When Good Enough Has to Do
For the piece of work you keep rewriting past the point of improvement. It gets finished written down as a standard, puts a timer on the last pass, and lets you send the version you have rather than the one you are still imagining.
Perfectionism · Perfectionism · Self-Compassion · 8 items · whenever you need it
The checklist
- Write down what finished actually means — a standard you can name is one you can reach.
- Set a timer for the last pass — polishing has no natural end of its own.
- Ask who else will notice the difference — most of the final tenth is invisible.
- Send the version you have at the deadline — late and perfect is still late.
- Keep a list of what you would change — the ideas survive; the delay does not help them.
- Name the fear under the rewriting — usually it is being judged, not the work itself.
- Let one thing be visibly ordinary this week — proof that nothing falls apart is worth having.
- Count sending it as the achievement — a standard you hit in private helps nobody.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it whenever you need it, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.