Going for Good Enough

Web Worker Daily wrote about satisficing today, and I wanted to join that conversation. While the term has been around a while, I first heard of it when I read The Paradox of Choice. Author Barry Schwartz explains it this way:

To satisfice is to settle for something that is good enough and not worry about the possibility that there might be something better. A satisficer has criteria and standards. She searches until she finds an item that meets those standards, and at that point, she stops.

As a recovering perfectionist, this is a concept that really resonates with me. It's easy to move beyond this shopping-based example and look at other places where satisficing might be a good approach.

Postcard writing: I still send postcards when I travel, and it was a real breakthrough when I realized that people were glad to hear from me no matter what I wrote, and each card did not need to be a literary masterpiece.

House cleaning: I don't have children - but I have cats and a busy life. I'm never going to have a perfectly clean house - I've figured out what's "good enough" for me, and I stop there.

Vacation planning: I tend to go to whatever place strikes my fancy and meets my criteria for weather, sights, etc. I don't worry about whether there may have been another place I'd enjoy even more.

Blogging: I just had this discussion with another blogger today. When do you stop fine-tuning a blog post and say, "This is good enough"?

And on that note, I think I'm done for tonight!

Related post: The 6 Styles of Procrastination