If you find yourself struggling so far with this idea of striving for good enough instead of perfection, let me show you how another concept rooted in economics might help make it clearer why changing your goal to good enough may be in your best interest. This idea will speak to those high achievers out there, not to fuel the desire to be high achievers but to make the case for good enough using a way of thinking that will resonate with you. The idea of opportunity cost is one that speaks to what we give up in terms of possible outputs and gains in one area when we choose to spend time or resources in a different area. Since the same amount of a resource cannot be spent on multiple things, in the same way, the same dollar cannot buy you a bag of chips and a candy bar if they both cost $1 each, you have to allocate each annum of a resource whether it’s time, money, or manpower towards the completion or achievement of one thing. With this in mind, we will use the previous examples to demonstrate the power of opportunity cost applied to your time.
Let’s go back to your primary education years using the example in the diminishing returns section, where you find yourself having to make a decision, do you choose to spend 2.5 hours to increase your score on the test from 98% to 100%? Well, that depends on what else you need to accomplish. Let’s assume that the same week you have this test you also have a book report due, now that book report has similar properties and constraints of time investment to output (your grade) and since time like all other resources is finite, you need to calculate where and how you should spend your time on both to achieve the desired results you want. This is where defining what good enough looks like for both of these objectives will make the decision on where and how you spend your time much easier.
In looking at the term paper, you understand that you will need to spend 60 minutes to get a 40%, 30 more minutes to get a 65%, 12 more minutes to get an 80%, 4 more minutes to get a 90%, 35 more minutes to get a 95%, 85 more minutes to get a 98%, and 2 more hours to get a 100%. In looking at your week, you know that you only have 3.5 hours to devote to the work required for both the test and the book report. How would you choose to spend this time? Say you start studying for the test first and want to get a 98% which will require you to spend almost 4 hours of time.
The only challenge here is that you will realize two things, the first being you don’t have 4 hours to spend in total, and second, now you have no time left to work on your book report and will have to accept a 0% or an F. By making this choice, the opportunity cost of how you spent your time is the grade you may have wanted on your book report. Let’s look at this again, and instead, you chose to spend 100 minutes studying for the test and 106 minutes writing your book report. Now, you will end up with a 90% on both, and while you have sacrificed the 98% on the test, you have done so because the opportunity cost of trying to get a 98% was not worth accepting a 0 on the book report. An easy way to think about this when applied to your work is where and how will the amount of time you spend have the most impact on creating the best outcome, given that you have a multitude of items that will require your time and your time is finite.
Looking at this a different way, and through the lens of a start-up and concept very familiar to those in the technology space, is this idea of minimum viable product or MVP. MVP is a concept that sums up, in the best way I have seen, what good enough looks like. Being in the software industry myself, I know all too well the tension of the MVP vs my ideal goal (perfection), and they are never aligned. The idea of an MVP is an iteration of a design or software that is good but not great, but at the same time meets the basic needs of the ideal customer profile, as well as the value proposition of the company. As the visionary of the software, I know it could be better, but I also don’t want to wait to go to market, as waiting until it is perfect may cost me being first to market, market share, or even the entire company. The opportunity cost of waiting to go to market until it is perfect is too great and as a result, I work to identify what the MVP or good enough looks like and go to market as quickly as I can. With this idea of MVP in mind, think about how such an idea would manifest itself in the work you are doing, and this will help you paint a picture of what good enough looks like.
Now, some of you after reading through this idea might have inferred that I am advocating for mediocre work and I understand why you may have come to this conclusion while reading between the lines. To be clear, good enough is not mediocre, it’s good work, but it’s also not perfect, and the “enough” aspect is where the subjectivity comes in. On a daily basis, you will need to define what good enough looks like, but good enough is always good, it just takes into account other work that also needs to be completed and what you give up when you choose to devote your time to something. Good enough in practice means I will accept less than perfect so that I can concurrently also make progress on another project because to accept no progress in my other work would create consequences that even perfection in some other area cannot outweigh. It means that instead of striving for perfection, I will accept good enough so I can leave work at a decent hour and spend time with my family. It’s living in and through the understanding that perfect work will never take the place of my personal and family relationships.
At the end of the day, it’s a choice that you have to make and one that can serve you well on your journey of finding your lightning. I hope that the above examples and concepts applied to your time have given you a better understanding of why aiming for good enough will allow you to be more productive and accomplish more, while also removing the angst you feel when you aim for perfection. Keeping your 10,000-foot goals in perspective will aid you in determining what good enough looks like because you cannot look at each piece of work in a vacuum, you have to look at the sum total of all of your work to gauge where and how to spend your time to maximize output while striving for your larger goals. Along this journey to reaching your larger goals, you will find that good enough will almost always get there more often and faster.