Done vs. Perfection: Which is the best for you?

wiseagent Level 1

September 30, 2017, 6:19 pm

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A job well done is always the best option for those who value your own skills, but when your deadline is knocking at your door... Do you still continue to privilege the quality of your jobs or just meet the deadline is enough (obviously with the minimum of quality)?

It's a balance that is sometimes difficult to control, but some extreme situations make us have to prioritize different things.

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honeybabe

honeybabe

Some people are perfectionists. I’m very comfortable knowing there’s no such thing asperfect.I prefer better than perfect better, it might be low quality but there is always room for improvement. Things will work out step by step. I believe you should always strive for the highest quality you can. No finished
product is perfect, and if you keep trying for perfection, you WILL never
finish.

9 years ago

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augusta

augusta

I prefer a perfect job than a done job. Someone can finish a task on the deadline dot but you find out it was all rubbish but another will finish late and it was all worth the wait,so it will better one wait for something good than fast and thrash is turned in.

9 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I am completely in compliance with what you said here! There IS always room for improvement, and that is a GOOD thing. It keeps us all striving for better and better modes of action and expression. Can you imagine what a boring world it would be if everyone did everything perfectly all the time?

9 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

You have hit the nail on the head with your statement about chasing perfection. Truly it is so difficult to reach perfection in what we are doing and it is not really good to be a perfectionist. When the work is better than good then I think that will do because trying to improve on it will only waste your time because you might just be going around in circles and you have not made any enhancement at all.

8 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

I've actually come to a similar conclusion myself. I used to be a perfectionist until I realized that striving for perfection was setting unrealistic goals for myself. It isn't even just unrealistic; it is more along the lines of just straight up impossible. We should strive to make the best quality content that we can, but trying to make something perfect means that we will never finish anything, because it is an unattainable limit.

9 years ago

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overcast

overcast

I am more into the group of getting it done. I make sure to have some tests on what needs for this to be perfect. But my focus is more on the what gets things done. So in that context you can say that done is lot better than the perfection. And each one of us can be into this type of the system for getting work done. Most project management type of the people are going to into this system. I have yet to learn on this though. People seem to be not understanding that part. They often chase the perfection. We have to work with what we can get done first. That's how many people are building their stores.

9 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I agree that it is perfectly fine to chase perfection; however, in doing so, you may find yourself chasing forever! There are things which can be improved upon or revised later, of course, but I think we need to be productive as well as perfectionists. Like you, though, I want to get things done too, and in terms of project management, staying motivated and pushing forward comes with achieving short-term goals, and these things do not always come out just perfectly.

9 years ago

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overcast

overcast

I think perfection is over rated. I think the best approach is iteration. Like this way you get things perfect with small number or large number of iterations. And constantly improving things. So this way you'd not have to worry about the perfection at everything you do. And if you pay enough attention things are going to be lot easier in due time as well. Short term goals and short term steps definitely help towards the done vs perfection approach.

9 years ago

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ballyhara

ballyhara

To be honest, I've been right here hundreds of times, specially when I was in college and my projects have to be on time. Unfortunately I'm a perfectionist and I always want everything to be in the proper way. But, obviously if I had to choose between not to deliver my job or wait until is perfect but out of time, of course I had to pick to bring it no matter if it wasn't perfect. It was kind of frustrating for me, but it was my fault for not making my project on time.

9 years ago

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Tronia

Tronia

I'm very similar to you because I am a perfectionist as well. I am almost never fully satisfied with things because I just know that I can make something even better... that's why I keep learning about things and trying to grow as a freelancer and as a person. When I was still in school, I always rechecked all my projects a hundred times to make sure that they're somewhat perfect.

9 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

It is crucial that we ALL continue to keep learning. Growth takes friction and dedication to future potential. You sound like you are accustomed to reviewing and revising your work. This kind of scrutiny creates quality in your work as an artist.

