Focus on progress instead of perfection

As students spend a lot of their time doing homework and assignments, it makes sense to do everything possible to make this time worthwhile. Always work hard and put in your best effort, but don’t strive for perfection. Perfection isn’t the same thing as excellence and a perfectionism-driven approach may demotivate you. If you are overly focused on perfection, procrastination can also be triggered. This can happen because some students are waiting for the “right time” to begin or want to complete their homework flawlessly and perfectly. However, they know this isn’t really possible, so they don’t even start. The solution is to focus on progress instead of perfection.

Prioritizing progress doesn’t mean lowering your standards. The pursuit of progress over perfection means one should never stop learning, growing and improving. There is never a “perfect” time to do anything. You can, however, do your best. Your best is enough. You don’t have to do anything else. Concentrate on improving and learning as much as possible, and make this a habit that you apply whenever you study. Don’t let a big project overwhelm you. Create an action plan and break the project into smaller steps. Then start by tackling the quick and small tasks first. You will feel more positive and less overwhelmed by the larger project or goal by achieving these “small wins”.

Dr Ora Marx