“Do not plan for ventures before finishing what’s at hand” – Euripides
I had been working on a project and still not completed. How about you? Do you have uncompleted projects? It was easy for me to consider starting a new project, though of a lesser value than focus on completing the one on hand .
I sought to find out why this is so. Why do you not complete projects you have started, and easily start others? This is what my research led me to:
- You don’t have a deadline to complete the project: As a result, nothing compels you to finish the project. Can you remember when you were in college (university)? Were there any assignments you never completed? There were always assignments to be completed at a certain time, and there were also consequences for late submissions. Most of the time, you may be given an F or reduced marks for a delayed submission. With my project – I think I have kept shifting the deadline, because I have never considered the consequences of not completing at a set time;
- You have too many projects you are working on at the same time: Most experts suggest you should be working on a maximum of 3-5 projects at a time. It is very hard to multi-task successfully. It is best you have no more than 3 concurrent projects. complete one and move on to the next 2 projects.
- You start too big projects, for your skills and experience: What happens is that when you begin the project, you discover you do not have the resources nor the experience to continue with the project. As a result, you lose the motivation to work on the projects, and they remain uncompleted.
- You don’t track progress and celebrate milestones in the project: It is important to break the project into small milestones. Every time you reach some milestone, you take some time to celebrate the progress you have made. Progress is motivating and will help you to keep working towards your goals.
- You are trying to make it perfect: Are you a perfectionist? A perfectionist will consider what people consider good enough to be a failure and will continue working on the project and likely never finish the project. A project that is completed at 80% is better than no project delivered at 100%.
When I think through why I have not finished my uncompleted project, I can see that I had too many projects I was working at the same time. I also did not have a strict deadline to complete the project.
I will share one way to develop a finisher mindset – you complete every project you start.
Question – Which of the above reasons may have prevented you from completing a project you have been working on for a while?