Knowing When to Stop: The Tao Te Ching on Perfectionism

The report was finished on Tuesday. On Thursday it is still open, on its ninth revision. Each pass changes less than the one before — a word here, a heading there — and the improvements are getting hard to see. Other work is waiting, and the end feels no closer than it did at the start.

Perfectionism is often described as having high standards. In practice, part of it is often difficulty recognising when a standard has already been met.

Chapter 9: The Full Vessel

"It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness" (chapter 9, James Legge, 1891).

These are two examples of going past the point where effort helps. Once a vessel is full, adding more only makes it spill. Once a blade is sharp, continuing to work it wears the edge down.

The chapter does not argue against filling or sharpening. It says that there is a point where continuing does harm, and that the skill lies in noticing it.

Where That Point Is

Early revisions usually fix real problems. Later ones change things that few readers would notice, and some of them introduce new errors or remove something that was working.

There are also costs that do not show up in the work itself: time, other tasks delayed, sleep, and people waiting on the result. The full cost of a ninth revision includes everything that was not done while it was happening.

Chapter 45: Finished Work Can Look Unfinished

"The greatest attainment is as though incomplete; but its utility remains unimpaired" (chapter 45, C. Spurgeon Medhurst, 1905).

Good work often looks incomplete to the person who made it, because they can see every decision that could have gone another way. Others rarely see those alternatives.

The second half of the line is the useful part. The work does its job whether or not it feels finished to its maker. Feeling incomplete is not evidence that it is.

From the Tao

The greatest attainment is as though incomplete; but its utility remains unimpaired. — Tao Te Ching, chapter 45 (C. Spurgeon Medhurst, 1905)

Deciding What "Done" Means in Advance

Chapter 9 ends: "When the work is done, and one's name is becoming distinguished, to withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven." Stepping back depends on knowing when the work is done, and that is often what perfectionism lacks: a definition of done.

Without one, "done" quietly becomes "when it feels right," which may never arrive. A few practical substitutes help. Before starting, write down what the work needs to do and for whom. Decide on a number of revision passes and stop when they are used. Before each change, ask whether the intended reader would notice it.

Where High Standards Belong

Some work does warrant many careful passes, particularly where an error would be costly to other people. Knowing when to stop is not the same as lowering standards. It is applying them where they make a difference, rather than spreading them evenly over everything.

A Small Thing to Try

Choose one piece of work that is currently being revised. Write one sentence describing what it needs to do and for whom. Read the work once against that sentence.

If it does what the sentence says, send it, file it or close it today, even if it does not feel finished. Afterwards, notice what, if anything, came of the parts that were left unpolished.