A Rule of Thumb is a homemade recipe for making a guess. It's an easy-to-remember guide that falls somewhere between a mathematical formula and a shot in the dark. Things like "When speaking to an audience of more than 10, at any given moment 40% of them will not be listening" or " It's easier to stay out than get out". The Rules of Thumb web site aims to collect all the world's rules of thumb in one easy to access location. You can literally be the judge of what's included by voting on the candidates.

While some seem to be more funny than accurate, my favorite from the management category is "Done is better than perfect". As a card carrying perfectionist, I had to learn this lesson when I worked on my MBA. In order to juggle a full time career and an eight year old daughter along with my studies,  I was forced to step back from my tendency to work on a project until  there was  absolutely nothing that  could be open to interpretation and even the most minute details had been checked and re-checked. In the accelerated pace of an Executive MBA program, you finish a course every few weeks. If you don't focus on completion you won't be able to finish assignments or be prepared for exams.

I applied this lesson many times throughout my corporate career. Getting a product into the market quickly or delivering a solution to the client on time was worth more than delaying completion just to create the  perfect solution.