I can’t remember where I heard this at the moment but I think it was from a shared tweet or tumblr post or something: anything worth doing is worth doing poorly (vs. anything worth doing is worth doing well because sometimes the fear of doing poorly stops you from even trying) the logic was at least you did the thing, even if it’s not perfect and that is absolutely the opposite of how I lived up to that point, and I struggle with it but I think about it a lot and it gets me through a task sometimes.
I've known people who have been so obsessed with making their one "thing" (screenplay, novel, painting, etc.) so perfect, that they obsess over everything they see wrong and spend too much time trying to fix those things. They then sometimes get depressed and unmotivated to continue. 90% of their awesome work goes unfinished because it was never what they imagined in their heads. An old mentor of mine once said it's better to have 100 finished good things made, than only 1 unfinished great thing. I try to always shoot for the perfect image in my head, but if I don't quite make it, there's no shame. It's always better to say "I MADE a thing!" instead of "I ALMOST made a thing..." :)
Every once in a while though, you get perfectionists that make masterpiece after masterpiece. Hayao Miyazaki is famous for how picky he is, asking animators to redraw over and over again. And there's that story about Kubrick where he shot one scene 87 times... I'm just saying, there are productive perfectionists out there too.
Anne I think the thing for me is, I won’t ever feel that I get to 100% anyway. Maybe I’ll feel I can get to 90-95 of even 99%, but I’ll never feel like it is perfect. So at a certain point it just becomes futile.
I used to be a perfectionist, but eventually learned to settle for good enough. I made it a rule to reach at least 120%, with 100% being what was expected of me. I go above and beyond what my boss expects and leave a positive impression while not being inefficient to reach perfection, that way I can keep inline with projected timelines. Sometimes it's such a simple task to me, I go to 10,000% easily, but if I start to encounter difficulty I push just a tiny bit more to reach at least 120% and move on to the next task. For one job, I was told to spend my first few months entering data into a new database using their paper documents for the information. Less than two full work days later, I completed the task and my boss was left unsure of what to assign me. Instead I began fixing issues around the office like a handyman, rewriting procedural manuals, and sitting in on corporate brainstorming sessions to improve the direction of the company for the future. If you can, in a timely manner, dramatically exceed expectations, then by all means do so. If you've already met expectations and cannot proceed further without exceeding your timeline or putting in arduous effort, then accept where you're at and move on to the next task at hand.
Anne More like my clients. I'm a translator. They don't realise that nobody is perfect and that it's impossible to get everything 100 percent right. Which is why they need to hire a proofreader. They don't.
I spent over a year making a film for TH-cam channel called 'Entering 1,000 Competitions'. It was pretty much done, but I still spent weeks fussing over the final edit, trying to correct slight nuances. Then, to my horror, I accidentally finalised the project, and was forced to upload it as it was. In my mind it was only about 90% complete. I had released an unfinished video. That film then went viral. It turns out that nobody except for me cared about that final 10%. Now when I watch it back, I can't even remember what that final 10% was supposed to be.
I don't fully agree on that one. At the same time you are often proud of your work and you see how much effort and resources you put in it when you look at it, something that other people won't see. I would rather say "Don't forget that other people make mistakes and imperfections too".
This is an interesting concept that works. I am a new manager struggling with delegation and my manager gave me an awesome piece of advice, "if your staff can accomplish that task 80% as well as you can, then you need to delegate that task." I literally think about it daily now and it has improved my stress levels immensely.
I think children need to be praised for getting things done and also if they feel they tried their best rather than on how perfect their outcome is. Then they won't feel scared to start a project or anxious it won't turn out right because they know as long as they completed the task and tried to an extent they are happy with that should be enough. I also think guiding kids to learn what the right amount of effort is to them that is sustainable and actualizing of their goals is also very important. I used to feel like the right amount of effort was if I was tried or stressed from it. If it took a lot out of me then it was the right amount and I worked hard enough. This is wrong.
Yes. Yes. Yes. I internalized "do your best" a little too hard as a kid such that giving anything but 110% to a project felt like a failure, and that made pieces of high school and college waaay more difficult than they needed to be. Particularly as someone who has a thousand different interests. You can't- and shouldn't!- always do your best, and you sometimes need to prioritize some things to the detriment. Those are the usual reminders that play on repeat in my brain now, and I still need them.
I actually do really appreciate this advice. I am someone who struggles with perfectionism, which leads to both the unfortunate outcomes of (a) never starting something because I know the end result will never match up to how I imagine it should or (b) over-working myself into a frenzy to get something 100%. While this has benefitted me in some ways, it has massive downfalls in other areas. I realised this was a problem when friend and I were both studying for the same exam, in which I worked at 24/7, didn't sleep, exercise or socialise, whereas she studied hard but continued to go out to parties, exercise and sleep well. She got 80-90% on most papers and received the top grade of an A*, I got 100% on every single paper, received a letter congratulating me on receiving one of the top grades in the country... but ultimately received the same grade of an A*. Looking back I wish I had spent some of that valuable time on self-care and maintaining friendships. It's not that I don't think success is important, but that success in your personal life is just as important as academic or career success.
ie. In most cases 80% will make you as successful as 100% and give you the time to succeed in the other areas, leading to a more fulfilling existence in general. Don't neglect your family, friends, hobbies, creativity entertainment - the stuff that makes life that worth it.
also i dunno if there's a way to say 'struggles with perfectionism' and 'received an A*' and not sound like an arrogant knob, but if there is i haven't found it, also im very terrible at maths and video games and i can't touch my toes, so Nerdfightaria please don't think I'm a massive bellend. cheers.
I definitely relate to you, Eleanor! I have been on a pattern of trying to find more balance with life vs. academics as well. It is very hard because society rewards you for those good grades and success, but it is important to realize that YOU are more important. Even writing that is hard for me. I think that a big thing for me is that when I was younger and learning study skills, I had a lot of anxiety problems. This made me become very successful in school, but that success was due to a dread that something terrible would happen if I didn't get good marks, and also an innate drive to push myself to the extreme. Now I have less anxiety about university, but am having trouble lighting that fire to be productive on many of my projects. It ends up with me completing them later when the deadline is sight and the panic has set in. I wonder if you have experienced this, and if you have any tips for how to be productive in a healthy way?
argh yes I completely understand that, my only motivation was the fear of failure (which was, in my crazy head, 100%) and now that I've confronted that issue I've found, as you have, that I don't have a healthy way to push myself. The way I've tackled this in regards to studying in particular is, and I know that this advice is not at all revolutionary, to set small goals all the way along a project BEFORE I start to study. If I don't have a plan the night before work, it very rarely gets done, so I make sure to keep a post-it note thing by my bed so as I can just quickly jot down my plans for the next day on there or on my phone. The satisfaction of crossing them all off is honestly super motivating. The Pomodoro method is not something I've been able to stick to, but a lot of my friends find it super good to ward off that urge to check your phone. There's lots about it online but it essentially boils down to: work for 25 minutes then chill for 5 minutes (ie. check my texts lmao) Additionally pump-up songs before I get started, and then relaxing study music to look forward to have been key. My favourite pump-up songs are all super cringe: Lose Yourself by Eminem, Power by Kanye, Extreme Ways by Moby, and both Pump It and Let's Get It Started by the Black Eyed Peas. My favourite study music is the album Blackcurrent Jazz by Funk DL, anything by Rex Orange County, and the absolute millennial saviour that are those livestreams of 'chill lofi/hip hop study beats'. (All Hail Chill Lofi Study Beats). Much love and good luck.
Student here. Wanna know the magical secret to my productivity? I'm fucking terrified that I'll reach the age of 40 and be stuck in a job which I hate and where absolutely no advancement is possible.
