Perfection paralysis, scope standstill, and how to combat them.
Why We Procrastinate
We’ve all been there. There’s something big on your to-do list—probably something you don’t really want to do—but you know you have to get it done. That little voice in the back of your head keeps reminding you of this looming task, interrupting every moment of peace and relaxation you try to fit into your day. Even with this constant internal nagging, though, you find yourself still doubling down on your commitment to delaying your task.
You know you would feel better having it done, but you know you probably wouldn’t enjoy the process of getting it done, and that thought becomes a blocker to all forward progress. What happens?
You stay in a state of limbo, avoiding the task you know you have to complete and denying yourself the accomplishment that checking it off your list would bring. But you also deny yourself the joy and release of guilt-free free time because you still have that nagging voice telling you you have to do the thing.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
We procrastinate because we, as humans, are pretty bad at delaying gratification. The benefit of the current moment feels much more real, much more certain than a possible benefit down the road, and we are hardwired to like sure bets much more than uncertain ones. Putting off the unwanted task whose negative repercussions won’t start to rear their ugly heads until later on is attractive because those negative repercussions are so distant that they, effectively, don’t yet exist, but the perceived benefits of doing things we actually enjoy or want right now are easy to grasp and understand.
The good news is that, as we get older and live through more situations and circumstances, we gain the experience that helps these future negatives feel a little more real.
Why is this a good thing? Well, if we have actually experienced the negatives of putting off even an undesirable task, the next time we are faced with the choice of putting something similar off or putting our noses to the grindstone, we have what feels like a more real, concrete set of circumstances and outcomes to compare as we make our decision.
Both time and maturity play huge roles in building our repertoire of experiences that will influence decision-making—after all, you rarely see an adult prone in the middle of a store throwing a tantrum to end all tantrums, but it’s not too uncommon to see children behaving this way. But if age and maturity were the only factors impacting our desire to procrastinate, we would expect adults to be faithful adherents to all deadlines and to-dos, but this is often not the case?
What gives?!
Procrastination Producer 1: Perfection Paralysis
As we get older, we not only gain more information about how to avoid negative repercussions, but we also learn more about the expectations of others, what behaviors do and don’t “fit in,” how our actions are perceived, and how people’s perceptions influence their treatment of others. We may now be more equipped to make wise decisions, but we also teeter on having so much information and so many angles to consider that thinking through them all to make an informed decision about how best to approach a task becomes overwhelming.
I call this state perfection paralysis. Even if the term is unfamiliar, the feeling is familiar to many.
Perfection paralysis occurs when we feel extreme and unrealistic pressure to perform perfectly—so extreme and unrealistic, in fact, that it becomes less threatening to simply avoid the task than to risk performing inadequately.
Perfection paralysis doesn’t just rob us of the excitement of starting to tackle a big item on the day’s docket—it keeps us from reaching the circumstances in which we are mostly likely to gain the greatest clarity, confidence, and motivation about how to approach the task. That’s because we often find this clarity after we’ve already navigated the beginning portions of a task, settling ourselves into a mindset primed to focus on the task at hand and to solve and overcome the problems related to the task.
If we keep ourselves from starting because we don’t yet have the perfect idea of how to move forward, but if we’re only likely to find a great idea for moving forward after getting started, it’s no wonder we end up feeling stuck.
How to Combat Perfection Paralysis
One of the techniques I've found most successful in my own life and with my clients is identifying times in which we accept or even prefer imperfection.
At a concert I attended, one of my favorite artists (any LIGHTS fans out there?) made a mistake starting her song, striking a wrong chord and forgetting her own lyrics in one fell swoop. She chuckled, told her band to stop, and addressed the audience with, “Well, that was wrong. Let’s try that again.”
Her next attempt went off without a hitch, but I’ve never forgotten her first. Seeing someone who displays a level of artistry and creativity I could only dream of possessing make a mistake, admit the mistake, brush it off, and carry on being amazing helped me realize both the humanity and the humility in her, and I’ve loved her even more ever since.
The moments that are most meaningful will vary from person to person, but we can likely all find a time where something went wrong, or someone made a mistake, and the resulting chaos has become one of our favorite memories. But we’re not always in the right mindset to do this sort of reflection for ourselves, so how can we help others facing perfection paralysis?
