Steven Robbins here. Welcome to the Get It Done Guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

It's hard being perfect. Trust me. But even harder than being perfect is trying to be perfect.

Trying to make things perfect can destroy your sanity. I know I need a perfectionism treatment.

I used to be a happy chipper young boy, whose idea of a good time was playing with my toy dinosaurs. Then I began to try to do things

perfectly, leading me to grow into a bitter adult who realizes my toy dinosaurs were made from plastic,

which is made from oil, which is made from real dinosaurs, crushed beneath

tons of rock for a hundred million years. My cynical heart laughs maniacally at the irony of all of it.

What caused this wretched transformation from doe-eyed innocent to jaded cynic? Simple. We're told as

kids that doing a good job will lead to some kind of reward,

but only to a point. When we pursue too much perfection, it actually becomes counterproductive.

Here are six tips to avoid this sad, sad fate.

Tip number one, know what perfect is and who decides. First of all, if you're going to be perfect, identify who sets the standards.

Take Bernice, for example. She's designing the perfect wedding dress for her special day with Melvin.

In her world, perfect involves rhinestones. Many, many rhinestones. And since she's the one wearing the dress,

perfection makes sense. If only that were true of Melvin. He creates TPS reports every week

for headquarters. He prides himself on producing the perfect report with beautiful fonts,

every data source footnoteded and tables and tables of numbers

breaking down every sales region by square foot. It's truly a masterpiece.

The person at headquarters has severe vision problems, however. He's afraid to tell anyone he can't

actually read the reports. A perfect report for him would have brightly colored graphs,

which would be easy for him to use in his decision-making.

When you're striving for perfection, find the person or people who will be using what you're creating and ask them how it could be better.

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