9 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

What a question! I think we have spoken on this, wiseagent, under other contexts in other forums, but this is definitely a lingering and important question. I guess I might be a pessimist, but, ultimately, I DO NOT believe in perfection. If it has a human's hands on it in its creation, it will never be perfect because we are all so subjective in one way or another. I think you just have to present your work after doing your best, but if you are waiting on perfection, you will most likely never present anything because that will keep you from ever finishing your projects/

9 years ago

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wiseagent

wiseagent

I think that even though this subject is discussed (albeit through other contextualizations) it will always be something that will generate a great debate because it is a very important subject that surrounds the minds of millions of people.

Am I right?

9 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

You are completely right! When I mentioned that it may have come up before, I was acknowledging that this is something we can all definitely relate to and something we have all struggled with or faced. I can tell by your writing, since you and I have been interacting in forums for a minute now, that you put a lot of care into your work and that you are a bit of a perfectionist. This question is at the core of how we all present ourselves and how we all approach our work, and that is very important!

9 years ago

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wiseagent

wiseagent

You're right and I think that I can the same about you.

I'm very perfectionist with my writing (sometimes even much more than I should). But this is something that I already do automatically from the first moment I started writing. Some people train for it, I've always done it without thinking twice.

The way our work is done and presented is always an extra concern, haha.

9 years ago

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Tronia

Tronia

I don't think that there's such thing as perfect since there are always aspects of any item or even life that you can improve and work on. However, I believe that if you can't finish a job to the best of your abilities and produce a high-quality product then you shouldn't have accepted it in the first place. So, for me, it is definitely "perfection">done. Getting things done is easy if you are just rushing them and not caring.

9 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

It depends on the situation I guess. If you have the time to do it properly then obviously it is much better to do it to perfection. But obviously, if you do not have the time to finish it to perfection then it is much better to just get it done rather than try and make it as perfect as possible.

9 years ago

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wiseagent

wiseagent

The situation is certainly one of the deciding factors in this matter, but there is no way you can't choose any side... So, you have to join in one of the teams. Right?

Be ready for it, haha!

9 years ago

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Barida

Barida

Meeting the deadline is what I always think of especially when the time given is on my neck. I try to do the work as good as I can, but I don't worry about perfection. I would just add a note that the client should refer back to me if there are corrections to be made.

9 years ago

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wiseagent

wiseagent

I agree with you.

When the deadline is very close and enters through a window, perfection - in the literal sense of the word - exit immediately through the other window.

The important thing is to deliver the work (with a reasonable quality at least).

9 years ago

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Krisleen

Krisleen

I have encountered this dilemma on my offline freelance work. The client gave me a rush job. The deadline is really tight for a very tedious job. I sacrificed staying up very late just to finish everything at the given deadline without compromising quality. It's always the best practice to have a win-win solution. The least you can do is to sacrifice working longer temporarily to get the work done without sacrificing quality instead of being in a hurry and deliver erroneous work that can be rejected or subject for rework. It's definitely more stressful that way. It's really a waste of time and energy. It's better to sacrifice time temporarily than to waste more of it on rework while leaving your client frustrated.

9 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

Agree with this, but you also have to set a limit on yourself on how much time you're willing to sacrifice in working on a project. Everyone should aim to reach perfection in their work but as long as you've done your best, a job well done is good enough.

9 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

Honestly it used to be that I would work on a project until it was what I deemed to be "perfection." And even then, I would still try to rework things and move stuff around, adjusting little details here and there, for as long as I could. I felt that no matter what I was working on, it was never truly finished and there was always something to change. This ended up being a huge problem for me as I slowly began to realize that my quantity to quality ratio was severely off. I don't know if it's just me, but it would seem that it is more lucrative to put out more content at the cost if it simply being "good" as opposed to less content that is "great."

9 years ago

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Pixie06

Pixie06

I like my work to be perfect but unfortunately this is not always possible. At my previous company my boss was more bothered about us reaching the deadline. Missing a deadline could have disastrous consequences. For example we had only 24 hours to resolve a complaint and there were many steps which we had to follow and we had to submit a report detailing about the complaint and the actions taken within the 24 hours. This was not easy as we rarely received the same type of complaints and the solutions provided depended on the complaints. I won't deny the fact that quality is important but in today's hectic office environment it can be difficult to achieve perfection.