News Flash, 99% of the world ends up convincing themselves that they have to work that kind of job because the only other choice is death. Not everyone has rich, fairly well known parents to get started like the Green brothers. You'll grow up soon and realize how true that is.
Politicrat this comment makes it sound like John and Hank have rich, well known parents. Also, interested in what you consider a job you don't hate? Because every corporate job to me seems futile in the long run and that depresses me.
Álvaro Lopes I went back to college after attempting dropping out because I had no idea what to do with my life because the fear of financial instability was greater than that of being trapped in the challenges of a few more years of secondary education.
I would view it differently. Yes, maybe you're procrastinating but there's a difference between productive and non-productive procrastination. Do you ever find that you get a lot of the work done that you had been putting off when you have a bigger, more scary project deadline looming? I would call that productive - because you're doing something, even if you're not doing the main thing you need to do. Likewise, I think procrastinating by watching a video like this is productive. Yeah, maybe you're not doing the main thing in your life, but you're learning and appreciating a different viewpoint, and that's still productive, especially when you could be spending this 4 minutes doing something much less meaningful, like watching RIP Vine compilations (...guilty)
This is a well known philosophy in software engineering/development(software life cycles). People always wonder why programs/software are never perfect, and that's because the issue Hank describes here is exacerbated in an industry where there is semi-exponential growth. It's better to just release a simple version of your software(one that works but with almost no functionality), and patch/upgrade desired features as you go. As opposed to spending the same amount of your time on only the first 20% of your "perfect" app. Then all you have is a really good segment of unusable code, meanwhile someone else comes up with the same idea and releases a "bad" version of your app (or by the time you finished computational power increases and field changes have rendered your idea useless), but his is at least usable while all you have is a block of theoretically good code. Your welcome to invest in yourself and try to compete by finishing your own, but your building a snowball by hand, while he made a small snowball and threw it down a hill; even if yours was bigger/better initially, his will pass you up at a point. Same idea as the video, I just think in programming it may be more of a 60/40% rule, or maybe even less(which is why technologically speaking everything will always have bugs and other problems). Hank broke it down in percentages (and I loved the bullseye analogies and visual representation, genius), but I've always thought of a Time vs. Percent complete graph, and the line is an exponential function. It will approach 100% forever, and will get infinitely close, but the time it takes to get from 80% to 90% was probably more time then it took to get to 80% by itself. So how much are you/your-time worth, and what point on the line do your draw your cut-off? Again as Hank says, it probably translates down as you progress in your career, as your knowledge, speed, skills, self-value, and value to others increases. I think this is a very useful thought exercise, not only professionally, but for a variety of aspects in life.
Yea lol your right, a bad mistake at that. Haven't taken a math class in a longgg time. There are certain aspects of it I find myself using way more in real life situations then I expected, and others that I haven't used outside of instruction. I test high in problem solving and logic, low in memory. I can tell you an entire story from history, or how an entire process works, but forget the name of every person in it, or the actual names of the methods I'm using.
The Wadsworth Constant says you can skip the first 30% of every video because it doesn't contain anything worthwhile so you can ssave another 10%. I think John even made a video about it in the past.
Wow this is really well timed for me. I have trouble being productive because I'm either at 100% or 0%, and I end up not doing things because I feel like they won't be perfect. Sooo this is some good food for thought for me. Thanks Hank :)
So I'ven't been a college student in a long time, but I've dated a few recently.. But I also don't have a whole lot of financial or mental stability, and this is really helpful. My 80% isn't anywhere near anyone else's 80%, and financial and mental stability are part of the reason that is. It takes me out of the game of comparing myself to others that is so unhelpful.
This is my philosophy too. I love what you said at the end about your new 80% being better than your old 100%. Anytime I find myself obsessing over tiny details I just remind myself - "Done is better than perfect"
The secret to my productivity? Desperately trying to avoid the all-consuming regret of failure and the spirals of what-if-I-tried-harder that keep me up at night
My doctor actually recommended this to me as a way to help me function with my anxiety and depression (which can get triggered by my perfectionism). She called it "satisfysing" which is basically doing things so that they're done, not so that they're perfect. It's about changing the way you define completion and success, just like Hank talks about here!
I had been trying to get my new channel up and going for a year and a half. I battled with this perfection thing and finally set a deadline and uploaded the video. It's not perfect, but it was incredibly satisfying and rewarding to get that first video up.
I'm in the same mess. Have an idea, scared it'll be hated but it's a goal I want to pursue and I need to stop revising and editing and just do it. This video is very insightful.
People seem to be confused about what the 80% is out of. It's not 80% on your test, 80% of what's expected of you, or 80% of the work you have been assigned. It's 80% of your current ability in whatever you are doing. That 80% might get you a 100% on your test. It might get you a 90%. But preparing yourself 80% of the way to your perfect level of preparation will keep you from burning out, neglecting all your other responsibilities, and losing sleep. Those things all create stress. Sometimes, by trying to get myself to 100% ready, I neglect other important things and probably end up doing worse that I would have if I had stopped preparing at 80%.
It’s crazy how much I needed this video today - so many assignments flying at me at the moment. The scary world of homework in the creative arts is always subjective but as long as you can get enough of it done to feel moderately okay about it, you can break free and move on. Thanks, Hank ☺️
Coming back to this video years later, I realize how much I needed to hear this. I am very guilty of wanting to get to 100% because most of my life I was taught that giving less than 100% was only a form of laziness or a show of disrespect. But 100% is unrealistic (as you said, perfection is impossible). And as a recent example in my own life, I took the initiative to do a project even though I had 100% confidence that the final product would be Not Great, maybe even pretty bad. But for the first time in my life, I recognized that doing something less than 100% was better than doing Nothing at all.
apart from that, id say very good time management. creating lists of daily to-dos is a good start. or finding ways to boost productivity also, if you absolutely need to relax & waste a bit of life, make sure you do something worthwhile and memorable. something that'll fill you with happiness and leave pleasant memories behind
I'm going to have my 12 year old perfectionist Nerdlet watch this on repeat. Maybe she will listen to Hank when she won't listen to me!!! (Plus it's better articulated. )
I kind of wish I'd heard this when I was 12, it would have saved me some pain&suffering (tm), but honestly I don't know if I would have taken the advice, because I'm not sure I would have believed it at that point.
YES! MAN LIKE HANK KNOWS THE TRUTH! I AM SO IN THIS CAMP OF PUTTING THINGS OUT THERE SOONER RATHER THAN LATER BECAUSE NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU TRY, NOTHING IS EVER PERFECT!!!
This video is 5 years old.. i can't possibly remember it.. let's rewatch.. --> this video has had so much influence on my life over the last 5 years.. i remember the ideas very well. Thanks Hank ❤️
Thank you so much for this! As a perfectionist as well as a procrastinator, I feel this need to give my 100%. This is a soft reminder that 80% can help me not overwork myself and put things off.
I have a project for an engineering class due tonight. I waited too long to start and now I feel like there is no way I will get to 100% of what I could or should do. Watching this video was comforting because it reassured me that even if I don't get to 100%, I can put in the effort to get to 80% and hopefully that will be enough. I also liked the part reminding that there are multiple targets and hitting one means getting farther from another. Working on this engineering design project reinforces the fact that there are tradeoffs in anything creative, from engineering design to video making. Thanks for a great video!
It's been 6 years since I first saw this video, and i can honestly say that it has changed my life. I have written 5 books using this advice, 2 of which are published. I am able to clean rooms because of this advice, figuring that 80% clean is still 80% cleaner than before. Thank you, Hank. You hacked my perfectionism!
