The “Definition of Done”: The Most Underrated Tool for Beating Perfectionism

I wanted to share one more concept I’ve adapted from Agile/Scrum product development that dramatically increases the chances of achieving your goals. Let’s talk about the Definition of Done — and how it can quiet perfectionism while helping you finish what you start.

How the Definition of Done works in Agile

In product development, many people and departments collaborate on the same feature. However, each group has its own expectations and priorities, so the final result can easily become unclear. Marketing imagines one thing, design imagines another, and engineering imagines something else entirely. Everyone is convinced their version is “common sense,” yet common sense stops being common when ten stakeholders are involved.

I found a great write-up of what the definition of done is: 

The Definition of Done is an agreed upon set of items that must be completed before a project or user story can be considered complete. It is applied consistently and serves as an official gate separating things from being “in progress” to “done.”

There should also be an element of transparency, since everything can be tied back to that done-ness checklist. If a release or feature hasn’t checked off all the boxes, then it can’t move forward and everyone knows why.

Source: Product Plan

Basically, the Definition of Done removes ambiguity. It’s unbiased. It’s factual. Therefore, anyone from any department can look at the checklist and agree on whether the task is truly complete. No assumptions, no arguments, no endless revisions.

I once heard a saying: “The worst thing you can do to a song is to keep working on it.” The Definition of Done protects us from that trap. It defines where the finish line is — and it makes crossing it possible.

Recommended reading:

• Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland and J.J. Sutherland

Bringing the Definition of Done into personal productivity

I’ve been using this concept for my own goal-setting. I use sprint planning for my personal life. You can read more about it here. Every month I set 9 goals in total. 3 goals in each area of my life:

1. Career and Growth
2. Health & Key Relationships
3. The Quality of Life

The final, and probably the most important, step for me is writing down the definition of done for each of these 9 goals. 

My clients and I stay in touch regularly and have weekly progress calls, but I don’t live inside their heads. Therefore, we need something objective enough that both of us — and even a complete stranger — would agree that the goal is done. That neutral evaluation is exactly what the DOD provides.

Update from 2025: I no longer follow 3 goals in 3 areas approach described above. Since I became a mom, I don’t have the time to dedicate to 9 sprint goals. My current sprint capacity is usually around 5 goals. 

A clear example

Let’s say someone wants to “get back into good running shape.” At first glance, it sounds like a goal. Yet what “good shape” means depends completely on the person thinking about it. For some people, 5k under an hour is an achievement. For others, 5k under an hour is hardly running at all.

This is why we need a Definition of Done. It removes ambiguity, bias, and emotion. For example: “Run 50 km total in the next 3 weeks.” At the end of the sprint, we can check the Strava app. If the total says 50 km or more, the goal is complete. If it’s slightly below, we still know where we stand and what to adjust next month. Instead of debating feelings, we’re simply looking at facts.

More examples

When I was building monthlymethod.com, my sprint goal was to publish the core pages (home, blog, about, services) by the end of the month. They didn’t need to be perfect — they just needed to be live. Later, I improved them in the next sprint, but the definition of done prevented endless polishing.

Why the Definition of Done matters so much

The DOD eliminates two of the biggest blockers to progress:

1. It prevents overresearching instead of acting. Without a DOD, it’s easy to spend days reading articles or comparing routines. There is always “one more thing to learn,” and therefore action gets delayed.
2. It protects against emotional self-judgment. Without an objective metric of “good enough,” the brain often defaults to self-criticism. However, when progress is defined by a measurable number or result, emotions lose the power to mislead you. If you’re on schedule, you’re on track — end of story.

Consequently, life becomes calmer. Instead of constantly evaluating ourselves, we simply do the work and move on. This shift alone can dramatically reduce perfectionism-driven procrastination.

Using the Definition of Done for time blocking

The worst mistake you can do with your time block is to “work on something”. For example, I could’ve scheduled 90 minutes to work on my podcast. The moment I look at my schedule and see the phrase “work on my podcast”, my brain is instantly confused and overwhelmed. I have no idea where to start. In my mind, it looks like I have to revamp my whole podcast. That’s why you need to use the definition of done for your time blocking as well. 

What will I complete in those 90 minutes? In my case, during the scheduled 90 minutes, I will do the final edits to the script. I will record the episode. I will cut out long pauses and repeats. Once these steps are done, I am done with this task. There is no ambiguity. An absolute stranger can observe me during those 90 minutes and also agree that I have completed those 5 tasks. If a complete stranger and I can agree on the completion of the task, then it means I’ve created a good definition of done for this task. 

The big takeaway

Don’t ‘work on’ something. Produce something. Have a clear definition of done, so you don’t have all the inner chatter of unnecessary perfectionism. Because the other side of perfectionism is procrastination.  It is a great feeling to know that you’ve completed a task and you don’t have to think about it anymore.