Sometimes we exert much more effort on a project than the project actually requires or deserves. It is called "perfectionism".

In most cases perfectionism is a companion of procrastination, perfectionists neglect other projects in order to make current project "perfect". If it seems to be so, visit the corresponding section and review following recommendations.

People fall into perfectionism when they can't stop doing something less important even if much more important tasks are waiting, or they choose to use time-consuming method of doing something while there are better techniques to achieve the nearly same results.

One of the most effective ways to defeat perfectionism is to use the Pareto Principle known also as the "80/20 rule". An Italian Economist, Vilfredo Pareto, observed in 1906 that 20% of Italians owned 80% of that nation's wealth. Over time, this ratio has been applied in various situations and has become a proven empiric rule: the value of a small number of items in a group far outweighs that derived from the other items.

For time management this rule means the following: 20% of effort will result in 80% of success and last 20% of success requires 80% of effort. You have to find enough willpower to stop yourself when the project do not require additional effort.

Another way to defeat perfectionism is to use a time budgeting mechanism. Simply setup a "time budget" for some project and stop working on it while the budget is exceeded.