Perfectionism

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Sometimes if I feel like I can't do something at my best I'd prefer not to do it than do it half well. I don't know if that's the same feeling but I think that being a perfectionist and wanting to do my best all the time stops me from doing anything.

Reply 21

dappleddawndrawndauphin

ellewoods

If I don't start working at 9am, I feel like I've wasted the day already and it now isn't worth starting, so write it off and promise to do a full day the next day. I then waste most of the day watching daytime TV and being on TSR, and go to bed late, upset, sleep in and start the whole awful cycle all over again....

And with assignments, I spend more time making *perfect* notes from approx 1,259 different sources, that I end up either rushing the actual assignment or having so much information that its impossible to focus my work...

Its so stressful because none of my friends understand how this pressure for everything to be "just right" gets to me, so they think Im just moaning, or worse, fishing for compliments. (because my marks are good, its just the ultra-stressful buid up that gets me)
One of my friends has just gone off on holiday for a week, and I just can't imagine having *any* time off like that this close to exams!! :eek:

I know I would benefit from chilling out, that the quality of work would improve etc etc., but I just can't switch off :frown:

I feel better knowing Im not the only one though...

Omg, this is so terrifyingly like me... Because I spend so much time saying panicky things about exams, etc, my friends and teachers assume I start revision really early and work like a slave; but actually I get paralysed and like you, keep getting stuck in that awful cycle where you think 'Oh I'm behind anyway, may as well start tomorrow' - I thought it was just laziness till I found out perfectionism is a genuine problem recently! Actually, I start revising a maximum of 2 nights before an exam - due to having a photographic memory I have always got away with this so far, but the stress of leaving it till then leaves me physically and emotionally drained, and then I spend months worrying about the results and convincing myself and everyone around me I've screwed up. They end up getting irritated by it especially when I get good marks, they don't understand it at all.

Coursework's the worst for a perfectionist though because you can keep altering it... I've just been through hell with mine, teachers had to force me to give in French because I kept spotting minor errors and making alterations constantly. Ended up getting full marks despite thinking it was crap :rolleyes: