Antidote for an A-type perfectionist

From one former perfectionist to another, the question from Tim Ferriss that shook me to my core was:

How would this look like if it was easy?

We want to build good products, services, and even a good life. Oftentimes, we connect quality with complexity. However, remarkable is often the most simplistic.

More than your good old “keep it simple” tip, asking yourself how a certain approach would look if it was easy is slightly different and more potent. Why?

Well, keep-it-simple can be seen as an end result, that the product/service shouldn’t be overcrowded with information and too many features, whereas “How this looks if it’s easy” focuses more on the person doing the task and their approach. Essentially, you’re asking yourself “What’s the easy approach here?”.

So how to incorporate this into your routine?

This is ideal if you’re feeling stuck, stretched thin, or overwhelmed.

A good place to start is with the problem that’s occupying your mind the most, or the top 3 challenges you’re trying to tackle. Don’t worry if you can’t implement 100% of your easy approach, because you will still benefit from a 50% easier approach.

Let’s say you are stretched thin and have too many tasks.

The answer may be that, ideally, you wouldn’t have this many tasks. That would certainly be easier.

How does that look like? Go into more detail.

Focus on the tasks that cover most of the impact you’re trying to achieve and try to minimize the rest. Chances are that an easy approach would mean eliminating some tasks, or doing some less frequently because you notice that frequency doesn’t add value. Others could perhaps be automated, delegated, outsourced, or reduced in complexity and hence the time it requires. I can’t tell you what the right answer would be for you, it varies on the type of problem you’re solving, but the good thing is - you get to decide what “right” mean for you.

p.s. If you’re really stuck, you can reverse-engineer this by asking yourself: “What can I subtract?”. In some cases, repeating this question can lead you to the same antidote.

Good luck, you got this.