Ask HN: How do you deal with Rabbit Hole Syndrome?

I find myself striving for ideal and perfect solutions in parts of my work that might not matter much. Sometimes it's probably worth the time and detail, but admittedly, a lot of the time it isn't. It's just more fun and interesting to be "thorough."

This happens when working on something new and unfamiliar, often side projects. In the quest for a "perfect" solution, entire branches of mathematics or programming start to beckon me, and away I go... down a rabbit hole of Wikipedia articles, Stackoverflow questions, and Github projects. Even if I do find an adequate solution, it's not good enough until I can understand the class of problem and derive it for myself.

This also happens based on principle. When I encounter a problem that is actually solvable -- though it may not matter much, then I must conquer it entirely. As an example, for me it is unacceptable that something rated 5.0 with 1 review is ranked higher than a 4.9 with 10 reviews -- and I need to find the solution to this problem, even though it might only be a minor feature and won't matter if there are no reviews to begin with.

I call this "conditional" Rabbit Hole Syndrome. It also sounds an awful lot like the classic interview answer: "My biggest flaw is that I work too hard." Well it's true, damn it. These types of trivial things can easily become my "top idea" for days at time.

I am now able to admit it: I spend time working on things that probably won't matter that much, and I enjoy it. But how do I fix this? How do I learn to leave well enough alone? How do I learn the distinction between frivolous research and actually getting shit done?

A couple of edits: After more thought, this is really only an issue with work on my side projects. I also think it's due to lack of accountability -- I report to myself. As such, I tend to work on "most interesting first" and avoid schlep. So I'm wondering: how do you motivate yourself to schlep?