The final 5% that swallows your day
Readtime: 3 minutes
If your idea is good enough, you don't need to worry about perfecting the last 5%.
And if your idea isn't good enough, perfecting the last 5% isn't going to save it.
Either way, the last 5% isn't where you should be spending your time.
So where should you be spending your time?
On the idea itself.
You've been working on a report for a few hours. The big idea is there. But now you're going back through it, tweaking the wording of a paragraph for the third time, second-guessing whether a particular example is right, wondering if you should add one more supporting point.
Sound familiar?
Step back for a second. Is the idea itself actually strong enough? Because if it is, those details don't matter so much. And if it isn't, those details really don't matter.
The problem is that refining details feels like progress. It's comfortable. It's safe. You can see things getting tighter and more precise. But none of that changes whether the underlying idea lands or not.
And yet most of us default to refining rather than pressure-testing. Because challenging your own idea is harder than rewording a paragraph.
There's an important distinction here. Making something look good is important. But that's a 10-minute job these days with a good template or AI tools. That's not the problem. The problem is endlessly refining what you're saying – reworking a section for the fourth time, agonising over whether to include a particular point, adding detail that nobody asked for.
That's the last 5% that swallows your time. And it's almost never what determines whether your idea lands.
Let me give you an example.
Earlier this week I put together a proposal for a client. It is for a 10-month training program for senior leaders. The core of it – the structure of the program and the main content ideas – came together in about an hour. Then I spent several more hours refining the details. Rewriting sections that were already clear. Adding supporting points that didn't need to be there. Tightening things that, if I'm honest, didn't need tightening.
The client's response? "Yes, I've had a quick look and I'm looking forward to discussing more in our call on Friday."
A quick look.
They got the gist. They liked the big ideas. They wanted to talk. That's the outcome I needed – and I had that after the first hour. Everything after that was for me, not for them.
And you probably do it too, from the other side. Think about the last report someone sent you. Did you study every line, or did you scan it for the big ideas?
The last 5% – the final polish, the extra revision, the endless tweaking – is hardly ever the difference between something landing and something not. But it is often the difference between completing the thing today or not.
But here’s the bigger issue: The last 5% doesn't take 5% of the time. It swallows a disproportionate amount.
You can get something to 95% in a day, then spend three more days agonising over the remaining sliver. Imagine redirecting those three days toward strengthening the actual idea. Or starting the next one. Or doing something that's been stuck at 0%.
And here’s the counterintuitive part:
Leaving a little space in your work – a bit of ambiguity, or a rough edge – actually makes it better.
It gives other people room to contribute. They put their own spin on it. They build on it. Your good idea becomes their good idea too, which is how ideas actually gain traction inside organisations.
Over-polish everything and you close that space down. Worse, people start picking at the finer details you've laboured over. And they throw out the whole idea because they disagree about a detail. The very precision you thought was helping works against you.
The best ideas almost never stand out because of their polish. They stand out because of a distinctive point of view. It's like music – a demo recording of a great song is always more compelling than a studio-produced recording of a mediocre one. The idea does the heavy lifting. The production is just the wrapping.
So why do we keep doing this to ourselves?
Because knowing when to stop is a skill, and it doesn't come naturally at any level. Earlier in your career, you over-polish because you don't yet trust your own judgement. When you’re more senior, you do it because you've spent decades being rewarded for the detail. But the skill that distinguishes the best people I've worked with is knowing when something is done enough. Not perfect. Not rough. Just ready.
It’s easy to think that perfectionism signals high standards. But maybe it signals that you don't know which standards matter the most. The person who sends a slightly imperfect proposal with a brilliant insight will always beat the person who sends a flawless document with nothing interesting to say.
So here's a challenge for this week. Pick one thing you're currently sitting on – it could be a proposal, an email, or a piece of work you keep going back to. Before you finesse it one more time, ask yourself: is the idea strong enough? If it is, send it out today. If it isn't, stop polishing and work on the idea.
Done is a strategy. Perfect is a trap. The person reading what you’ve produced cares far less about the difference than you do.
Thanks for reading.
Mostyn
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