Commenting now though I watched this when it posted. I've found myself thinking back to it. I think I remember you being hesitant to share this "secret" because you're choosing 80% over 100%. But as someone who avoids starting something that might not get to 100%? The acceptability of 80% is comforting and encouraging.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS I got my report card today and with this new grading system my school implemented it's only possible to get an A+ if you literally get ONE HUNDRED PERCENT on your exams which is both idiotic and to someone who is a perfectionist, like me, is very frustrating and degrading to my self worth. due to this, this video was very inspirational and calming. thank you.
DisconcertedRavenclaw THANK YOU! I was really hoping someone else saw that bit of the podcast in this comment. Definitely in my top 10 Dear Hank and John discussions.
when i was writing my master's thesis and freaking out about including everything that i felt needed to be included and also finishing it on time my advisor said to me, "it can be complete, or it can be done, but it can't be both. done is infinitely better." he was absolutely right, and also i won the award for best master's thesis at my university so yay!
Yes! So often, I get stuck in the 80-100% zone of creative desert where worrying and analysing takes over. Sometimes I get stuck before I even start!... in my head! and end up doing nothing, afraid of failure or doubting my ability. What if we already are perfect? We can bring 80% of everything we are to everything we create. That is still pretty amazing! Thank you!
Thank you Hank, I needed this. I struggle with perfection all the time. I get frustrated that I can't get a project to where I think it needs to be before I release it to my peers, I get frustrated that I spend more time than I should on certain aspects (aspects that will only be known by me), I get frustrated that I get frustrated. So this 80% concept sounds liberating.
My mom has told me the 80% thing many times, and I have tried to force myself to believe her. Maybe hearing it from an outside source will finally solidify that idea for me. I've been trying to convince myself to believe it and reach for it and it try to not kill myself to make things "perfect" for years. Thank you for the validation/inspiration/confirmation. I needed to hear it today 💕
One of the best advice I've stumbled upon in a very long time. Perfectionism always seems to get in the way of any project I'm doing by stunting the productivity spent on endless minor alterations and it's time I start kicking the habit and just learn to give it 80%. Thanks Hank.
This is so awesome. When asked what I’ve attributed my success (in sales) I’ve always said the same thing. “This job is about finding a healthy average of three circles. What I want from my job. What my boss needs from me in my job. What the company wants from me in my job” trying to focus on any of one of these leads to disproportionate successes and a feeling (emotionally or financially) emptiness. Thanks Hank for making me feel like I was in to something with this description.
You are wonderfully correct, my dear Hank Green. Especially that everyone is better at seeing their own imperfections than others, and different perspectives of "Best". 'Cause Hank, to me your projects are always 100%
That's actually a reassuring thought process. Sometimes I stress out thinking about how difficult getting to 100% would be that I don't even attempt... so 80% is heaps better than 0%.
As a recovering perfectionist, this video is super helpful! I watched it when the video was released and I had to rewatch it today as I’m trying to finish and turn in a school project as ‘permission’ to let it be 80% rather than spend hours trying to perfect it. Thank you Hank.
I literally JUST used this video to (hopefully) help a student of mine. "But...don't let perfection hold you back from making things or doing things." Thanks very much!
As someone who has trouble starting things I want/need to do and as a result usually ends up not doing it because I can't see my "100%", this video brought great advice and comfort, thanks Hank!
My God! This is exactly what I needed to hear today! My channel just surpassed the 10k subscribers mark and I feel the pressure and stress building up with every new video I upload, and it was getting really hard to keep trying to get to that 100% idea of perfection. Thank you very much, Hank! And greetings from Colombia 😊
This is a really thoughtful video. When I was a teen, my Mom gave me a motivational poster that read, "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it," and had a picture of a dart on it. She thought I had no goals - no desire to do anything, ever. This is largely because I am a terrible procrastinator. The main reason I am a procrastinator is that I am a perfectionist - if I start something early, or even "on time" I will spend every last minute tweaking it and trying to make it perfect. By starting late, I force myself to just do the minimum and stop when it is due. But that only works when there is a deadline. Unfortunately, so many things I want to do have no deadline other than the one I set for myself - and that can always be moved. I know the deadline isn't a real deadline, so I just keep putting off starting. And this is why, to my Mom, it seemed like I had no goals. She didn't understand that it wasn't no goals, it was an unreachable goal - perfection in everything. But I really like what you say about there not really being such a thing as "perfect." I am going to try to keep this in mind from now on.
Homura honestly I just like any excuse to dress up in a fun costume. I'm not going to try to defend Halloween because I don't know a lot about the history, and there's a good chance you're totally right and I shouldn't be celebrating it. Maybe I should look it up. But for now I'm just thinking about it as dressing up in a fun costume. I'm genuinely sorry if that's upsetting
This is the only video on productivity that I've ever watched that is actually helpful. I hate the advice that goes something like, "Wanna be productive? Than you gotta just do the stuff you want to do" because it doesn't address any of the problems of why one might be inhibited to "do the stuff". I tend to be the only thing in the way of my productivity. Mostly because I'm a perfectionist and I don't want to do anything unless I can do it perfectly thus I find my self in a constant struggle against myself because I also know perfection is unattainable. So thank you. I feel slightly liberated by this advice.
"You'll never really know where you're gonna hit until, until you actually throw the dart. And if you spend a ton of time thinking about how you're gonna throw the dart and you never throw it, you might be ding a whole lot of work that isn't actually helping. So, when I get to 80% I throw the dart. Because I know that perfect doesn't exist...I'm just scared. And maybe I am making it better, but also maybe I'm not...Your things are always going to look worse than other people's things. So in my mind, getting it done is success.Getting it perfect is not. Especially because perfect doesn't exist...Suddenly my new 80% is way better than my old 100% effort could have been" AS SOMEONE WHO REALLY STRUGGLES WITH PROCRASTINATION DUE TO FEAR OF DOING SOMETHING BADLY THIS IS MY NEW LIFE MOTTO "But...don't let perfection hold you back from making things or doing things. Revel in your imperfection, because perfect doesn't exist."
I really appreciate this lesson. I never realized until just now with Hank quantifying it that this took me years to figure out. I grew up with the expectation that only 100% is acceptable. Anything less is unacceptable. It was mentally paralyzing and both me and my sister have a long history of completely unattempted projects, schoolwork, aspirations simply because the notion of not achieving 100% was panic-inducing. I nearly failed out of elementary school many times, even though i would ace every single test and was generally known as a teacher's pet and nerd. I simply could not and would not do any homework or classwork because I was honest to god terrified of achieving anything less than 100%. It wasn't until I finally just threw all these expectations in the garbage that I started really excelling in my favorite subjects. I got into a top college and now I'm applying to law school. If you can reach 100%, then that's great and I applaud you. I can't and that's great too. Because I don't have to.
This is my justification for being a jill-of-all-trades, ace of none. I can't seem to get anything perfect for everyone else, I just get it DONE. This helped. Thank you.
A cup of coffee or two a day isn't unhealthy, some have shown there are even some slight benefits to it. But from my experience, even though your coffee has active ingredients, about 80% (ha!) of it is just placebo. It's a habit, you start thinking "I need to have my coffee to really wake up and start being productive" and it becomes a sort of a mental barrier. Everyone is desperate for that one "hack" that will make them feel better and get more things done better, and if a thing like coffee (or caffeine in general) helps you feel that way, it's mostly just because you believe it does.
I needed this not for productivity but for my mental health. The amount I spend comparing my LIFE to others and "the perfect life" is so unhealthy and I know this but I can't help it. But thinking about being 80%.... I might be able to manage that... Thank you Hank.
This video made me smile!!! My husband and I are complementary opposites... he is a high production 80%er and I am a 95% perfectionist (an improvement over my 100% teenage years). We brainstorm together, he starts the project, we work on the project together with me constantly tweaking and editing along the way and then he makes the decision to end the project (80%ish) and then a try to cram in a quick final edit. Presto we end up with a great result...better than either of us could have done on our own. I loved hearing your prospective as the 80% guy because sometimes it can be so irritating from a perfectionist's perspective. Most importantly, I agree with your theory that the 80% improves and that combined with high productivity it is a formula for success. Now I owe my husband a big hug and kiss for all he does for our family. Thanks for sharing!
