective regarding their work standards.

They spend too much time doing “excellent” work where it is not needed, which only takes away from areas where it is needed and could be making a difference.

Careless, sloppy and incompetent people also have trouble making this distinction, but unlike perfectionists who tend to err on the side of doing more than required, they tend to err on the side of doing less than required.

Between these two extremes, I’d take perfectionism over carelessness any day of the week and twice on Monday.

Perfectionism is Usually Not About Excellence

Even then, there is a big difference between excellent and perfect. An unhealthy obsession with perfection can turn what would normally be a good work habit into a barrier for getting things done.

The truth is that perfectionism is usually not about excellence.

Perfectionists are not driven to do more than required because they value excellence or want to do things well. Perfectionists are driven by other psychological factors.

1. Perfectionists want to keep themselves busy to avoid facing an unpleasant issue

Perfectionism can keep you very busy, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. It serves as a perfect excuse for people that want to avoid dealing with an unpleasant task or confronting an unpleasant issue in their life because they are too busy to think about it.

For example, a person who is thinking of going back to school to get a master’s degree, but is afraid of the change it would mean, may spend hours and hours keeping their home completely spotless in order to avoid having to make the decision.

While the long-term solution is to confront the unpleasant issue, you can still escape from perfectionism in the short term by keeping yourself busy doing other more important things.

2. Perfectionists get carried away on a project or task

This is a mild form of perfectionism where you continue working on a project much longer than you should because it’s something that you are good at or really enjoy.

Scheduling and planning your time are good ways to combat this form of perfectionism because it forces you to evaluate what you are doing regularly.

3. Perfectionists have a deep fear of making mistakes or being rejected by others

Some people fall into perfectionism because they have a deep fear of making mistakes or being rejected. They feel that any mistakes they make have a direct impact on their value as a person and are afraid that others will stop approving of them if they mess up.

Unfortunately, these people fall into the trap that Michael LeBouef calls the “paradox of perfection,” which means that using perfectionism to avoid making any mistakes is in itself making a big mistake because of the low productivity that results from it.

While it is valuable to attempt to reduce mistakes in our work, perfectionists often go to great lengths to try to avoid making any mistakes no matter what they are doing, or what the cost.

The key is to distinguish between important tasks where reducing mistakes is a valuable undertaking, and low priority tasks where it just wastes time, which leads us to…

4. Perfectionists have trouble distinguishing between important and unimportant tasks

Perfectionists hold themselves to a very high standard and expect everything that they do to be perfect no matter what it is. As a result, they are unable to find adequate time to devote to the truly important and significant projects and tasks because they waste so much time on the unimportant ones.

Somerset Maugham said, “Only a mediocre person is always at his best.” You can try to go the extra mile in every single thing that you do, but doing so will limit what you can accomplish.

Overcoming Perfectionism

The first step in overcoming perfectionism is to acknowledge that it is a problem, realize what it is costing you, and make a committed decision to change.

These questions can help you recognize perfectionism before it consumes too much of your time:

1. What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?

Perfectionists usually keep working on tasks even after they have achieved the desired results. This question will focus your thinking on the desired results so you can determine if the extra effort is making a difference.

2. Is the extra work I’m putting into this project worth it?

Not all tasks deserve to be done equally well. The key is to understand when the extra effort is worth it, and when it is just a perfectionistic waste of time.

3. What am I giving up in order to keep doing this?

Remember that perfectionism may be stealing your time and energy away from other more valuable things. This question will help you determine whether perfectionism is causing you to give higher priority to less important things.

Knowing that you are giving up something more important to perfect what you are doing now may give you the jolt you need to stop.

4. Should I stop doing this?

This question can help you detect perfectionism even if you don’t have anything more important to do.
After all, you can also waste your time perfecting your top priorities. When you realize that extra effort will add little value to your ultimate objectives, it is time to move on to something else.

Alan Lakein suggests that if you feel unsure whether it is worth continuing or finishing a task, you should just stop and move on to something else. You can then revisit the task later to see if there is anything more that you need to do.