A little advice that instantly increased my productivity

"I admire your perfectionism, but it's not getting you anywhere. At some point, you have to say: 'I'm done with this!' Good is good enough." David, my great friend and my postgraduate supervisor, uttered something along these lines six-seven years ago. I had an immediate revelation – this little advice instantly increased my productivity.

Thanks to this little advice my productivity skyrocketed in a matter of days. I realised that striving for perfection (you know that famous thought: ‘Always shoot for the Moon, if you miss, you’ll end up among the stars’ – great, isn’t it?) is necessary to create output that is above average, but fine-tuning my work until it’s perfect is a never ending story.

What I learned from this advice

. Now that I think of this advice in retrospect, I realise I learned many lessons. I picked the most important ones:

• -I can’t wait until everything looks perfect, because it won’t happen in my lifetime,
• -There are no have-it-all conditions, I must get going with what I have,
• -The best way to do something is to get started (for example writing this blog post – I started typing and I already see the key features),
• -Challenges are there to test us and strengthen our character,
• -Success comes as a result of setting my bar a bit higher from my comfort zone,
• -The best way to succeed is to try and fail and learn from those miserable failures, try and fail again. Ignore a horrible feeling of failure and keep going. Than try again. Until you make it.

A bumpy road ahead of us

A road to success necessarily alters our personalities. It changes our mental structure in a way that we get tougher and more resilient. After so many attempts, we all get there.

Hope you increase your productivity and get there too. And don’t forget to enjoy those little steps on the way. Happiness is all about these small, almost invisible moments…