(Free Printable) How to Overcome Perfectionism and be Productive
I will be sharing 5 tips to tone down perfectionism and be productive with your work! You can also download my Pause Perfectionism & Feel Relaxed printable to help you feel calmer during your perfectionism moments.
5 ways to let go of perfectionism and be more productive.
If you are a perfectionist, you can relate to this:
have started and not finished many projects
taking twice or thrice as long to finish something
keep double-checking, changing and re-editing your work. (Till it never gets completed.)
If you want to feel more relaxed and less anxious during your perfectionism moments, you can download my Pause Perfectionism & Feel Relaxed cheat sheet below.
My perfectionist streak is something which annoys me to no end.
That’s because it slows down my progress work-wise.
It has something to do with self doubt, self-worth and confidence.
We are doubting ourselves and our work quality too much.
Wait till you spot someone who has half your experience and no qualifications being ballsy enough to do something you want to do. (Such as launching a business and charging sky-high amounts for their work.)
Then we get frustrated with ourselves.
And wondering why on earth we didn’t overcome our perfectionism, pursue our dream (and stick to it) one year ago.
I have 5 small, beginner strategies to help us all overcome perfectionism in our daily lives.
Perfectionism needs a mindset shift. But mindset shifts take time.
So I’ll share practical, everyday strategies to manage our perfectionism in this blog post.
So you can start overcoming your perfectionism and being more productive today.
If you learn better through videos, I have created one video for this blog post. (full volume needed!)
If you prefer reading, let’s start!
Advice #1: Work within time limits!
Doing work at cafes is great because many of us get bored sitting in one place for hours.
So we have no choice but to whip out our laptops and start working away.
If we know that we get bored after 2 hours, we know that we have 2 hours to finish our work in that sitting.
My favourite trick is to do work on my laptop (and leave my charger at home).
My laptop battery dies after 1.5 hours, so I’ll have no choice but to produce something high-quality within 1.5 hours.
I’ll start working and researching at the speed of light.
Trust me, you’ll be surprised to see the type of quality work you can produce if you are under time pressure.
Some people swear by this free productivity and time management app.
It buzzes off every 25 minutes so we are forced to focus for 25 minutes. It worked for me, but makes me a tad anxious. I prefer longer time limits such as 1.5 hours.
Also…if you are a perfectionist, chances are your work is always a little better quality than non-perfectionists (don’t shoot me!).
Because perfectionists are naturally self-critical and hardwired to produce half-decent work, anytime and anywhere. (Again, please don’t shoot me.)
Advice #2: Stick to your decision
If you are the type who changes her mind multiple times in the middle of a project, it helps to stick to one decision.
Yes, better ideas will hit us along the way.
Yes, our project will be ten times better if we add X,Y and Z to it.
But if we follow our every whim and every urge to improve our project, it won’t be done!
And we add unnecessary stress on ourselves.
Right now, I’m in the middle of writing A Beautiful Mindset ebook to transform women from being self-critical to self-loving.
I wanted to add 101 mindset strategies to this ebook. I have too many ideas.
But if I add all these strategies, I will never be productive and never finish writing this book.
So you can try being satisfied with a modest - but solid - project.
Advice #3: Put Yourself Out There
This is scary but works for us.
Put ourselves out there. Tell people that your project, business, presentation will be done by “31st October” or some other specific date.
Announce it on social media (if it’s relevant to you).
We will be hard-pressed to finish it by its deadline to avoid embarrassment.
If we have to scale down our project to hit the deadline, so be it. At least we are productive and the work gets done!
We can always create another project another time.
Once we finish one project, we will be motivated to finish another one.
Instead of planning one big project after another, we can start by planning and pulling through a couple of small projects first.
Advice #4: Mistakes are not life-threatening
“Many of us live so cautiously just to arrive at death safely.”
I don’t remember where I got the above quote from, but it hits home doesn’t it?
This is my favourite but most difficult mindset shift.
“Mistakes are not fatal.”
“Mistakes are part of life.”
“Mistakes are learning lessons.”
“If we don’t make mistakes, we’ll never learn.”
We’ve all heard the 4 phrases above before.
If you are a perfectionist, the idea of making mistakes makes our skin crawl.
(Making mistakes is for weaklings - that’s the first thought that pops in my mind. Oops)
The only way to embrace mistakes is to make as many mistakes as possible.
Try a new approach.
If we screw up, oh well. Take a couple of days to recover from our embarrassment and try something else.
The most successful people in the world make more mistakes than the average person.
Advice #5: Remember your little successes
I have written a blog post about this before.
Create a success log for yourself.
