it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly and other variations

You may have heard the phrase “perfect is the enemy of good" or some variation on this theme. You may have even encountered some variation of the idea contained in the title of this post. Other versions include "anything worth doing is worth half-assing," and more. As someone that enthusiastically supports citing sources, I made a half-ass search to find the origin of this concept but wasn't able to nail it down. I'm not sure knowing the source matters much for this concept to be useful.

If you haven't encountered this idea before, the concept is simple: if there is something that "needs" to be done or is worth spending the time to do, then it is worth doing the task in part if that is all you can manage. Completing part of the task will be much more beneficial to you than completing none. Not convinced? There are certainly things that can't or shouldn't be completed halfway. For example, it is ill advised to deal with government bodies in a half-assed fashion. You cannot do your taxes halfway nor should you do a bad job with your taxes under threat of financial and criminal penalties. You can apply this to cleaning your living space though! If you spend ten minutes vacuuming or sweeping you will be in a much better place than if you avoid cleaning entirely because you don't have the spoons to spend four hours on the job.

Obviously this is not universal advice you can apply to every task or situation but it is worth your consideration. Apply it when and applicable.