The article below could be used to help students who are letting their strive for perfectionism get in the way of their studies. The strategies discussed would be useful all throughout students’ learning and should help to promote self-lead learning and autonomy.
The attached study timetable should be issued to students to encourage them to plan and organise their time, whilst maintaining a healthy study-life balance.
It’s normal to want to do your best. But when it comes to studying, striving for perfect results isn’t always equal to doing your best. In fact, it’s possible that perfectionism is actually hindering your chance of success.
If you tend towards perfectionism, what is the best way to study? And what are some common traps to avoid?
Perfectionism can lead to procrastination
According to Arlene Walker from Deakin University, one of the biggest traps of perfectionism can be procrastination. “Sometimes students are so frightened of not doing things perfectly that they put off starting their assignments for so long that it leads to anxiety around having not completed the task,” she explains.
Alexa Hayley, a lecturer in psychology from Deakin, says a similar trap for perfectionists is they tend to over-research.
“They feel like they don’t have a sound enough understanding of the task so they keep reading or finding more materials instead of just getting some words down on paper,” she says.
Since assignments need to be completed within a set timeframe, it’s important to just get started.
“Read, summarise and write and then add to that rather than trying to all the background reading done first,” says Walker. “Waiting to have all the research done first just delays getting words down.”
Less planning, more studying
Similarly, spending too much time planning how you are going to study can get in the way of actually doing the work. “Students can spend an enormous amount of unnecessary time making a timeline that they never stick to anyway,” Walker says.
Hayley advises students to keep it simple: “Having a general timeline so you have an idea of when things are due is good but spending unnecessary time ordering, listing and things like that can make students feel like they’ve got a sense of control over the task when it’s actually just taking up time that could have contributed to completing the actual task.”
Create a skeleton to add to
Another thing that perfectionists might do is start from the start rather than create a skeleton for their assignment. “They tend to want to write the perfect introduction and then the perfect next paragraph and next paragraph,” Hayley.
“Really, if you get the skeleton down and start filling it out as you go then you’ve already got words on the page that you can build on.”
Walker agrees: “It doesn’t have to be in the order of the final completed task will be in. I talk about doing it in “bricks”. Little bricks build a bigger wall.”
Sometimes your best work isn’t perfect
Students sometimes tell Hayley that they feel that if their work isn’t perfect they’d rather not submit it.
“They don’t want people to see their work because they feel that it could be better or they know what it ought to be and that is really problematic,” she says. “Particularly where you have students with mental health or disability issues – their own perfectionism is disabling to the point where it creates so much anxiety for them.”
Sometimes the achievement is just getting the task done and submitted. “The achievement isn’t necessarily demonstrating your best work,” Hayley explains. “It’s just getting that task done and saying to yourself ‘I did it, it’s not perfect but there it is.’
“It’s a lesson that we probably don’t emphasise enough to students – it’s not always about the best work it’s about getting the work in’.
Don’t lose sight of the big picture
Walker says another trap for perfectionists is they can lose sight of the bigger picture. “They can become so fixated on the grade that they lose sight of the feedback and how to use the feedback for their greater learning. In the end it becomes all about the final grade instead of being about the learning from the task.”
Perfectionists can sometimes get caught up focusing too much energy in the wrong part of the assignment. “It’s about keeping focus on what they’ve been asked to do and using the assessment outline or the rubric to make sure they are on track,” Walker adds.
Balance is essential
Perfectionists may be so focused on doing well in their study that they dedicate all of their time to their work. Dr Walker encourages students to continue with their extracurricular interests in order to keep a sense of study-life balance. “Those other aspects outside of study give you the energy to continue. You’ve got to have an outlet.”
If you’re studying and you’re unsure of what’s required for success it’s important to ask for help. “People often think they might look silly so they don’t actually reach out for help,” cautions Walker. “If they had asked for help the task could have been clarified and they would have been okay.”
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