The Good-Enough Ladder
Choose real or fictional examples. Skip private details; never include passwords, medical information or contact details.
Learning goal: Define success criteria and a stopping point before revising work.
Careful work matters, but endless polishing can hide the real goal. “Good enough” means meeting useful criteria, not giving up. You can choose where extra effort helps and where it is time to stop.
- Pick a small task you are working on.
- Compare a perfect-only rule with the task’s real goal.
- Write three visible success criteria.
- Choose a stopping point and test it.
1. Climb toward the real goal
Rewrite each perfect-only rule in a more useful way.
| Perfect-only thought | Meets the goal instead |
|---|---|
| Every word must sound amazing. | |
| No one can find any mistake. | |
| My own perfect-only rule: |
2. My three-step success ladder
Choose three criteria someone could actually check. Put the essential one first.
Example for a poster: accurate facts, readable labels, sources named.
The Good-Enough Ladder · Practice & next steps
Continue your ideas from page 1. Write, draw, use symbols or ask someone to scribe. Share only what you choose.
3. My stopping agreement
Extra polish is optional once the goal is met.
My next step
For my next task, I will define “finished” by…
Optional stretch · Grades 6–8
Separate accuracy, clarity and style criteria. Explain when extra polish has value and when it costs more than it adds.