This is so necessary to my life. I'm way too much of a perfectionist, and then I get anxious about my work and procrastinate and never end up doing it. If, instead of wanting to get to 100%, I go for 80%, I may actually be able to finish things. Thanks, Hank.
I love how he started the video explaining because everyone feels they know the answer to solve other people lives...thank you, Hank you sir are a great content creator!!!!
I'm watching this during the coronavirus pandemic and let me tell you, this changed my life. I've had my final year paper and a couple of other assignments given to me since February but since schools are closed in my country, I allowed procrastination and all that other stuff distract me from doing my assignments. I took your 80 percent advice 2 weeks ago and I'm not kidding, I've completed all my assignments and I've finally picked up my project after five months of being too scared to do any uni work. Thank you so much
I share the exact same felling. In my profession (I'm a psychologist) I tell all the time to my patients: Don't give 100% of you in ANY case. You 'll regret it. Thrust me. Make in a way that is possible with what you have in the time that is give to you. Sounds cliche but it is not. Thanks for the video! Already share with my friends!
Thanks for this. I find myself paralyzed by the knowledge that the things I want to do are never going to be as good as I want them to be. It helps to hear someone echo that sentiment, and then see them conquer it.
Hank, you made this video over 5 years ago. But serendipitously, it landed in my video suggestions this week. And this week, it is exactly what I needed. Thank you.
As a songwriter who records only because I have to, and who just tried and failed to get a good take today....... Thank you Hank. I really needed this.
I’ve been an amateur musician since I was 7. That’s 40 years ago. I’m not great. I’m not a virtuoso. I know how to play, and have played in bands off and on for years. I’ve recorded a demo for a major music label at a studio in Hollywood. I’ve been asked by other musicians to do work on their music. I’ll reiterate that I’m not great! When I’ve played shows (both solo and with bands) I’ll get people saying how talented I am or how great I played or whatever. The reason is that I learned that to others, I am great. Especially to non-musicians. When I’m on stage, worried that I’ll sing off-key or flub a bass line or guitar riff, they’re in front of that stage saying “this music is awesome and I’m having so much fun!” Hank, you expressed this exactly in this video. Yes, we strive to be better. Yes, we strive for that elusive 100%. But in reality, achieving 90% is probably 10% beyond what others will even see with our work. Of course, I’m not paid to be a musician, either, so that helps. But the point is there. Do the thing and put it out there for all to see. Even if you don’t think it is perfect. Because if if you do think it is 100%, probably less than 80% of the world will like it anyway! DFTBA.
THIS! The timing of this is crazy... I'm in the process of putting together a training course for my employer and trying to do my best which... is causing me to procrastinate. The deadline is fast approaching and this advice turned on some sort of light bulb in my head. Thank you!!!!!!
This actually the reason why I do everything in a “mediocre” way just because I want to try so many things and I feel like it takes so much energy to make it a hundred percent. I also realized what you said recently. People have complimented the works I did while I was cramming even though those were mediocre proving that the things we do may not be perfect in our eyes but it is great in the eyes of others.
You have just described what I call the perfection of the possible. Absolute perfection is a demon, a chimera, a device we use to torture ourselves. Trying for perfection can more likely make us crazy than make us better. However, there a best that one can realistically achieve. We don't know exactly where it is. You have defined it as 80%. I have an unrealistic expectation alarm that sometimes works for me; I just have to heed it when it goes off and let's me know when I am expecting something more than the perfection of the possible. I just started a new writing project, so I'm in first-draft mode. To hell with grammar, spelling, punctuation, common sense, and whatever--I just get out of the way and let stuff come out. Once it's out, then I can shape it, fix it, mend it, bend it, expand it, etc.
I know this video is 5 years old, but thank you for making it. I have a really bad habit of perfectionism or nothing. And I know it's a stupid way to see the world but I am so hard on myself so it ends up being 100% or why try at all. And I usually fall on the "why try" side... Maybe some of it is early socialization. I am female and girls are typically raised to do things "perfectly" where boys are typically raised with praise for trying in the first place and exibiting bold behavior. I was not encouraged to have bold behavior and if anything I was actively steered away from it. But I also have ADHD and getting things done is hard. So 80% sounds a LOT more doable than 100% or its a failure. Honestly wish I saw this video 5 years ago.
This strategy was what helped me actually finish creative projects. 80 percent takes 80% of the time and the last 20% takes the other 80% of the time.
jarvis!!!!!
That's really profound and so very true.
So 160% total?
ong
@@JonathanRuchlisGiven projects run past expected deadlines, it pretty much makes sense.
'Perfect' is the enemy of 'done'.
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Similarly, "Don't let 'the perfect' be the enemy of 'the good.'"
-CGP Grey
My mom always says "Done is better than perfect" that phrase is getting me through college
My (better) version of that saying is "Bodge It"
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In portuguese this phrase is "Feito melhor que Perfeito'' and I think that's beautiful
Your mom is better than all my professors and managers in the past put together.
This is such an important life lesson!
I can’t remember where I heard this at the moment but I think it was from a shared tweet or tumblr post or something: anything worth doing is worth doing poorly (vs. anything worth doing is worth doing well because sometimes the fear of doing poorly stops you from even trying) the logic was at least you did the thing, even if it’s not perfect and that is absolutely the opposite of how I lived up to that point, and I struggle with it but I think about it a lot and it gets me through a task sometimes.
I've known people who have been so obsessed with making their one "thing" (screenplay, novel, painting, etc.) so perfect, that they obsess over everything they see wrong and spend too much time trying to fix those things. They then sometimes get depressed and unmotivated to continue. 90% of their awesome work goes unfinished because it was never what they imagined in their heads.
An old mentor of mine once said it's better to have 100 finished good things made, than only 1 unfinished great thing. I try to always shoot for the perfect image in my head, but if I don't quite make it, there's no shame. It's always better to say "I MADE a thing!" instead of "I ALMOST made a thing..." :)
Veggitos you put down what I was thinking but couldn't put into words.
That is true, this is my own case TuT
Every once in a while though, you get perfectionists that make masterpiece after masterpiece. Hayao Miyazaki is famous for how picky he is, asking animators to redraw over and over again. And there's that story about Kubrick where he shot one scene 87 times... I'm just saying, there are productive perfectionists out there too.
Come on Veggitos let's face it, your animations are amazing every time
This is me :(
Everything Hank says makes a lot of sense, but at the same time my brain is like: nah mate, you gotta get that 100%
Anne I think the thing for me is, I won’t ever feel that I get to 100% anyway. Maybe I’ll feel I can get to 90-95 of even 99%, but I’ll never feel like it is perfect. So at a certain point it just becomes futile.
I used to be a perfectionist, but eventually learned to settle for good enough. I made it a rule to reach at least 120%, with 100% being what was expected of me. I go above and beyond what my boss expects and leave a positive impression while not being inefficient to reach perfection, that way I can keep inline with projected timelines. Sometimes it's such a simple task to me, I go to 10,000% easily, but if I start to encounter difficulty I push just a tiny bit more to reach at least 120% and move on to the next task. For one job, I was told to spend my first few months entering data into a new database using their paper documents for the information. Less than two full work days later, I completed the task and my boss was left unsure of what to assign me. Instead I began fixing issues around the office like a handyman, rewriting procedural manuals, and sitting in on corporate brainstorming sessions to improve the direction of the company for the future.
If you can, in a timely manner, dramatically exceed expectations, then by all means do so. If you've already met expectations and cannot proceed further without exceeding your timeline or putting in arduous effort, then accept where you're at and move on to the next task at hand.
