One thing that's been challenging me as a founder lately: deciding what "good enough" actually means.
I can easily see the next ten steps. So I can always build a case for the longer way. Why developing the more comprehensive training is smarter than just writing the doc. Why setting up the system properly now will save time later. Why the stripped-down version isn't really good enough.
And every one of those arguments can sound reasonable. That's the problem.
I let myself have one day on the weekend, where I'm allowed to catch up and invest the time and energy on these projects if I need to. The projects I justified doing now to get that system or training set up “properly”. I could just see and feel how doing this work now would pay dividends.
But when you justify using that overflow day a few weekends in a row... suddenly you're working six out of seven days and convincing yourself it’s normal. You almost trap yourself in it.
I think most founders have this in them. We'll put in the extra hours for the things we care about or things we can see are worth investing in. The problem is the extra never decides on its own when to stop. So where do you draw the line?
The most recent version of this for me: a new team member was starting, and we'd just moved the team from Slack over to Google Workspace. So I had orientation lessons to build, plus role-specific trainings I'd been wanting to make, because I really do believe a thoughtful course beats dumping a pile of documentation on someone.
All true. All useful now and later. And all the permission I needed to pour way more time into it than I'd planned, right before someone came on.
I'm not sure I've solved this one. But I've started catching the behavior. When I notice I'm justifying the longer path with "it'll be useful later," that's usually my signal to ask whether a good enough version was actually available three iterations ago.
For me, the overflow day is no longer a sign that I worked hard that week. Now it's evidence that I never picked a stopping point.
Where's your line for "good enough" right now?
- Valentina
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"Four Thousand Weeks" — Oliver Burkeman (Interview; book is the full ride). Burkeman's "efficiency trap" is the overflow day in book form. The better you get at getting things done, the more rushes in to fill the space, so you never feel caught up, and efficient people just get handed more. His fix is uncomfortable and freeing: decide in advance what you're going to let be mediocre. For a founder who can always see the better version, that permission is the whole point.
"The Paradox of Choice" — Barry Schwartz (TED). Schwartz splits people into maximizers, who need the best possible version, and satisficers, who decide what's good enough and stop. His research found maximizers make good decisions and feel bad about them; satisficers make good decisions and feel good. If you keep justifying the longer, more-developed way, this gives you the language for what that's actually costing you.
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