How to Actually Do "Done is Better Than Perfect"
Karen Snyder, Certified Speaking Professional
Improving culture and senior leadership synergy through keynotes, executive coaching and customized programming.
Almost 2 years ago a colleague of mine, Mike Schmidtmann, shared his explainer video.
Like you, I had seen them before. But his was fantastic, and I thought it was a good idea to explore. I soon hired a company to create one. Their contract said that the finished product would be complete in two weeks. At the time, I was very busy creating a year-long customized training program, so I modified the contract, omitting a deadline altogether.
Was this a good idea, or did I create my own procrastination dilemma? For those of you who are frequent readers, you know that about the standing desk.
Although I often say “done is better than perfect,” sometimes I don’t listen to myself. The contract sat on the side of my desk for almost two years.
While this project of an explainer video was significantly more time consuming than opening the standing desk box, it didn’t deserve two years of desk and mental energy space. With my team, Keri and Mary, and the quick turnaround time of the video company, we were able to put together the finished product in about 20 hours.
When I showed my husband the finished product he had some suggestions. I said, “Done is better than perfect.” What do you think?
Improving culture and senior leadership synergy through keynotes, executive coaching and customized programming.
2 年That's phenomenal! Way to go!
I once had a leader tell me his favorite word was 'aspire' because it implies we never achieve the goal. We are here for the journey and iteratively grow throughout the process. This always resonated with me.
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2 年A thousand time yes, Karen!! “Done is better than perfect” is something I am really trying to embrace this year. I have a new virtual assistant, and it feels really good to be getting things done and off of my own to do list, but I have to let go of it being done 100% the way I would have done it.
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2 年I completely agree with "done is better than perfect," specifically because you can't even GET to "perfect" (or even great), if you don't start with a first draft. So I like to think of it as not an either/or where you can either have done or perfect, but rather a pathway that goes start->done->learn->revise->closer to perfect, etc.