Satisficing: How Overachievers Stay Sane and Avoid Burn-Out

One of the fastest paths to burnout is when brilliant people get so stuck on making everything they do AMAZING that all they have to show for their efforts is a string of sleepless nights, broken commitments, and work left undone. But life doesnt have to be this way.

t is possible for overachievers to get more done, improve their performance, and be

less stressed, but it doesnt always mean grinding out that extra task on the to-do list. Sometimes, we need take a step back and embrace the concept of satisficing. The power of this concept was explored by Dr. Barry Schwartzs teamin a 2002 paper and is probably best summarized by researcher Emilia Lahti:
Satisficing simply means to not obsess about trying to maximize every single task outcome and ROI.

Heres how Lahti personally applied this powerful principle to her masters degree program (emphasis added):
For my second semester at Penn, I tried this satisficer tactic. I approached the assignments without my usual over-achiever angst and must seek validation for my existence on this planet and exceed all expectations -mentality. I began my course work with a conscious attitude that I will simply do enough, and enough is what I can do within reasonable limits The result of not giving a damn: three As and an A-, but most importantly I

enjoyed every minute of the ride. The trick: your mind believes you when you tell it something. We CAN override old patterns of behavior and create new associations.

Heres how you can apply this principle to your life to get more done, be happier, and feel more successful: Accept youll never get everything done: You havent done everything until youre dead. So instead of freaking out about the fact that there will always be more to do, decide which activities really fall within the Critical must-do category and let go of the rest. If the activities in the second Would be nice to do category get done, great. If not, it probably doesnt matter very much. Stop and invest in your key projects even when you havent completed all the little things and youll feel way more accomplished. Keep a new ideas document: Creative people have the blessing of having theIdeation strength, meaning ideas thrill you and you typically have much more new ones than most people. However, this can turn into a curse when you feel like a failure because you dont act on all of your ideas. Instead of feeling badly that you have so many ideas you havent pursued, celebrate the thrill of the thought and be content with jotting it into a journal or putting it in Evernote for now. Capturing it should appease your impulse to act, and if you still feel as excited a few days later, you can revisit. After all, you dont have to do everything that pops into your head. As Cal Newport explains in his post New Years Advice from [Stoic philosopher] Epictetus: Dont Get Started.