Anne More like my clients. I'm a translator. They don't realise that nobody is perfect and that it's impossible to get everything 100 percent right. Which is why they need to hire a proofreader. They don't.
starlinguk But translation is like 20% subjective finesse anyway, right? XD
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"You'll never really know where you're gonna hit until you /actually/ throw the dart" ... DUDE.
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BRUH
PAL
M Y M A N
Somebody @GMM
FRIEND
I spent over a year making a film for TH-cam channel called 'Entering 1,000 Competitions'. It was pretty much done, but I still spent weeks fussing over the final edit, trying to correct slight nuances. Then, to my horror, I accidentally finalised the project, and was forced to upload it as it was. In my mind it was only about 90% complete. I had released an unfinished video.
That film then went viral. It turns out that nobody except for me cared about that final 10%.
Now when I watch it back, I can't even remember what that final 10% was supposed to be.
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LOVE THIS
@@miahua9111 Thanks Mia!
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"Perfect doesn't exist." - Thank you. I needed that.
Great quote!
thats like saying Sodium Acetate is half a Slowly Rotting Grapefruit
“Other people’s things will always look better than your things”
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I don't fully agree on that one. At the same time you are often proud of your work and you see how much effort and resources you put in it when you look at it, something that other people won't see.
I would rather say "Don't forget that other people make mistakes and imperfections too".
This is why it's good we wear pants. :-|
This is an interesting concept that works. I am a new manager struggling with delegation and my manager gave me an awesome piece of advice, "if your staff can accomplish that task 80% as well as you can, then you need to delegate that task." I literally think about it daily now and it has improved my stress levels immensely.
I think children need to be praised for getting things done and also if they feel they tried their best rather than on how perfect their outcome is. Then they won't feel scared to start a project or anxious it won't turn out right because they know as long as they completed the task and tried to an extent they are happy with that should be enough. I also think guiding kids to learn what the right amount of effort is to them that is sustainable and actualizing of their goals is also very important. I used to feel like the right amount of effort was if I was tried or stressed from it. If it took a lot out of me then it was the right amount and I worked hard enough. This is wrong.
Yes. Yes. Yes. I internalized "do your best" a little too hard as a kid such that giving anything but 110% to a project felt like a failure, and that made pieces of high school and college waaay more difficult than they needed to be. Particularly as someone who has a thousand different interests. You can't- and shouldn't!- always do your best, and you sometimes need to prioritize some things to the detriment. Those are the usual reminders that play on repeat in my brain now, and I still need them.
I actually do really appreciate this advice. I am someone who struggles with perfectionism, which leads to both the unfortunate outcomes of (a) never starting something because I know the end result will never match up to how I imagine it should or (b) over-working myself into a frenzy to get something 100%. While this has benefitted me in some ways, it has massive downfalls in other areas. I realised this was a problem when friend and I were both studying for the same exam, in which I worked at 24/7, didn't sleep, exercise or socialise, whereas she studied hard but continued to go out to parties, exercise and sleep well. She got 80-90% on most papers and received the top grade of an A*, I got 100% on every single paper, received a letter congratulating me on receiving one of the top grades in the country... but ultimately received the same grade of an A*. Looking back I wish I had spent some of that valuable time on self-care and maintaining friendships. It's not that I don't think success is important, but that success in your personal life is just as important as academic or career success.
ie. In most cases 80% will make you as successful as 100% and give you the time to succeed in the other areas, leading to a more fulfilling existence in general. Don't neglect your family, friends, hobbies, creativity entertainment - the stuff that makes life that worth it.
also i dunno if there's a way to say 'struggles with perfectionism' and 'received an A*' and not sound like an arrogant knob, but if there is i haven't found it, also im very terrible at maths and video games and i can't touch my toes, so Nerdfightaria please don't think I'm a massive bellend. cheers.
I definitely relate to you, Eleanor! I have been on a pattern of trying to find more balance with life vs. academics as well. It is very hard because society rewards you for those good grades and success, but it is important to realize that YOU are more important. Even writing that is hard for me. I think that a big thing for me is that when I was younger and learning study skills, I had a lot of anxiety problems. This made me become very successful in school, but that success was due to a dread that something terrible would happen if I didn't get good marks, and also an innate drive to push myself to the extreme. Now I have less anxiety about university, but am having trouble lighting that fire to be productive on many of my projects. It ends up with me completing them later when the deadline is sight and the panic has set in. I wonder if you have experienced this, and if you have any tips for how to be productive in a healthy way?
argh yes I completely understand that, my only motivation was the fear of failure (which was, in my crazy head, 100%) and now that I've confronted that issue I've found, as you have, that I don't have a healthy way to push myself.
The way I've tackled this in regards to studying in particular is, and I know that this advice is not at all revolutionary, to set small goals all the way along a project BEFORE I start to study. If I don't have a plan the night before work, it very rarely gets done, so I make sure to keep a post-it note thing by my bed so as I can just quickly jot down my plans for the next day on there or on my phone. The satisfaction of crossing them all off is honestly super motivating.
The Pomodoro method is not something I've been able to stick to, but a lot of my friends find it super good to ward off that urge to check your phone. There's lots about it online but it essentially boils down to: work for 25 minutes then chill for 5 minutes (ie. check my texts lmao)
Additionally pump-up songs before I get started, and then relaxing study music to look forward to have been key. My favourite pump-up songs are all super cringe: Lose Yourself by Eminem, Power by Kanye, Extreme Ways by Moby, and both Pump It and Let's Get It Started by the Black Eyed Peas. My favourite study music is the album Blackcurrent Jazz by Funk DL, anything by Rex Orange County, and the absolute millennial saviour that are those livestreams of 'chill lofi/hip hop study beats'. (All Hail Chill Lofi Study Beats). Much love and good luck.
++++ thank youuuu
Student here. Wanna know the magical secret to my productivity?
I'm fucking terrified that I'll reach the age of 40 and be stuck in a job which I hate and where absolutely no advancement is possible.
News Flash, 99% of the world ends up convincing themselves that they have to work that kind of job because the only other choice is death. Not everyone has rich, fairly well known parents to get started like the Green brothers. You'll grow up soon and realize how true that is.
Politicrat this comment makes it sound like John and Hank have rich, well known parents.
Also, interested in what you consider a job you don't hate? Because every corporate job to me seems futile in the long run and that depresses me.
Yeah, that. Fear is definitely my biggest motivator.
Álvaro Lopes I went back to college after attempting dropping out because I had no idea what to do with my life because the fear of financial instability was greater than that of being trapped in the challenges of a few more years of secondary education.
Politicrat Well that was unnecessarily hostile. You okay?
Meanwhile I watch this to procrastinate, not to actually attempt to increase my productivity
65 Percent You're not alone.
^
Perfect.
Me
I would view it differently. Yes, maybe you're procrastinating but there's a difference between productive and non-productive procrastination. Do you ever find that you get a lot of the work done that you had been putting off when you have a bigger, more scary project deadline looming? I would call that productive - because you're doing something, even if you're not doing the main thing you need to do. Likewise, I think procrastinating by watching a video like this is productive. Yeah, maybe you're not doing the main thing in your life, but you're learning and appreciating a different viewpoint, and that's still productive, especially when you could be spending this 4 minutes doing something much less meaningful, like watching RIP Vine compilations (...guilty)
This is a well known philosophy in software engineering/development(software life cycles). People always wonder why programs/software are never perfect, and that's because the issue Hank describes here is exacerbated in an industry where there is semi-exponential growth.
It's better to just release a simple version of your software(one that works but with almost no functionality), and patch/upgrade desired features as you go. As opposed to spending the same amount of your time on only the first 20% of your "perfect" app.
