The Secret to my Productivity

IMPORTANT NOTE
I'm not saying that this is the best or only way. I have lots of friends who go to 100% every time and they are extremely prolific and effective creators. And they make things that are better than the things I make. I also am not trying to say that I don't think the stuff I make is good, I think "good" is a combination of time, skill, talent, and ability to choose and understand your own objectives. I just shave on time spent and do my best to optimize the other stuff.

This is what I do, not what I suggest other people do.

In general, when people try to sell you on some life-vision for being an ULTLA EFFECTIVE PERSON, what they're really trying to do is make you feel like you haven't accomplished enough or aren't awesome enough, and thus need them to become the thing you should be but which you're being held back from by some lack of knowledge. I hate that shit so much, and I really hope I'm not doing it here. Every person will find different ways of doing things that help the world and other people, which is the important thing.

But...don't let perfection hold you back from making things or doing things. Revel in your imperfection, because perfect doesn't exist.

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[neonjoe]

'Perfect' is the enemy of 'done'.

[RainDancer]

My mom always says "Done is better than perfect" that phrase is getting me through college

[jarvis]

This strategy was what helped me actually finish creative projects. 80 percent takes 80% of the time and the last 20% takes the other 80% of the time.

[mineola_]

Everything Hank says makes a lot of sense, but at the same time my brain is like: nah mate, you gotta get that 100%

[heavantedder]

“Other people’s things will always look better than your things”

[Vezitos]

I've known people who have been so obsessed with making their one "thing" (screenplay, novel, painting, etc.) so perfect, that they obsess over everything they see wrong and spend too much time trying to fix those things. They then sometimes get depressed and unmotivated to continue. 90% of their awesome work goes unfinished because it was never what they imagined in their heads.

An old mentor of mine once said it's better to have 100 finished good things made, than only 1 unfinished great thing. I try to always shoot for the perfect image in my head, but if I don't quite make it, there's no shame. It's always better to say "I MADE a thing!" instead of "I ALMOST made a thing..." :)

[LightningFox]

"Perfect doesn't exist." - Thank you. I needed that.

[CanadaSkies]

"You'll never really know where you're gonna hit until you /actually/ throw the dart" ... DUDE.

[AlliEnchilada]

This is an interesting concept that works. I am a new manager struggling with delegation and my manager gave me an awesome piece of advice, "if your staff can accomplish that task 80% as well as you can, then you need to delegate that task." I literally think about it daily now and it has improved my stress levels immensely.

[AndrewMadeAFilm]

I spent over a year making a film for YouTube channel called 'Entering 1, 000 Competitions'. It was pretty much done, but I still spent weeks fussing over the final edit, trying to correct slight nuances. Then, to my horror, I accidentally finalised the project, and was forced to upload it as it was. In my mind it was only about 90% complete. I had released an unfinished video.

That film then went viral. It turns out that nobody except for me cared about that final 10%.

Now when I watch it back, I can't even remember what that final 10% was supposed to be.

[HennyMusgrove]

So basically, to misquote Ron Swanson: “Don’t half ass two things, 80% ass a million things.”

[seallofapproval]

I actually do really appreciate this advice. I am someone who struggles with perfectionism, which leads to both the unfortunate outcomes of (a) never starting something because I know the end result will never match up to how I imagine it should or (b) over-working myself into a frenzy to get something 100%. While this has benefitted me in some ways, it has massive downfalls in other areas. I realised this was a problem when friend and I were both studying for the same exam, in which I worked at 24/7, didn't sleep, exercise or socialise, whereas she studied hard but continued to go out to parties, exercise and sleep well. She got 80-90% on most papers and received the top grade of an A*, I got 100% on every single paper, received a letter congratulating me on receiving one of the top grades in the country... but ultimately received the same grade of an A*. Looking back I wish I had spent some of that valuable time on self-care and maintaining friendships. It's not that I don't think success is important, but that success in your personal life is just as important as academic or career success.

[Jun-sidb]

Meanwhile I watch this to procrastinate, not to actually attempt to increase my productivity

[raghada]

The secret to my productivity?
Desperately trying to avoid the all-consuming regret of failure and the spirals of what-if-I-tried-harder that keep me up at night

[Megan-wfyv]

'Financial and mental stability' ... so this is out the door for college students then 😂

[lindax]

Your jacket!!! You look super stylish, my friend.

[Orikron]

Student here. Wanna know the magical secret to my productivity?






I'm fucking terrified that I'll reach the age of 40 and be stuck in a job which I hate and where absolutely no advancement is possible.

[mmmcake]

This is a well known philosophy in software life cycles). People always wonder why programs/software are never perfect, and that's because the issue Hank describes here is exacerbated in an industry where there is semi-exponential growth.

It's better to just release a simple version of your software(one that works but with almost no functionality), and patch/upgrade desired features as you go. As opposed to spending the same amount of your time on only the first 20% of your "perfect" app.

Then all you have is a really good segment of unusable code, meanwhile someone else comes up with the same idea and releases a "bad" version of your app (or by the time you finished computational power increases and field changes have rendered your idea useless), but his is at least usable while all you have is a block of theoretically good code.

Your welcome to invest in yourself and try to compete by finishing your own, but your building a snowball by hand, while he made a small snowball and threw it down a hill; even if yours was bigger/better initially, his will pass you up at a point.

Same idea as the video, I just think in programming it may be more of a 60/40% rule, or maybe even less(which is why technologically speaking everything will always have bugs and other problems).

Hank broke it down in percentages (and I loved the bullseye analogies and visual representation, genius), but I've always thought of a Time vs. Percent complete graph, and the line is an exponential function. It will approach 100% forever, and will get infinitely close, but the time it takes to get from 80% to 90% was probably more time then it took to get to 80% by itself.

So how much are you/your-time worth, and what point on the line do your draw your cut-off? Again as Hank says, it probably translates down as you progress in your career, as your knowledge, speed, skills, self-value, and value to others increases. I think this is a very useful thought exercise, not only professionally, but for a variety of aspects in life.

[heizie]

I think children need to be praised for getting things done and also if they feel they tried their best rather than on how perfect their outcome is. Then they won't feel scared to start a project or anxious it won't turn out right because they know as long as they completed the task and tried to an extent they are happy with that should be enough. I also think guiding kids to learn what the right amount of effort is to them that is sustainable and actualizing of their goals is also very important. I used to feel like the right amount of effort was if I was tried or stressed from it. If it took a lot out of me then it was the right amount and I worked hard enough. This is wrong.

[voldysgonemoldy]

Wow this is really well timed for me. I have trouble being productive because I'm either at 100% or 0%, and I end up not doing things because I feel like they won't be perfect. Sooo this is some good food for thought for me. Thanks Hank :)