Why "good enough" is the whole point of 80/20
Perfectionism is where the 80/20 rule goes to die. And for lawyers, it's usually fear in disguise.
Most people love the idea of the 80/20 rule. Do the 20% of the work that gets 80% of the result. Skip the rest.
Then they sit down to actually do it, and they can’t stop. They keep polishing. They keep adding. The thing that should’ve taken an hour takes four.
That’s not the 80/20 rule failing. That’s perfectionism insidiously overriding it.
The extra work nobody asked for
Here’s the part perfectionists miss: the last 20% of effort usually produces something no one will notice.
Think about how this plays out with technology. You get a new new tool and spend hours customizing every setting, color-coding folders, to build the “perfect” system. And you do this before you’ve used it even once.
None of that affects a client matter. None of it wins a case. It just chews up valuable time.
Think about that extra time as excess fat in meal that’s supposed to deliver just nutrition.
In other words, whole point of 80/20 is deciding, on the most essential part of a job, the level of “good enough” that the job demands.
“Good enough” isn’t lazy. It’s a target.
Lawyers hear “good enough” and flinch. It sounds like cutting corners.
But it’s not. It’s about being thoughtful, strategic, and focused.
That’s what 80/20 thinking calls for, not mindless perfectionism.
A lot of “perfectionism” is really fear
Here’s the part that goes unspoken, especially for lawyers.
Sometimes people over-polish because they genuinely love precision. But often it’s something else: fear of being criticized.
Lawyers are trained to spot flaws,—i.e. anything that someone can attack. So we often overdo things — not because the work needs more, but because we’re bracing for whoever might criticize us.
That’s not a standards problem. It’s a confidence problem. And it wastes enormous amounts of time.
Why confidence is part of the equation
Here’s the tricky bit: knowing what to leave out takes confidence, which can be built up by being extra thoughtful, strategic, and focused.
When you’re new to something, everything feels essential. You can’t tell the load-bearing parts from the decoration, so you keep it all — just in case.
The more experience you get, the more you’re able to discern’what actually matters. You learn which details a judge will actually care about. That’s when you can start cutting with confidence.
So if you’re not there yet, be patient with yourself. But don’t wait around for confidence to show up on its own, either. The fastest way to build it is to borrow someone else’s.
Find a mentor — someone a few steps ahead who can look at your work and tell you where “good enough” really is. They’ll spot the parts you’re over-polishing out of fear, and they’ll reassure you about the parts that are already fine.
And here’s a newer option: AI can play some of that role too. You can hand it a draft and ask it to critique your thinking, poke holes in your argument, or tell you where you’re adding stuff that doesn’t earn its keep. It won’t replace a good mentor, but it’s a sounding board available at 11 p.m. when no one else is.
Either way, the point is the same: get an outside read so you’re not the only person deciding when it’s done.
Bottom line
The 80/20 rule and “the perfect is the enemy of the good” are the same idea wearing two hats. One tells you where the results come from. The other tells you when to quit.
The work isn’t doing more. It’s having the confidence to stop at good enough — and trusting that most of the time, good enough is exactly what the moment called for.
;-)
Ernie
P.S. In the Inner Circle, we help each other figure out where “good enough” actually is — so you stop over-polishing work nobody asked you to perfect.
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https://innercircle.ernietheattorney.net/