Then all you have is a really good segment of unusable code, meanwhile someone else comes up with the same idea and releases a "bad" version of your app (or by the time you finished computational power increases and field changes have rendered your idea useless), but his is at least usable while all you have is a block of theoretically good code.
Your welcome to invest in yourself and try to compete by finishing your own, but your building a snowball by hand, while he made a small snowball and threw it down a hill; even if yours was bigger/better initially, his will pass you up at a point.
Same idea as the video, I just think in programming it may be more of a 60/40% rule, or maybe even less(which is why technologically speaking everything will always have bugs and other problems).
Hank broke it down in percentages (and I loved the bullseye analogies and visual representation, genius), but I've always thought of a Time vs. Percent complete graph, and the line is an exponential function. It will approach 100% forever, and will get infinitely close, but the time it takes to get from 80% to 90% was probably more time then it took to get to 80% by itself.
So how much are you/your-time worth, and what point on the line do your draw your cut-off? Again as Hank says, it probably translates down as you progress in your career, as your knowledge, speed, skills, self-value, and value to others increases. I think this is a very useful thought exercise, not only professionally, but for a variety of aspects in life.
(I think you mean logarithmic function)
Yea lol your right, a bad mistake at that. Haven't taken a math class in a longgg time. There are certain aspects of it I find myself using way more in real life situations then I expected, and others that I haven't used outside of instruction. I test high in problem solving and logic, low in memory. I can tell you an entire story from history, or how an entire process works, but forget the name of every person in it, or the actual names of the methods I'm using.
This is a really interesting real-world example, and great food for thought. Thanks for sharing!
That's why I only watched 80% of the video !
I started applying your method :D
😂
lol same
Watch it in 1.25x speed and it'll only take 80% of the time to watch the whole thing.
The Wadsworth Constant says you can skip the first 30% of every video because it doesn't contain anything worthwhile so you can ssave another 10%.
I think John even made a video about it in the past.
Jay , thats smart
Wow this is really well timed for me. I have trouble being productive because I'm either at 100% or 0%, and I end up not doing things because I feel like they won't be perfect. Sooo this is some good food for thought for me. Thanks Hank :)
voldysgonemoldy95 SAME same same!!
'Financial and mental stability' ... so this is out the door for college students then 😂
So I'ven't been a college student in a long time, but I've dated a few recently.. But I also don't have a whole lot of financial or mental stability, and this is really helpful.
My 80% isn't anywhere near anyone else's 80%, and financial and mental stability are part of the reason that is. It takes me out of the game of comparing myself to others that is so unhelpful.
This is my philosophy too. I love what you said at the end about your new 80% being better than your old 100%. Anytime I find myself obsessing over tiny details I just remind myself - "Done is better than perfect"
So basically, to misquote Ron Swanson: “Don’t half ass two things, 80% ass a million things.”
This was perhaps the best productivity explanation I've ever heard. And I've heard a lot of them. Good job.
Hank!!!!! Your jacket!!! You look super stylish, my friend.
I know, right? Like Hank is like upping his style game so much! throwback to the days when they all just wore t-shirts man
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The secret to my productivity?
Desperately trying to avoid the all-consuming regret of failure and the spirals of what-if-I-tried-harder that keep me up at night
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I have this but the productivity is replaced with indecision.
My doctor actually recommended this to me as a way to help me function with my anxiety and depression (which can get triggered by my perfectionism). She called it "satisfysing" which is basically doing things so that they're done, not so that they're perfect. It's about changing the way you define completion and success, just like Hank talks about here!
SO ACCURATE
MIND IS BLOWN
@@doddleoddle how am i the only reply to u
omg doddledidoo :)
Wow. This made me feel way better about my creative endevours because i have put so much pressure on myself about not being perfect recently.
i'm working on launching a new channel and have been working on the first video for a few weeks, so i probably just need to throw the dart ...
I had been trying to get my new channel up and going for a year and a half. I battled with this perfection thing and finally set a deadline and uploaded the video. It's not perfect, but it was incredibly satisfying and rewarding to get that first video up.
Throw that dart! Message me and I'll watch it
Throw the dart! Yes! I wish you luck! I'll sub you now.
Same as others have said, throw that dart let us know about it and I'd be happy to check it out!
I'm in the same mess. Have an idea, scared it'll be hated but it's a goal I want to pursue and I need to stop revising and editing and just do it. This video is very insightful.
People seem to be confused about what the 80% is out of. It's not 80% on your test, 80% of what's expected of you, or 80% of the work you have been assigned. It's 80% of your current ability in whatever you are doing. That 80% might get you a 100% on your test. It might get you a 90%. But preparing yourself 80% of the way to your perfect level of preparation will keep you from burning out, neglecting all your other responsibilities, and losing sleep. Those things all create stress. Sometimes, by trying to get myself to 100% ready, I neglect other important things and probably end up doing worse that I would have if I had stopped preparing at 80%.
It’s crazy how much I needed this video today - so many assignments flying at me at the moment. The scary world of homework in the creative arts is always subjective but as long as you can get enough of it done to feel moderately okay about it, you can break free and move on. Thanks, Hank ☺️
Coming back to this video years later, I realize how much I needed to hear this. I am very guilty of wanting to get to 100% because most of my life I was taught that giving less than 100% was only a form of laziness or a show of disrespect. But 100% is unrealistic (as you said, perfection is impossible). And as a recent example in my own life, I took the initiative to do a project even though I had 100% confidence that the final product would be Not Great, maybe even pretty bad. But for the first time in my life, I recognized that doing something less than 100% was better than doing Nothing at all.
apart from that, id say very good time management. creating lists of daily to-dos is a good start. or finding ways to boost productivity
also, if you absolutely need to relax & waste a bit of life, make sure you do something worthwhile and memorable. something that'll fill you with happiness and leave pleasant memories behind
This is why I always say: "If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly."
I'm going to have my 12 year old perfectionist Nerdlet watch this on repeat. Maybe she will listen to Hank when she won't listen to me!!! (Plus it's better articulated. )
Yay!
did it work? :D
I kind of wish I'd heard this when I was 12, it would have saved me some pain&suffering (tm), but honestly I don't know if I would have taken the advice, because I'm not sure I would have believed it at that point.
YES! MAN LIKE HANK KNOWS THE TRUTH! I AM SO IN THIS CAMP OF PUTTING THINGS OUT THERE SOONER RATHER THAN LATER BECAUSE NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU TRY, NOTHING IS EVER PERFECT!!!
a video about productivity that isn’t condescending and doesn’t shame people for not working hard enough but is still genuinely helpful? amazing
This video is 5 years old.. i can't possibly remember it.. let's rewatch.. --> this video has had so much influence on my life over the last 5 years.. i remember the ideas very well. Thanks Hank ❤️
Thank you so much for this! As a perfectionist as well as a procrastinator, I feel this need to give my 100%. This is a soft reminder that 80% can help me not overwork myself and put things off.
I have a project for an engineering class due tonight. I waited too long to start and now I feel like there is no way I will get to 100% of what I could or should do. Watching this video was comforting because it reassured me that even if I don't get to 100%, I can put in the effort to get to 80% and hopefully that will be enough.
I also liked the part reminding that there are multiple targets and hitting one means getting farther from another. Working on this engineering design project reinforces the fact that there are tradeoffs in anything creative, from engineering design to video making.
Thanks for a great video!
It's been 6 years since I first saw this video, and i can honestly say that it has changed my life. I have written 5 books using this advice, 2 of which are published. I am able to clean rooms because of this advice, figuring that 80% clean is still 80% cleaner than before. Thank you, Hank. You hacked my perfectionism!
Among people I've listened to, you're the first to say "Perfect doesn't exist." This phrase alone has made me more productive.
