Starting is easy. Finishing is hard. And we all tend to beat ourselves up over our many unfinished projects. I have just as many as you do, I’m sure. So here’s a trick I thought of while talking with the very smart Rob Hatch, and I think it has real potential.
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| We all have trouble finishing what we start. [An unfinished portrait. Photo (CC) by Heather Miller.] |
Starting is easy because you get to do the fun stuff. For me, the fun part is having those exciting initial discussions about an idea, and then planning out how it will work. For another friend, it’s the designing of new logos and the developing of the concept.
We love these parts because we get to do what is tasty and new. The implementation seems so much harder because we already did the fun parts. Now it’s down to the work.
What if you built in more of the fun stuff along the way? Can you find a way to give yourself little shots of the fun stuff as a reward during the hard part? Can you dream up a way to renew the project or remake it with more fun baked in?
I don’t know for sure that this will work. I’m just staring to test it myself. But it sounds pretty good to me. How would you improve on it?
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I always try to break the plan or project into very small bits. Then, the feelings of accomplishing something come much closer together. And, anyone can do the “nasty bit” if one can see that it can be finished really quickly.