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How IT Pros Can Beat Perfectionism & Prioritize

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10/13/2026
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I just want to elaborate a little bit. Because he would tell me, if you run to every ticket in the way that you're doing right now, Tara, you will never get the budget you need to increase your team. But I'm like, but they need me. I need to go now. I have to go now because I'm such a perfectionistic person. So what is the message that you would give people to curb that desire? Absolutely. So I think number one is just prioritization, right? Like trying to figure out like, is there something that's truly on fire? Where is my attention actually needed? If there's so much going on that you truly can't prioritize that yourself, I think we use the term in like HR, people ops, managing up, reach out to your supervisor, reach out to your manager, your leader, whoever, and say like, hey, this is going on, this is going on, this is going on all these tickets, like, can you help me prioritize what to work on? Right? And sometimes that alleviates the stress from you because you're not ultimately making the decision. So if in hindsight, you made the wrong one, it takes the burden or the pressure off you. So that's one of the ways you can do it.

TL;DR

  • Perfectionism in IT support can backfire — always responding with maximum urgency prevents you from building the team capacity and budget you actually need.
  • Before reacting to any ticket or request, ask whether the situation is truly critical and whether your immediate attention is genuinely required.
  • When competing priorities overwhelm your ability to self-triage, escalate to your manager — sharing the decision reduces both stress and personal accountability for outcomes.

Summary

This short clip features a candid conversation about one of the most common traps IT professionals fall into: perfectionism. A speaker named Tara reflects on advice she received early in her career — that responding to every ticket with maximum urgency would actually undermine her ability to grow her team and secure budget. The discussion centers on two practical strategies for breaking the perfectionism cycle. First, genuine prioritization: before reacting, ask whether something is truly on fire and whether your attention is actually required right now. Second, managing up — a concept borrowed from HR and people operations — which involves escalating competing priorities to a supervisor or manager when the volume of demands makes self-prioritization impossible. This approach has a secondary benefit beyond efficiency: when a manager helps set the priority order, the IT professional is relieved of sole responsibility if a decision turns out to be wrong in hindsight. The clip delivers a concise, actionable message for IT support staff who struggle to triage effectively under pressure.

Chapters

0:00 - The Perfectionism Problem
0:09 - Tara's Career Lesson
0:26 - Prioritization as the Fix
0:39 - Managing Up to Reduce Stress

Key Quotes

0:13 "If you run to every ticket in the way that you're doing right now, Tara, you will never get the budget you need to increase your team."
0:31 "I think number one is just prioritization, right? Like trying to figure out like, is there something that's truly on fire? Where is my attention actually needed? ..."
0:44 "Reach out to your supervisor, reach out to your manager, your leader, whoever, and say like, hey, this is going on, this is going on, this is going on all these tickets, like, can you help me prioritize what to work on? ..."

FAQ

What should I do when I have too many tickets to prioritize on my own?

Reach out to your supervisor or manager and lay out what's on your plate. Ask them to help you determine what to work on first. This 'managing up' approach reduces your stress and shares the decision-making responsibility.

Why is perfectionism a problem specifically for IT support professionals?

When IT professionals treat every ticket as equally urgent, they burn time and energy that could be directed at high-impact work. Over time, this pattern can prevent them from making the case for additional headcount or budget, limiting team growth.


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