The idea is to write our most meaningful successes on paper.
Nothing boosts our self-esteem faster than that.
You can download a template for creating your own Success Log here.
My last thoughts on overcoming perfectionism and remaining productive.
Perfectionism needs mindset shifts.
Perfectionists link our self-worth with our ability to avoid mistakes.
Don’t hold off starting or completing a project because it’s ‘not perfect enough’.
There are many other people with half your talent and half your skills enjoying much success doing what you want to do.
Let’s accept that we are all valuable yet imperfect human beings.
If you want to feel relaxed and less anxious during your perfectionism moments, you can download my Pause Perfectionism & Feel Relaxed worksheet below.
See you in my next post!
Shikah
Featured in this post:
A Beautiful Mindset eBook - From Self-critical to Self-loving
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(Free Printable) How to Start Finding Your Purpose and Improve Self Worth
I’ll be sharing 4 strategies to help you find your life purpose and improve your self worth! You can download ‘My Life Purpose’ action sheet to bring you 1 step closer to finding out your bigger purpose in life.
I’ll be sharing 4 ways to help you find your bigger purpose and increase your self-worth.
The reason I want to write about finding your purpose is because it will help you feel worthy in life.
You may be jobless, single, an ‘outcast’ or ‘weird’ but if you know your bigger purpose, those labels won’t bother you.
Finding our purpose is simple but not easy.
Because nobody can tell you if your purpose is right or wrong. So we’ll fumble through life trying new things until we feel inner peace.
If you learn better by watching videos, you can watch the video I created specially for this blog post:
If you want a shortcut and get one step closer to finding out what your purpose is, you can download ‘My Life Purpose’ Action Sheet below.
Let’s begin!
1. Purpose and joy are interlinked.
I am not a spirituality expert.
But the experts always link ‘finding your purpose’ with what gives us ‘joy’.
According to them, our emotions act as a compass in our lives.
So if we feel joyful, free and light doing something, that activity is linked to our purpose in this life.
If we feel dread, heaviness and fear, we are probably not supposed to do that thing.
It sounds rather simple.
I want to add ‘fulfilment’ to this:
Joy + Fulfilment = Our Bigger Purpose
If you can find work which give you BOTH joy and fulfilment, you are lucky.
I want to be practical here and say that in all the work we do, there will be aspects we dislike.
But if overall, you feel joy and fulfilment 70% of the time, you are in a good place!
2. What are your natural talents?
Aha. Do you know what your natural talents are?
Your natural talent(s) is something:
which is easy for you to do, but challenging for other people
in fact, sometimes you are bewildered at how other people do not know what you know!
which you love doing since you were about 6 years old. (Take note that you may be suppressing these talents during your childhood if your parents disapproved of them)
Sometimes you discover your natural talents when you are much older.
And that is okay because all our life journeys are different.
Again, if something is effortless for you to do but difficult for some other people, it may be your natural talent.
3. Ask people for their opinions!
I like this suggestion.
If you are truly clueless, start asking your trusted friends, family members, colleagues for their perspective on your talents.
You will notice some similarities in their responses.
If you feel embarrassed asking people “What do you think I’m talented in?” you can tell them your perspective on their talents and then asking them to return the favour.
If you still can’t get yourself to ask other people what your talents are, you might find my article ‘How Not to Care What Other People Think and Live Your Purpose’ helpful!
4. Complete ‘My Life Purpose’ Action Sheet
I created ‘My Life Purpose’ Action Sheet to help you get 1 step closer to finding your purpose.
I feel strongly for women building their self worth!
Self worth will ensure you stay comfortable in your own skin even if life throws curveballs at you.
You will remain calm and level-headed even if you don’t fit in. Even if you lose your job. Even if you lose a relationship.
Because you know that you have a much bigger purpose on this Earth.
My last thought on finding your purpose and improving self worth
Everyone has a ‘medicine’ which helps heal the people around them. What’s yours?
It’s time to find out!
Meanwhile, have a good week.
Shikah
(Free Printable) How to Start Intentional Living and Feel In Control of Your Life : 5 Easy Ways
I’ve discovered 5 daily actions to kick-start your intentional living journey. You can also download the 25 Days of Intentional Living printable to challenge yourself to live with intention.
Intentional living is not always easy to me.
It requires energy. Time. Being present.
So why does everyone talk about intentional living these days?
That’s because…it makes us feel more in control of our lives and creates a life worth living.
A life made of well thought-out actions will shortcut the way to reaching our aims and goals.
Our journey to achieving our goals - be it big or small goals - becomes more enjoyable.
Some of us are not sure how to start intentional living.
I’ve compiled 5 simple ways for you to start your journey towards intentional living.
If you want a shortcut, you can download the 25 Days of Intentional Living printable below.
1. How to make meditation easy in the mornings
I’ll admit that meditating in the morning is hard work.
That’s because it means I’ll have to wake up earlier. And fight the drowsiness whilst I sit cross-legged and calm my mind.
Not very appealing.
Meditation is so important to intentional living, in my opinion. I will usually have a clear mind after that - which means I make better, intentional choices.
I’ve found 4 ways to make meditation easier in the mornings:
Use guided meditation. I personally like Jason Stephenson’s meditations on YouTube. I stick to a 15-30 minute meditation because I usually have a ton of things to settle in the morning!
Plan your morning the night before. (Yes - every blogger says this. Haha.) We can start by writing 3 things we will do once we wake up. So, mine is typically: Shower, coffee, meditation time. In any order depending on my mood.
‘Warm up’ to your meditation time. Have your tea or coffee first, read, stretch, shower, do your chores etc. Make sure you are fully awake before meditation starts. If not, you’ll end up dozing off in the middle of it (been there done that!).
Choose guided meditations which you enjoy! Please don’t torture yourself by meditating to something you don’t like even if the guided meditation is wildly popular. What works for others, may not work for you. YouTube is a GREAT source of guided meditations!
2. Choose joyful decisions
Sometimes when making decisions, we are not sure which option brings us ‘joy’.
Especially when we have grown up in a family where we are not allowed to have what we want. (this topic needs another blog post on its own ;) )
If you don’t know which option brings you ‘joy’, choose the option which gives you feelings of relief.
Intentional living applies even when we are ordering tea or coffee at Starbucks. Choose a drink which brings up feelings of joy or relief.
Some of you who are more in tune with your feelings will be bewildered and ask “But…how can anyone not know which option makes him or her happy?”
It’s more normal than we think. From young,we’ve been trained to follow our logic and downplay what we truly want.
So sometimes, we get confused between what we want and what we have been taught is ‘good for us’.
But I digress. For intentional living, choose options which make us happy - even when we are picking the blouse we want to wear to work the next day.
It makes us feel more in control of our lives.
3. Have a reason behind every main action we take
This is a tough one.
It takes a lot of mental energy to have a reason behind the actions we take.
But this is the basis of intentional living. Every choice we make has to have a reason…because it makes life more enjoyable!
For example, when we pick up our phones to look through Instagram, intentionally choose whose profiles we are going to view.
I’ll admit that I am particularly intentional when doing my makeup almost every day.
It makes the whole process more enjoyable instead of a chore. The best way to do this is to watch YouTube videos and get inspired by new makeup looks and techniques to try for the day.
You can use this tactic for any of your chores or un-enjoyable activity.
There are even cleaning motivation videos on YouTube to motivate us to do household chores!
Try a new way of doing your daily tasks. Even if your reason for doing something is: ‘I want to see if this new technique works!’ - it’s enough as long as you have a reason for doing that activity!
4. Unplug as much as possible!
When I was a member of a yoga studio, I relished yoga classes because of how fresh, clear-minded and calmer I felt after every class.
It hit me that a large part of this was because I was away from my phone for at least an hour.
I’ve realised that I have a clearer mind, am calmer and make more intentional decisions when I’ve put my phone and laptop away for about 45 minutes or so.
If we want to surf the Net, write down what we are surfing for. And stick to that list.
It saves your time and precious energy.
Also, unplug for 1 hour before going to bed at night. It helps you have a restful sleep…which brings us to the next point.
5. Lastly, please be well rested
I’m sure many of us have made terrible decisions when we were feeling sleepy, grumpy and irritated.
Having good sleep and resting especially when we feel burnt out is crucial to intentional living. Crucial!
That’s because not having enough sleep and rest will lead to us making bad decisions.
You’ll notice that you start craving for chocolate biscuits and frappuccinos on autopilot on the days when you feel exhausted and did not sleep well.
In fact, it’s scientifically-proven that we crave for sweet treats when we are sleep-deprived! That’s one bad decision for the day.
I felt burnt out recently. Part of me wanted to push through and complete 1 blog entry. But as much as I pushed myself, the write-up felt stiff and was such a chore to do.
Hence, I decided to practise intentional living and did what felt good at that time - which was to lie down in bed watching videos and letting my mind rest. My burnout faded pretty quickly.
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If you want to kickstart your intentonal living journey and create a more enjoyable life, you are welcome to download the 25 Days of Intentional Living printable below.
Have a good week.
Shikah