The report was finished on Tuesday. It is Friday, and you are still changing it. You have rewritten the first paragraph eleven times. Each version is a little better than the last, and none of them can be sent. Work gets everything I've got. It's what I live and breathe, and I want it done perfect.
Caring about quality is a good thing, and many people take pride in careful work with no trouble at all.
01
What it looks like
You redo what was already acceptable. You find the flaw nobody else would see, and then you can't stop seeing it.
Finishing is hard, and handing it over is harder. Deadlines get met at the last minute or not at all.
Some things never get started, because you can already tell they will not come out the way you want.
Praise for the result does not settle much. You know where the weak parts are.
02
What it protects
In each case below, it may be holding off one moment: the work being seen as it is, with its flaws, by someone who will draw a conclusion.
What conclusion, and whose, is the part the strategy can't show.
03
The rules it can serve, and what is under each
"Being wrong isn't a mistake. It feels like a verdict."
A flaw may count as being wrong. Under it, the fear may be that if you are wrong about this, what else are you wrong about. I can be really good at something and still not believe I'm doing it right.
Read about Right →"If I'm not producing, I don't know who I am."
The work may be standing for what you are worth, so good is not good enough. Under it, the fear may be that without achievement you don't matter. Missing a goal eats at me. I'm wired to hit the mark.
Read about Output →"I'm still working for someone who may not even be watching anymore."
There may be one person whose opinion of the work is the one that counts. Under it, the fear may be that without their verdict you don't know what you are worth. Growing up, doing well was how I got noticed.
Read about Approval →These three are not the only rules that can be under it, and none of them may be yours.
04
What it buys and what it costs
It buys quality. The work is good, often better than it needed to be.
For you, the cost may be time, and the things that never leave your desk. A finished piece that is never sent has helped no one. For the people waiting, it may mean delay, and learning to ask you for things earlier than they need them.
05
How to tell which rule is under it
There are three questions here, one for each pair.
Right or Output: which is worse, finishing something flawed, or not finishing at all? Flawed is the Right answer. Not finishing is the Output answer.
Right or Approval: does it matter less if the person correcting you is someone you don't respect? Yes, much less is the Approval answer. No, wrong is wrong whoever says it, is the Right answer.
Output or Approval: if nobody ever found out you'd done it, would you still have done it? Yes, and you still couldn't stop, is the Output answer. If the point drains out of it, that is the Approval answer.
If none of the three sorts it, there is not enough to tell yet. That is a result.
High standards are not this strategy. In work where precision really matters, care is the job, and for Right the check is whether the reaction is in proportion outside that work. Someone who loves the craft, finishes, and rests without guilt is simply good at it.
The three questions are subtraction. Each one exists to take a possibility away.
What it looks like when the work never gets started is on Procrastination.