ADHD perfectionism: decide what "done" means first

Sometimes, especially when the stakes feel high, you won't let yourself call a task finished until it's perfect. Maybe it's an email that has to say exactly the right thing. Maybe it's a dish that has to look like the recipe photo. Maybe it's a slide deck that has to be impressive enough for the big meeting.

There's nothing wrong with having high standards. The risk is getting stuck in a loop of endless polishing, where nothing you make ever feels good enough.

That's where this principle comes in: don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

The short version

If you've been criticized a lot in the past, the line between "good" and "perfect" probably isn't very clear to you. That's normal, and it gets clearer with practice. Letting go of something that's good enough, rather than flawless, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.

The single most useful trick: before you start a task, decide what "done" actually means. It doesn't have to be precise. It just has to be clear. Something like: once I can read the email through and the main points are all there, it's ready to send. Once I've tasted the dish and it's roughly what I expected, it's ready to serve. Once I've done one pass through the deck and every transition works, it's ready to present.

Deciding this ahead of time frees you from an open-ended weight of expectations, and the task gets a lot easier to actually finish.

📸 Screenshot/clip placeholder — marking a task done in the app goes here.

The relief of letting something go into the world is usually worth more than the satisfaction of knowing you did everything you possibly could to make it perfect.

So try it today. Pick one task, maybe today's main, and before you start, define what "done" means for it. Doesn't have to be precise. Just has to be clear. Then notice how it feels to actually finish, instead of chasing perfect.

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Keep reading

• ADHD impulsive emails: turn on delay send
• ADHD task paralysis: break it down instead of “just do it”
• ADHD inner critic: why a two-minute win still counts
• ADHD accountability: why it can't be another person
• ADHD executive dysfunction: the harder route you take to avoid the hard thing
• Welcome to the Herding Chickens blog
• More on Task Paralysis

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Herding Chickens is a productivity app in development, not medical advice, therapy, or an ADHD diagnosis. If you are struggling, talk to a qualified clinician. In the UK, start with the NHS ADHD in adults page.