Lisa, I would imagine most people have had these feelings from time to time. If there is no major reason for your guilt then I would think your feelings are a fear of failure and rejection which often is responsible for our being perfectionist. It is a self-esteem problem. If we appear perfect then people cannot judge us. In other words instead of respecting ourselves, we value way too highly the opinions of others.

Do you fit many of these low self-esteem issues?

Frequent anxiety and emotional turmoil
Show a lack of self confidence
Depression or bouts of sadness
Inability to accept compliments
An inability to see yourself honestly
Care too much what other people will think
Accentuating the negative
Self neglect while helping others
Being harder on yourself than on other people
Worry over how you treat other people
Reluctance to take on challenges and trust your own opinion
Expect too little out of life for yourself

Carol

I'm pretty much a perfectionist myself. But to keep myself from going crazy over every detail, I try to focus on "optimizing" as opposed to "maximizing". Remember the law of diminishing returns--after a while, the amount you get out is not proportional to the amount you put in.

First, what *needs* to be done? And when does it need to be done by? (A sub-question is, what parts of this task need to be done? What can wait?)

Second, sometimes it helps to make a task list & rank the tasks by priority A, B, or C (I sometimes even add D & E).

Third, if you are in any kind of position to delegate, or have "team" members to share in the work, see if anything can be farmed out.

Finally, be flexible enough to think about contingencies. Perhaps your B priority has suddenly become an A. And the A isn't due for a while. When you have to shift gears, think of it as a back-up plan.

Hope this helps.