Are you a perfectionist? How your high standards could be working against you

Read time: 7 min

It’s four in the morning, and you’re triple-checking the verb tenses in your Spanish assignment. You still haven’t handed in that first draft of your history paper because it’s too rough, even though you need your professor’s feedback. You skip studying for a big econ test because unless you can review for three full hours for two straight nights, it’s not worth it.

If this sort of behavior sounds familiar, you might be a perfectionist.

Perfectionism can help us excel

Researchers define two types of perfectionism: adaptive and maladaptive. Adaptive perfectionism can be a boon to your academic (and career) success. Studies show that if your perfectionism is rooted in your desire to succeed, set and meet goals, and do your best in all you do, you’re more likely to be motivated and productive. You’re also more likely to actually enjoy the process. Just think about the successful people in certain fields: Pianists toil for years before they are skilled enough to play at Carnegie Hall. Monet set his canvas in the same spot day after day to capture every impression of leaf and sun. Mathematicians can pore over a single problem for years. Yet they all keep working hard—because they love what they do and want to do it well. 

“Perfectionism for me has never been the act of being perfect; it’s always been about appearing perfect.” —Alyssa L., second-year student, Michigan Technological University, Houghton

Perfectionism can also harm us

Maladaptive perfectionism, on the other hand, might be hindering your studies. Maladaptive perfectionism includes tendencies like viewing yourself as a failure if you don’t do everything just right, and believing the amount of mistakes you make will affect how people view you (e.g., they’ll like you more if you make fewer mistakes). A 2019 study of 169 pre-clinical med students found that participants with maladaptive perfectionism reported greater feelings of shame, inadequacy, impostor syndrome, depression, and anxiety. 

“I have a habit of wanting to do the best I can to make people proud, but when it comes to that, [I’m always afraid] that it won’t go perfectly and I will fail.”
—Maddison A., second-year student, College of the Desert, Palm Desert, California

How to spot maladaptive perfectionism

When perfectionism becomes maladaptive, it hurts more than it helps and can harm your academic performance and personal relationships. “Generally, it’s a red flag when perfectionist efforts seem to be making things worse instead of better,” says Dr. Jesse Crosby, a clinical associate at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and lecturer in psychology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “I get this relentless anxiety of how I expect the project or assignment to turn out, that it prevents me from even trying in fear of not getting it right or failing,” says Zachery R., a fourth-year graduate student at the University of California Berkeley.

“I get this relentless anxiety of how I expect the project or assignment to turn out, that it prevents me from even trying in fear of not getting it right or failing.” —Zachery R., fourth-year graduate student, University of California, Berkeley 

Warning signs of maladaptive perfectionism:person with anxiety icon | perfectionist

  • Procrastination
  • Avoiding tasks
  • Anxiety associated with trying to make everything perfect
  • All-or-nothing thinking (e.g., “I don’t have this time to do it perfectly right now, so I’ll put it off”)

“I am afraid of failing or not doing well, so I will often procrastinate so if I don’t do well, then I can say, ‘Well, I didn’t even try that hard.’”
—Paige L., second-year student, Southern Methodist University, University Park, Texas

Perfectionism can represent an emotional struggle. “Perfectionists have an emotional conviction that in order to be acceptable as a person they need to be perfect,” says Dr. Thomas Greenspon, a retired psychologist and author of Moving Past Perfect.

“Perfectionism for me has never been the act of being perfect; it’s always been about appearing perfect,” says Alyssa L., a second-year student at Michigan Technological University in Houghton.

The origins of that struggle might be genetic, research suggests. A 2021 study of perfectionism in twins found that 32 to 46 percent of the 678 participants exhibited similar perfectionist and neurotic behaviors. But perfectionist tendencies, like other behaviors, are also shaped by our environment. The same study found that the presence of these tendencies is due to both the twins’ common genetics and their environment growing up. In other words: You don’t “catch” perfectionism. Instead, your psyche, your lifestyle, and your surroundings help determine whether you gravitate toward it.