Hank, you are a beautiful smart man. That's all, just thought I'd let you know.
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I was watching this video when I got the twitter notification, and I felt so proud of myself.
Maddie.-. Sensor same
Nice!
Commenting now though I watched this when it posted. I've found myself thinking back to it. I think I remember you being hesitant to share this "secret" because you're choosing 80% over 100%. But as someone who avoids starting something that might not get to 100%? The acceptability of 80% is comforting and encouraging.
So, so true!! My success comes from my vision’s 80% is my client’s 110%. Works every time!⭐️⭐️⭐️
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS I got my report card today and with this new grading system my school implemented it's only possible to get an A+ if you literally get ONE HUNDRED PERCENT on your exams which is both idiotic and to someone who is a perfectionist, like me, is very frustrating and degrading to my self worth. due to this, this video was very inspirational and calming. thank you.
Quality content as per usual
Abi B as per yooshje
DisconcertedRavenclaw THANK YOU! I was really hoping someone else saw that bit of the podcast in this comment. Definitely in my top 10 Dear Hank and John discussions.
Shea Pierson Lol It’s such a good one
when i was writing my master's thesis and freaking out about including everything that i felt needed to be included and also finishing it on time my advisor said to me, "it can be complete, or it can be done, but it can't be both. done is infinitely better." he was absolutely right, and also i won the award for best master's thesis at my university so yay!
Yes! So often, I get stuck in the 80-100% zone of creative desert where worrying and analysing takes over. Sometimes I get stuck before I even start!... in my head! and end up doing nothing, afraid of failure or doubting my ability. What if we already are perfect? We can bring 80% of everything we are to everything we create. That is still pretty amazing! Thank you!
2:26 - "for me, those final tweaks, I'm not learning anything. I'm just scared." - so so true
Thank you, Hank! Your advice is so helpful and it also somewhat relieves my anxiety 😌
Thank you Hank, I needed this. I struggle with perfection all the time. I get frustrated that I can't get a project to where I think it needs to be before I release it to my peers, I get frustrated that I spend more time than I should on certain aspects (aspects that will only be known by me), I get frustrated that I get frustrated. So this 80% concept sounds liberating.
My mom has told me the 80% thing many times, and I have tried to force myself to believe her. Maybe hearing it from an outside source will finally solidify that idea for me. I've been trying to convince myself to believe it and reach for it and it try to not kill myself to make things "perfect" for years. Thank you for the validation/inspiration/confirmation. I needed to hear it today 💕
"Perfect doesn't exist" I needed this, thank you.
I've been stressing out about NaNoWriMo being right around the corner and this was incredibly eye opening. Thank you, Hank!
Rafaela Carvalho my daughter does NaNoWriMo. I’ll pass this on to her.
I hope she feels as good as I did!
One of the best advice I've stumbled upon in a very long time. Perfectionism always seems to get in the way of any project I'm doing by stunting the productivity spent on endless minor alterations and it's time I start kicking the habit and just learn to give it 80%. Thanks Hank.
This is so awesome. When asked what I’ve attributed my success (in sales) I’ve always said the same thing. “This job is about finding a healthy average of three circles. What I want from my job. What my boss needs from me in my job. What the company wants from me in my job” trying to focus on any of one of these leads to disproportionate successes and a feeling (emotionally or financially) emptiness. Thanks Hank for making me feel like I was in to something with this description.
This is incredibly pertinent to my life right now, thank you.
I suppose if you think about it, no matter what you put out, to everyone else, it is 100%
You are wonderfully correct, my dear Hank Green. Especially that everyone is better at seeing their own imperfections than others, and different perspectives of "Best". 'Cause Hank, to me your projects are always 100%
That's actually a reassuring thought process. Sometimes I stress out thinking about how difficult getting to 100% would be that I don't even attempt... so 80% is heaps better than 0%.
Wow Hank! The inside of your Tour Bus is so Spacious!
This is my favourite TH-cam channel ❤️
"Your things are always going to look worse than other people's things" - that's a good thing to remember and to stop obsessing over the smaller stuff
As a recovering perfectionist, this video is super helpful! I watched it when the video was released and I had to rewatch it today as I’m trying to finish and turn in a school project as ‘permission’ to let it be 80% rather than spend hours trying to perfect it. Thank you Hank.
I literally just finished listening to the pod episode where you talk about this. Maybe the universe is telling me something...
badazzled hippo, which pod ep is that? I should listen! (Or, relisten, as all the hilarious and deep thoughts mash together on that show :))
Do you know what episode that is?
Yeah I saw that episode a while ago and now the vid is here!
Love you, Hank.
I literally JUST used this video to (hopefully) help a student of mine.
"But...don't let perfection hold you back from making things or doing things."
Thanks very much!
As someone who has trouble starting things I want/need to do and as a result usually ends up not doing it because I can't see my "100%", this video brought great advice and comfort, thanks Hank!
That's a passing score
Yes, I am talking about 80%
Stellar video Hank, couldn't agree more!
My God! This is exactly what I needed to hear today! My channel just surpassed the 10k subscribers mark and I feel the pressure and stress building up with every new video I upload, and it was getting really hard to keep trying to get to that 100% idea of perfection. Thank you very much, Hank! And greetings from Colombia 😊
This is a really thoughtful video. When I was a teen, my Mom gave me a motivational poster that read, "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it," and had a picture of a dart on it. She thought I had no goals - no desire to do anything, ever. This is largely because I am a terrible procrastinator. The main reason I am a procrastinator is that I am a perfectionist - if I start something early, or even "on time" I will spend every last minute tweaking it and trying to make it perfect. By starting late, I force myself to just do the minimum and stop when it is due. But that only works when there is a deadline. Unfortunately, so many things I want to do have no deadline other than the one I set for myself - and that can always be moved. I know the deadline isn't a real deadline, so I just keep putting off starting. And this is why, to my Mom, it seemed like I had no goals. She didn't understand that it wasn't no goals, it was an unreachable goal - perfection in everything. But I really like what you say about there not really being such a thing as "perfect." I am going to try to keep this in mind from now on.
Am I the only one wanting the nerdfighter census to happen rn?
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In the meantime, you can take the tuataria census. It's open right now.
It's going to be my first one!
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Where's the Tuataria Census? is it linked in the discord?
I'M WEARING A COSTUME TO THE HALLOWEEN SHOW I'M SO EXCITED
Autumn Berthold Don't go as a turtle. :p
angrysnailsounds hahaha don't worry I'm not! I'm going as Jillian Holtzmann from Ghostbusters
Autumn Berthold I hope you have a good time!!
GlowingBlueIris thanks!! I hope so too, I'm looking forward to it!
Homura honestly I just like any excuse to dress up in a fun costume. I'm not going to try to defend Halloween because I don't know a lot about the history, and there's a good chance you're totally right and I shouldn't be celebrating it. Maybe I should look it up. But for now I'm just thinking about it as dressing up in a fun costume. I'm genuinely sorry if that's upsetting
This is the only video on productivity that I've ever watched that is actually helpful. I hate the advice that goes something like, "Wanna be productive? Than you gotta just do the stuff you want to do" because it doesn't address any of the problems of why one might be inhibited to "do the stuff". I tend to be the only thing in the way of my productivity. Mostly because I'm a perfectionist and I don't want to do anything unless I can do it perfectly thus I find my self in a constant struggle against myself because I also know perfection is unattainable. So thank you. I feel slightly liberated by this advice.
