How to Reclaim Your Time
Perfectionism
When asking people from abroad to describe a typical German, one often receives statements like “The ones who reserve beach chairs at 6 a.m. on vacation.” Another common response is “The ones with the best beer.” At the same time, qualities such as industriousness, precision, punctuality, and conscientiousness are also mentioned. These traits are not without reason.
Worldwide, the label “Made in Germany” has an excellent reputation and stands for very good quality. We Germans are valued worldwide for our conscientiousness and reliability. Unfortunately, what often lies behind this for the individual is an unhealthy pursuit of perfection, which costs us precious time and causes stress. But there is a simple formula with which we can counteract.
Perfectionism — particularly prevalent in Germany?
What are the three most common causes of stress in a country? In 2016, GfK conducted a survey with over 27,000 participants from 22 different countries. In comparison with all the countries represented in the survey, Germany was the only country where “meeting one’s own standards” caused the most stress. One reason for this is undoubtedly our own desire for perfection: always getting everything right from the start, making no mistakes, and presenting a good image outwardly. However, this becomes problematic when the pursuit of perfection develops into unhealthy perfectionism. Side effects such as procrastination, inability to delegate, and the demand to complete tasks to 120% satisfaction can create enormous pressure, hindering our success significantly. The thought “Nobody can do the tasks as well and conscientiously as I can” is one of the biggest internal time thieves. But we can do something about it — for more satisfaction and success in our everyday lives.
Why a change in perspective helps
Perfectionism manifests itself primarily in two forms: the pursuit of high personal standards and the exaggerated pursuit of error avoidance. Behind perfectionism often lies the fear of making mistakes or not meeting expectations — both one’s own and those of others — and being criticized for it. This fear can be a significant driving force behind perfectionist tendencies.
In the words of Brené Brown, you can see what it’s worth striving for: “Healthy striving is self-focused: ‘How can I grow?’ Perfectionism, on the other hand, is other-focused: ‘What will they think?'” Our tip if you are struggling with perfectionism: Start focusing more on how you can develop yourself. And in a direction that you personally want to take.
Vilfredo Pareto, an economist who lived in the 19th century, had another brilliant idea. He developed a principle to counteract the negative effects of perfectionism: the Pareto principle. This principle states that 20% of our effort is responsible for 80% of our success. This is a very helpful formula for realizing the time-wasting effect of perfectionism (100% effort). It can be wonderfully applied to specific tasks.
Quite concretely:
5 steps according to the Pareto principle
- Define a task, such as cleaning the bathroom.
- Set the boundaries in percentages, i.e., determine the result at 100% and at 80% for the task. What needs to be “fulfilled” for each?
- Work on the task: Address all areas only superficially so that the requirements are generally met and the task is fulfilled.
- Check yourself: Have you achieved an effective result of 80% with 20% of your effort? If so, consciously stop here.
- Congratulations: Enjoy your time gain and use it for other tasks or moments of leisure.
When you repeatedly remind yourself of how “poorly” time fares for you when you invest 100% effort, or how well it fares when you invest only 20%, you can gradually banish unhealthy perfectionism from your life and get more out of your time. And as Warren Buffett put it so nicely: “The best investment you can make is in yourself.” In this case, your investment would be your valuable time. But we guarantee you, it’s an investment worth making.
Do you want to learn more about the topic of time management and how you can better set your priorities to effectively manage your time? Then we recommend the workbook “4 ways to better time management” by the time management experts Anjana Ahnfeldt and Lothar Seiwert (only available in German).