For example, a competitive academic atmosphere might prompt students to set unrealistic standards for their work. “While attending school, I’ve always liked to have the highest score possible—not to impress others, but to improve myself in the best way possible,” says Gustavo A., a third-year student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.

Other triggers for perfectionist behavior are vague syllabi and assignments, which give students room to expect more from themselves than professors do. “If I don’t have it entirely planned out down to the smallest details and can picture exactly how to accomplish everything, then I don’t want to start it because I don’t know what the end result will be,” says Katelyn R., a second-year student at Michigan Technological University in Houghton.

3 strategies to beat perfectionism-related procrastination

If you’re finding that perfectionism is negatively affecting your academic performance or wellness, you can use these strategies to avoid the harmful effects of procrastination, says Dr. Crosby.

1. Chunk your projects

Break large projects into smaller pieces to complete periodically. For example, if you have a 30-page research paper due in 5 weeks, you might break the work down as follows:

icon of puzzle pieces | perfectionistWeek 1: Choose the topic and research questions.
Week 2: Compile an initial list of sources.
Week 3: Draft an outline.
Week 4: Write a first draft.
Week 5: Revise the draft and submit the final paper.

2. “Crack the door” on tasks

Completing even a small part of a project creates momentum and helps erode fears that a given task is too complex or difficult. Set a five-minute timer and challenge yourself to get as much done in those five minutes as you can. Usually, once you get started, you’ll be ready to keep going after the timer goes off.

“I get this relentless anxiety of how I expect the project or assignment to turn out, that it prevents me from even trying in fear of not getting it right or failing.”
—Zachery R., fourth-year graduate student, University of California, Berkeley

3. Be flexible and prioritize

Take a flexible approach to reading assignments and other tasks. If you’re burning the midnight oil to take meticulous notes on an optional reading assignment, your standards may be too high. To cope with a heavy workload, you must prioritize, Dr. Crosby says. For example, if your professors assign hundreds of pages of heavy reading, quickly review and set aside any that aren’t relevant to the next class’s discussion topic. Instead, check what is on the syllabus for the next class and focus on the readings that will be immediately relevant. Just like ER staff must stop the bleeding before they treat the headache, you can distinguish between tasks that need heavy attention and those that simply aren’t so important.

Remember that improvement, not total mastery, is the goal “If something is on the syllabus, you’re not expected to know everything about it before you take the course or even afterwards.” —Dr. Jesse Crosby

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Article sources

Jesse M. Crosby, PhD, clinical associate, McLean Hospital; lecturer, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts.

Thomas Greenspon, PhD, psychologist (retired), author, Moving Past Perfect, Bloomington, Minnesota. 

Anxiety Canada. (n.d.). How to overcome perfectionism. [pdf] https://www.anxietycanada.com/sites/default/files/Perfectionism.pdf 

Burcaş, S., & Creţu, R. Z. (2021). Perfectionism and neuroticism: Evidence for a common genetic and environmental etiology. Journal of Personality, 89(4), 819–830. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12617 

CampusWell survey, September 2023. 

Counseling Center. (n.d.). Perfectionism. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
https://www.counselingcenter.illinois.edu/brochures/perfectionism

Hu, K. S., Chibnall, J. T., & Slavin, S. J. (2019). Maladaptive perfectionism, impostorism, and cognitive distortions: Threats to the mental health of pre-clinical medical students. Academic Psychiatry, 43, 381–385. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40596-019-01031-z 

Lee, Y. J., & Anderman, E. M. (2020). Profiles of perfectionism and their relations to educational outcomes in college students: The moderating role of achievement goals. Learning and Individual Differences, 77, 101813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2019.101813 

Travers, M. (2020, August 25). What does it mean to be a maladaptive perfectionist? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/social-instincts/202008/what-does-it-mean-be-maladaptive-perfectionist