"You'll never really know where you're gonna hit until, until you actually throw the dart. And if you spend a ton of time thinking about how you're gonna throw the dart and you never throw it, you might be ding a whole lot of work that isn't actually helping. So, when I get to 80% I throw the dart. Because I know that perfect doesn't exist...I'm just scared. And maybe I am making it better, but also maybe I'm not...Your things are always going to look worse than other people's things. So in my mind, getting it done is success.Getting it perfect is not. Especially because perfect doesn't exist...Suddenly my new 80% is way better than my old 100% effort could have been" AS SOMEONE WHO REALLY STRUGGLES WITH PROCRASTINATION DUE TO FEAR OF DOING SOMETHING BADLY THIS IS MY NEW LIFE MOTTO
"But...don't let perfection hold you back from making things or doing things. Revel in your imperfection, because perfect doesn't exist."
I'm only going to write 80% of thi
I calculated 79%.. weak
I'm getting 91%, counting all characters and assuming a period. I think this goes to prove Hank's point.
I know what I'm showing my students tomorrow :")
I really appreciate this lesson. I never realized until just now with Hank quantifying it that this took me years to figure out. I grew up with the expectation that only 100% is acceptable. Anything less is unacceptable.
It was mentally paralyzing and both me and my sister have a long history of completely unattempted projects, schoolwork, aspirations simply because the notion of not achieving 100% was panic-inducing. I nearly failed out of elementary school many times, even though i would ace every single test and was generally known as a teacher's pet and nerd. I simply could not and would not do any homework or classwork because I was honest to god terrified of achieving anything less than 100%.
It wasn't until I finally just threw all these expectations in the garbage that I started really excelling in my favorite subjects. I got into a top college and now I'm applying to law school.
If you can reach 100%, then that's great and I applaud you. I can't and that's great too. Because I don't have to.
This is my justification for being a jill-of-all-trades, ace of none. I can't seem to get anything perfect for everyone else, I just get it DONE. This helped. Thank you.
My secret to productivity if caffeine. I'm pretty nonfunctional without it these days...
+
I'm pretty sure that's unhealthy.
A cup of coffee or two a day isn't unhealthy, some have shown there are even some slight benefits to it. But from my experience, even though your coffee has active ingredients, about 80% (ha!) of it is just placebo. It's a habit, you start thinking "I need to have my coffee to really wake up and start being productive" and it becomes a sort of a mental barrier. Everyone is desperate for that one "hack" that will make them feel better and get more things done better, and if a thing like coffee (or caffeine in general) helps you feel that way, it's mostly just because you believe it does.
Sleep is underrated.
Hey me too. I call it depression.
feel like his hair is messed up in the back and its distracting me. i think he only put in 80% on the styling.
I needed this not for productivity but for my mental health. The amount I spend comparing my LIFE to others and "the perfect life" is so unhealthy and I know this but I can't help it. But thinking about being 80%.... I might be able to manage that... Thank you Hank.
“Your thing will always look worse than other people’s thing” I love this mindset.
This!
This video made me smile!!! My husband and I are complementary opposites... he is a high production 80%er and I am a 95% perfectionist (an improvement over my 100% teenage years). We brainstorm together, he starts the project, we work on the project together with me constantly tweaking and editing along the way and then he makes the decision to end the project (80%ish) and then a try to cram in a quick final edit. Presto we end up with a great result...better than either of us could have done on our own. I loved hearing your prospective as the 80% guy because sometimes it can be so irritating from a perfectionist's perspective. Most importantly, I agree with your theory that the 80% improves and that combined with high productivity it is a formula for success. Now I owe my husband a big hug and kiss for all he does for our family. Thanks for sharing!
This is so necessary to my life. I'm way too much of a perfectionist, and then I get anxious about my work and procrastinate and never end up doing it. If, instead of wanting to get to 100%, I go for 80%, I may actually be able to finish things. Thanks, Hank.
This is actually a beautifully freeing way of seeing things for someone who does not even start for fear of it not reaching the 100% mark.
I love how he started the video explaining because everyone feels they know the answer to solve other people lives...thank you, Hank you sir are a great content creator!!!!
I'm watching this during the coronavirus pandemic and let me tell you, this changed my life. I've had my final year paper and a couple of other assignments given to me since February but since schools are closed in my country, I allowed procrastination and all that other stuff distract me from doing my assignments. I took your 80 percent advice 2 weeks ago and I'm not kidding, I've completed all my assignments and I've finally picked up my project after five months of being too scared to do any uni work. Thank you so much
I share the exact same felling. In my profession (I'm a psychologist) I tell all the time to my patients: Don't give 100% of you in ANY case. You 'll regret it. Thrust me. Make in a way that is possible with what you have in the time that is give to you.
Sounds cliche but it is not.
Thanks for the video! Already share with my friends!
Thanks for this. I find myself paralyzed by the knowledge that the things I want to do are never going to be as good as I want them to be. It helps to hear someone echo that sentiment, and then see them conquer it.
Hank, you made this video over 5 years ago. But serendipitously, it landed in my video suggestions this week. And this week, it is exactly what I needed. Thank you.
As a songwriter who records only because I have to, and who just tried and failed to get a good take today....... Thank you Hank. I really needed this.
I’ve been an amateur musician since I was 7. That’s 40 years ago. I’m not great. I’m not a virtuoso. I know how to play, and have played in bands off and on for years. I’ve recorded a demo for a major music label at a studio in Hollywood. I’ve been asked by other musicians to do work on their music. I’ll reiterate that I’m not great! When I’ve played shows (both solo and with bands) I’ll get people saying how talented I am or how great I played or whatever.
The reason is that I learned that to others, I am great. Especially to non-musicians. When I’m on stage, worried that I’ll sing off-key or flub a bass line or guitar riff, they’re in front of that stage saying “this music is awesome and I’m having so much fun!”
Hank, you expressed this exactly in this video. Yes, we strive to be better. Yes, we strive for that elusive 100%. But in reality, achieving 90% is probably 10% beyond what others will even see with our work.
Of course, I’m not paid to be a musician, either, so that helps. But the point is there. Do the thing and put it out there for all to see. Even if you don’t think it is perfect. Because if if you do think it is 100%, probably less than 80% of the world will like it anyway! DFTBA.
THIS! The timing of this is crazy... I'm in the process of putting together a training course for my employer and trying to do my best which... is causing me to procrastinate. The deadline is fast approaching and this advice turned on some sort of light bulb in my head. Thank you!!!!!!
This actually the reason why I do everything in a “mediocre” way just because I want to try so many things and I feel like it takes so much energy to make it a hundred percent. I also realized what you said recently. People have complimented the works I did while I was cramming even though those were mediocre proving that the things we do may not be perfect in our eyes but it is great in the eyes of others.
Hank, I believe you just provided me the freedom I need this semester. Your timing is (at least 80%) impeccable. Thank you!
You have just described what I call the perfection of the possible. Absolute perfection is a demon, a chimera, a device we use to torture ourselves. Trying for perfection can more likely make us crazy than make us better. However, there a best that one can realistically achieve. We don't know exactly where it is. You have defined it as 80%. I have an unrealistic expectation alarm that sometimes works for me; I just have to heed it when it goes off and let's me know when I am expecting something more than the perfection of the possible. I just started a new writing project, so I'm in first-draft mode. To hell with grammar, spelling, punctuation, common sense, and whatever--I just get out of the way and let stuff come out. Once it's out, then I can shape it, fix it, mend it, bend it, expand it, etc.
I know this video is 5 years old, but thank you for making it. I have a really bad habit of perfectionism or nothing. And I know it's a stupid way to see the world but I am so hard on myself so it ends up being 100% or why try at all. And I usually fall on the "why try" side...
Maybe some of it is early socialization. I am female and girls are typically raised to do things "perfectly" where boys are typically raised with praise for trying in the first place and exibiting bold behavior. I was not encouraged to have bold behavior and if anything I was actively steered away from it. But I also have ADHD and getting things done is hard. So 80% sounds a LOT more doable than 100% or its a failure.
Honestly wish I saw this video 5 years ago.