“ARGH I WANT TO BEND TIME AND SPACE LIKE HIRO NAKAMURA*!!” 😩
Ok this was me last week at the looming deadline and crazy crazy burning of midnight oil to get our deliverables out on time. 😬
Client: Do you want a week’s extension? Our project had already been delayed before we engaged you, so another week wouldn’t make a difference.
OMG. I could use that extra time! 🤩
I mean, kids had to eat oven-ready meals and I had a pile of laundry the size of Mt Fuji! ⛰
But… really, how big a difference would that have made?
The amazing team was already working at optimum level and performance for the time we had, and I felt that it wouldn’t have made that much of a difference.
Those of us with perfectionist tendencies need to understand the “Law of Diminishing Returns” and how trying to make things ‘more perfect’ may hinder our progress instead of moving us forward.
And so I remind myself of this cardinal law and answered:
“No thank you Mr Customer. We have put our best work forward and while the breathing room might help a little, I don’t think we would make a significant difference to the quality of our output. We’ll be submitting our deliverables on schedule.”
*and exhaaaaaaaale*.
😬
Are you a perfectionist who will continue to finesse your work because it “can and should be more perfect”?
Do you find it helpful?
I still have to remind myself to draw a line under the work, and remember the Iron Triangle of hashtag#ProjectManagement: i.e. the immutable relationship between Resources, Time and Scope affect the Quality Of The Output.
Good Enough and Done is ALWAYS better than Getting Perfect but Never Quite Finished.
What do you think?
hashtag#OnThePeiroll
* Reference to the super addictive Heroes series