9 years ago

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Rumu

Rumu

Done or perfect? I think I'll go with done. Not because it's impossible to be perfect, but because it's easier to be done with or without an ultimatum.

I've actually seen people make a mess out of a done work in a bid for perfection. So it's almost impossible to be perfect. Almost because perfection is just a word used for defining an action, some actions in my opinion can be made perfect.

9 years ago

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Soulwatcher

Soulwatcher

I am more of a job well done is good enough for me. I know that a lot of people are perfectionist. But truth be told is most people are so use to things not being perfect that they done even care anymore. Perfection is so far gone these days that its a modern day miracle its you come across anything that is even 90% perfect.

9 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

We have a family friend who is Japanese. From him, we learned that Japan has progressed rapidly mainly because of quality. In the 1960s, anything that is made in Japan is expected to expire sooner due to low quality. But now we know that Japan is all about quality of their products. And that's because their culture is for perfection of their work. It's not okay to have the job done. What's best is to make it perfect. That is the Japanese motto.

9 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

I just try to over deliver. I do not aim for perfection and I try not to shortchange my clients, so I would say somewhere in the middle of both of those is what I aim for. It's not really that difficult to over deliver as once the job is done you just have to do a bit more just to make sure you are not giving the customer less value than what they paid for.

9 years ago

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TimothyAlex

TimothyAlex

When it comes to writing or other creative work, a project can always be improved. I have written something one day that I was happy with, and then the next day, during a final edit, made major revisions. You can't let perfection become the enemy of the good. If everything has to be absolutely perfect, you will drive yourself crazy.

9 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

You can accomplish both if you lay it out right and use your time wisely. Nothing worse than procrastinating and then turning in shoddy work. If you do the best you can and use your time wisely. The buyer will most likely give you a good review and use your services again.

9 years ago

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Niyantha

Niyantha

Personally, I am a hardcore perfectionist, but I accept that I am not perfect myself. I always had the principle of wanting to do things the best possible way I can do them. Some may say that it is very time and effort consuming, but I refuse to compromise on the quality of my work. So even if I have a deadline, I will try my absolute best to finish work fast and manage time effectively and efficiently but also make sure that the quality is satisfactory.

9 years ago

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jaymish2

jaymish2

I've learned this lesson the very hard way. It is better to get things done, then have them perfect. If you aim for perfection you waste a lot of time, because it is impossible. Perfection comes with time. The more you do something, the better you get at it. For that moment accept what you can do and that's enough. If you're a writer, the more you go over your work, the better it becomes. I used to want to write a perfect article the first time.I used to take so long and feel frustrated when it was returned back with mistakes because I didn't have time to edit it.So I'm with the done crowd.

9 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

A job well done is enough for me. Nobody can really perfect anything, and being OC about perfection just prevents you from getting more work done, and is detrimental to your progress in the long run. You'll turn in less complete articles since you'll feel that even those that are already good still subpar because they're not perfect, when in reality you could've moved on and made 3x the output if you were just satisfied with your initial work. It would also lead to burnout.

9 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

I have this attitude before that I should do my work perfectly but I realize that sometimes you can't be perfect and your work can't be perfect even if you have enough time. When I watched a video of one artist, he gave some tips on how he mastered her art and that video mention that if you are an artist, you should work fast than perfect and this way if you are able to familiarized sketching and drawing in a fast manner then you will be able to work easily with some parts depends on what kind of art you are doing.

9 years ago

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fishbate

fishbate

For me perfection is not attainable but i think its a great tool for progress. When someone say it's perfect, i think its a compliment for achieving what is required or expected with your work. But everything is always a subject for improvement and innovation, its what makes people achieve goals. Always improving and always innovating in their line of work.

9 years ago

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mitan143

mitan143

I totally agree to you. Also, perfection is a product of your excess effort to finish one work. It may also tell the person if he or she excels in that field.

9 years ago

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aeon

aeon

Job well done I think is enough for me, Because no matter how you work hard and make it perfect, it's doesn't matter because at the end it's up to the appreciation of your clients. Hearing the word perfect from your clients is just a compliment and its really hard to attain.

8 years ago

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