Do Things Poorly

Whether or not you had a Santa phase as a child, you probably grew up with another belief — one that runs deeper and is harder to shake. It goes like this: you should always do your best work.

Let's challenge that. For a number of reasons, sometimes it's better to do significantly less than your best. Instead of pursuing perfection, or even "excellence," your life can improve considerably if you instead learn to do things poorly.

I know this sounds counterintuitive, especially if you grew up feeling pressured to finish at the head of the pack. But the desire for all-around excellence may be stressing you out more than you realize.

From a viral thread

The case against perfectionism

I first learned of this concept from a viral thread by Heron Greenesmith, a policy attorney and advocate for LGBTQ issues. Here's how they put it:

This might be contrary to what you tell yourself. You want to do a good job at everything! But being a perfectionist isn't something to be proud of — it's a belief system that can limit important skills, including:

• Your ability to complete tasks and move on
• Your ability to feel a sense of accomplishment about anything
• Your ability to triage — noting the difference between the few things that truly matter and everything else

Heron makes the point that do things poorly isn't only about moving faster. There's a more important reason: "Doing things poorly is CRUCIAL to harm reduction."

If you're trying to stop using harmful substances, for example, using less of them might be more achievable than stopping entirely. Perfectionistic thinking — all or nothing — makes the harder path feel like the only path.

I like Heron's McDonald's example. Many of us would reject it reflexively. "I would never! Fast food is bad." But you know what's better than not eating? Eating. Maybe next time you'll stock healthy snacks and have better options. For now, you eat the Big Mac, because eating is good.

The same principle applies to recycling. Another example comes from KC Davis, a counselor and author who advises people to throw things away when cleaning up their living spaces, instead of feeling paralyzed by the obligation to recycle or find new homes for every unwanted item. Don't miss the point: recycling matters. But when you're overwhelmed, imperfect action beats paralysis. You move into a better place, and from there you can make different choices.

Apply the method

Four ways to put it into practice

Here are four common situations where doing things poorly outperforms waiting for perfect.

If you think of yourself as a perfectionist, this concept is difficult — maybe terrifying. But think about what you could accomplish if you did some things poorly. You'd have more energy to spend on what matters.

A personal story

The three-quarters-ass rule

You might know the expression "half-ass," usually as an admonition. "Don't half-ass it." Give it everything, in other words.

On the events team I used to lead, we had a saying that pushed back on that mentality. With a big conference coming up and many moving parts to manage, we wanted the core experience to be excellent. But if we pursued excellence everywhere, we'd inevitably fall short. So we made a rule: whenever anyone found themselves getting bogged down in some tiny detail that probably wouldn't matter much, anyone on the team could speak up in favor of what we called the three-quarters-ass rule.

Feel free to adapt this however it suits you. Not everything can be done with excellence, and you'll feel less anxious when you stop trying to meet an impossible standard everywhere at once.

Doing things poorly can also free you to focus on the few things that genuinely deserve your full attention — and you might do an even better job with those. When in doubt, let go and move on.

A practice for this week

Choose one thing to do poorly

The goal here is one concrete experiment — not a lifestyle overhaul. Pick one task you've been avoiding because you couldn't do it well enough, and commit to the three-quarters standard.