Perfectionism looks like high standards, but it’s usually fear holding a clipboard.

High standards get things finished well. The other thing stops them being finished at all, which is the clearest way to tell the two apart. What looks like rigour is often a way of avoiding judgement, since nothing unreleased can be criticised and nothing unfinished can fail. The clipboard gives the fear a respectable job title.

Send something out at eighty percent this week and watch what actually happens. Set a deadline about time rather than quality and stop when it arrives. The gap between eighty and perfect is usually visible only to you.