This is Steveer Robbins.

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

Through the closed door of her office, we can hear Europa screaming in frustration.

Her hostile takeover of the Elbonian economy failed at the last moment.

But my strategy was perfect, she yells.

And there's the shattering sound of yet another light bulb

smashing against the door. On the bright side, now we have an excuse to buy new energy-saving

LED bulbs. Europa's strategy may have been perfect, but she spent so long perfecting it that by the

time she was ready to execute, and I do mean that literally, Elbonia had decided to dissolve itself

and reform as the people's

enlightened state of certitude. Now, I can't pretend to understand the political ramifications,

but I sure know that a bit less planning and a bit more action on Europa's part would have gotten

her everything she wants. Perfection, like magic, comes with a price. This is a common problem. We want things to be perfect,

and indeed, we may achieve that. We produce the perfect product. We plan the perfect plan. We

pen the perfect poem. But when we're done, we aren't happy because it's late, or we spent too much

money, or our aspirational schmupy-to-be got tired of waiting for us

to find a rhyme for locksmith and ran off with another suitor whose poetry was free verse.

We achieved the perfection we wanted, but we did it in a way that made those outcomes

less than perfect. That's because we defined perfect imperfectly. We didn't do what was needed

to set the right standards for perfect.

Defining perfect means including standards for the goal, but it also requires including

standards for the process.

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