Modeling moments of acceptable imperfection is a powerful strategy for helping others realize that perfection isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Very frequently, those who struggle with perfection paralysis feel as though everyone around them has it all figured out. In reality, we all have our own struggles and challenges! Being open about those struggles and challenges and sharing how they do and, most importantly, do not affect our lives can show those we care about that perfection is not the baseline for adequacy. If we can model that it's okay to be imperfect, those around us, too, can start to learn that perfection is neither a requirement nor an expectation.
But perfection paralysis isn’t the only factor contributing to procrastination. In fact, some people feel completely confident about their to-dos and have a good idea of how to reach the finish line for their tasks, yet they still find themselves putting off their responsibilities. Why?
Procrastination Producer 2: Scope Standstill
Every task we undertake has a perceived scope. This scope can be measured in concrete units like time, subjective units like energy or motivation required to complete the task, or relative concepts like big and small. No matter how we choose to qualify the scope, one key concept holds true: the bigger the scope, the more likely we are to avoid the task.
To bring this concept to light, imagine someone telling you that you have to walk one mile to get them to stop nagging you about walking. You might weigh the costs—a little physical exercise and about twenty minutes of your time—and the benefits—getting this annoying person off your back—and decide that the costs are worth the benefits.
Now, imagine that the requirement is walking ten miles. The action and consequences are the same, but the scope has changed drastically. Now, meeting this requirement costs you over three hours of your time and a significantly larger physical demand. You don’t have three hours back to back, and maybe you’re not the biggest fan of walking in the first place, so you have little motivation and perceived ability to complete this task. Add in the fact that you’re still going to have this annoying person nagging you indefinitely because you can’t foresee a time when you could complete the requirements, and you have a recipe for misery.
The trouble is that we tend to look at situations as all-or-nothing.
I’m either done with my task, or I’m not. I’ve either crossed the finish line, or I haven’t. I’ve either accomplished my goals, or I haven’t.
These dichotomies are dangerous because they deny us the opportunity to recognize and celebrate progress, the small steps we take and victories we earn on the way to a larger goal.
When scope is too big, we reach a standstill—the finish line feels too far away to be worth the thankless effort it takes to get there.
How to Combat Scope Standstill
If you feel like the scope of your task is too big, it probably is! But rather than spending your time wishing that the overall task was smaller or easier, make it feel easier by splitting it into smaller, more manageable chunks.
For example, I’m not a big fan of doing laundry. When I think about it in its full scope, I think about a three-hour process of moving wet clothes, fighting static, finding missing socks, folding, and putting clothes away—none of which sounds fun, or good, or like something I’d want to do on a Saturday morning. If I think about the task of laundry in this way, I find myself putting it off for hours, sometimes days.
But the reality is that each of the smaller tasks I think about as part of the process are, in and of themselves, goals. My first goal is to put the clothes in the hamper into the washing machine and get them going. This task takes only five minutes and works toward my overarching goal.
By shifting my scope to focus on just one piece of the puzzle rather than the whole laundry process, I create a mini-finish line for myself, affording myself the opportunity to celebrate a small victory.
It’s this easily-accomplished small win rather than the thought of how good I’ll feel when I’m all done that gets me moving, and shifting my mindset in the same way for the other parts of the process means I’m more likely to complete each of them when the time comes.
Even for things I really despise, like folding, a little shift in thinking can go a long way. I don’t often get to just sit down and watch TV, so I’ve made a point of turning folding time into TV time. That way, when I hear the buzzer for the dryer go off, I don’t think, “Oh, crap, I have to fold now.” Instead, I think, “Oh, boy, I get to watch part of my favorite show now!” and the whole thing feels like a special treat instead of one of my most hated to-dos.
We can apply these kinds of shifts of mindset and scope to virtually any task set before us. It takes a little bit of practice to find the piece that’s right for you, but you’ll know you’ve found it when it feels more annoying to you not to complete the smaller piece you’ve assigned yourself and have that obligation off your list than it is to actually do the task.
How Can We Bridge the Gap?
Combating procrastination is really all about shifting mindset—a goal easier said than done, to be sure, but one nevertheless worth pursuing. One of the most important steps we can take in reaching this goal is stepping back and recognizing the patterns that coincide with our own experiences of procrastination. Perfection paralysis and scope standstill are common contributors to procrastination for many people, but they are by no means the only factors out there.
Further, it’s worth noting that procrastination is not a one-size-fits-all problem, nor does it have a one-size-fits-all solution. My goal is always to provide people with a range of options from which they can pick and implement the ones that feel most applicable to their lives and needs. The same exact recommendations outlined here may not fit perfectly into your procrastination experience, but there is likely something you can take away to help on your journey of combating procrastination.