I like to do things up right. And by right, I mean “meticulously.”
There are times when meticulous is good: brain surgery leaps to mind, along with piloting aircraft, dentistry, riding a bicycle in L.A. and certain kinds of baking. Careful readers will note that none of these, or anything much like them, are among my duties, and it will be a cold day in hell before I put my ass on a bike in this town.
So most of the things I do, while they should be done well and even better than just “well” as time and energy permits, do not have to be done meticulously. Like, for example, a last-minute design job for a friend that I’m squeezing in before I leave town as a favor, and that will likely be discarded when we do the real job upon my return.
Like that.
The BF has learned to work quickly and well, spending as much time in TV as he has. They just don’t have the time or budgets to do things meticulously; as a service provider, you’re forced to get down with the concept of “good enough.” At one point, I’d expressed some interest in doing more work for television-land; The BF gently pointed out that my price per hour would probably be better at Starbucks. If the UPM didn’t kill me first.
Today, I stopped at good enough on a job. And I’m stopping at good enough on this post.
What can you put aside as “done” today?
xxx
c
Image by levistone via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license. You’ll notice that I even stopped short of finding a “perfect” picture: after five minutes of looking, I realized the irony of passing on this one for a post like this because it was a few pixels shy of my usual stringent requirements.
I find this title really funny being that I work for the “guv’ment”! Our motto, “It’ll be there tomorrow”
Love seeing the new posts everyday….you’re “good enough” is just enough to keep us going until tomorrow.
What an important concept!
Tim Ferriss has more on this idea, or was it Charlie Gibson on the news…? One of them recently reported on the happiest country being the one that was fine with “good enough.” (Denmark? Sweden? I can’t recall — I was probably polishing the screen…)
A great reminder that the last 30% of time/effort put into perfectionism rarely shows up to the rest of the population (or the TV audience, the client, the dinner guests, etc.)
Good thinking!
Angie – Guv’ment worker! I want me a guv’ment job! With the good insurance and all those bank holidays!
Thanks for the support, Missy Ma’am. I’ll keep writin’ if you keep readin’.
GirlPie – Oh! If you find that Ferriss/vague-news article, send me the link, would you?
And again, thanks for the support. Easy to forget, that last 30% don’t matter…
I kinda sorta understand this, and I am sometimes good with good enough. what really gets my goat is receiving well-intentioned but valueless praise from people who don’t realize how far of the mark their “good enough” falls.
I’ve said this before: “If a job’s not worth doing, it’s not worth doing well”.
On the other hand, I’m not that sort of person. It’s the person I maybe need to become, but I’m not there yet.