How do you triage unfinished projects?
July 3, 2013 9:47 AM Subscribe
I have hundreds of projects that are in some state of being unfinished: papers anywhere between brilliant idea and 3/4 finished draft; beats and melodies and half-written tracks; short story ideas and fully-developed scenes; tons of photos that could use retouching and printing. How do I figure out what is worth doing, prioritize, finish some projects, and let go of the rest?
The main obstacle is the sheer size of the problem. On the work front, I have dozens of academic papers/projects that are potentially viable but would require substantial commitment to see through to polished, publishable piece. On the hobby front, I have hundreds of beats and snippets of music that could become tracks with more work. I have hundreds of photos that I'd like to work on and eventually print out and display. At this point I couldn't finish a quarter of these projects even with unlimited time.
I'm also a project pack-rat: I simply can't let go of something that might possibly have some value, or I have put some effort into, in the off chance that it might be worth something in the future. So my "beat+basslines" FruityLoops folder has 150 files, I have no idea how or where to begin, and often feel overwhelmed. It's always easier to start something new than to go through the painful process of whipping something into shape or letting it go.
I've tried prioritizing things that are closest to completion, but on these I often hit a wall where I am completely sick of it and would rather start something new. I love the "new idea" phase of a project, and I like the "polishing up phase of a project." I hate everything in between, and I'm a perfectionist who can't bear letting go of something that isn't completely, absolutely, positively finished. I start things and they languish on the back burner for so long that often when I return to them I no longer have the spark or passion that I had when I started.
I'm looking for tips, tricks, apps, anything that can help me deal with this. Thank you!
The main obstacle is the sheer size of the problem. On the work front, I have dozens of academic papers/projects that are potentially viable but would require substantial commitment to see through to polished, publishable piece. On the hobby front, I have hundreds of beats and snippets of music that could become tracks with more work. I have hundreds of photos that I'd like to work on and eventually print out and display. At this point I couldn't finish a quarter of these projects even with unlimited time.
I'm also a project pack-rat: I simply can't let go of something that might possibly have some value, or I have put some effort into, in the off chance that it might be worth something in the future. So my "beat+basslines" FruityLoops folder has 150 files, I have no idea how or where to begin, and often feel overwhelmed. It's always easier to start something new than to go through the painful process of whipping something into shape or letting it go.
I've tried prioritizing things that are closest to completion, but on these I often hit a wall where I am completely sick of it and would rather start something new. I love the "new idea" phase of a project, and I like the "polishing up phase of a project." I hate everything in between, and I'm a perfectionist who can't bear letting go of something that isn't completely, absolutely, positively finished. I start things and they languish on the back burner for so long that often when I return to them I no longer have the spark or passion that I had when I started.
I'm looking for tips, tricks, apps, anything that can help me deal with this. Thank you!
You sound like a candidate for OmniFocus.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 10:19 AM on July 3, 2013
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 10:19 AM on July 3, 2013
Best answer: In sports, you learn more when you lose. You often have competitors who don't realize how much they get away with by beating inferior competition - because they won.
Generalizing to life, you learn more when you fail. If you recast your unfinished projects as failures - what did you learn? Why did those projects fail? Were they too big? Too ambitious? Too technically challenging? If you make an honest assessment of what happened to each, that should inform what projects are well within your strike zone - and which ones are worth the reach.
Another way this is talked about is "failing quickly." It helps inject some emotional distance so you can 1) do something and 2) (the important part) evaluate what your did, so you can adjust and improve the next attempt.
There will be times where the process or journey is the point - but if you're not explicitly doing that, then forget perfection. Scope your projects to be large (or small) enough so you can learn something quickly and move on.
posted by NoRelationToLea at 10:23 AM on July 3, 2013 [4 favorites]
Generalizing to life, you learn more when you fail. If you recast your unfinished projects as failures - what did you learn? Why did those projects fail? Were they too big? Too ambitious? Too technically challenging? If you make an honest assessment of what happened to each, that should inform what projects are well within your strike zone - and which ones are worth the reach.
Another way this is talked about is "failing quickly." It helps inject some emotional distance so you can 1) do something and 2) (the important part) evaluate what your did, so you can adjust and improve the next attempt.
There will be times where the process or journey is the point - but if you're not explicitly doing that, then forget perfection. Scope your projects to be large (or small) enough so you can learn something quickly and move on.
posted by NoRelationToLea at 10:23 AM on July 3, 2013 [4 favorites]
Pick one. Doesn't matter which. Finish it.
Pick another. Repeat.
posted by xingcat at 10:26 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Pick another. Repeat.
posted by xingcat at 10:26 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Pick up a thing. The nearest one, the last one you started which one isn't important. Put aside half an hour a day (or more if you can spare the time) and work on it. If you can't be assed to put aside half an hour a day to work on it it's not important and throw it out or file it. Pick up the next thing, is this worth half an hour of your time, then work on that daily until it's done, not perfect just finished. Do something with the finished product, publish it, record it whatever. Pick up next thing and do that.
It's either that or embrace the fact you are a dabbler, there is nothing wrong with that and relax and enjoy your dabbling and enjoy the fact you have tried so many things, even if you haven't finished them. I am a dabbler, society now a days is all about goals, forget all that and just have fun you don't HAVE to finish anything if it's just a hobby, that's the point of a hobby to have fun.
posted by wwax at 10:37 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
It's either that or embrace the fact you are a dabbler, there is nothing wrong with that and relax and enjoy your dabbling and enjoy the fact you have tried so many things, even if you haven't finished them. I am a dabbler, society now a days is all about goals, forget all that and just have fun you don't HAVE to finish anything if it's just a hobby, that's the point of a hobby to have fun.
posted by wwax at 10:37 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
A system that many crafters use is to pick five (let us say) unfinished projects. You work on project A for 5 hours, over however many days that takes you (maybe you only have an hour every evening after work, maybe you have five hours in one afternoon). Then you set it aside, and go on to project B, for 5 hours. Then project C, for 5 hours. There is no cheating. You have to move on to the next project. After you put in your 5 hours on project E, you go back to project A and do another 5 hours. And so on. Rotating the projects keeps you feeling fresh on them, but rotating only a few keeps you from losing your momentum.
This is better suited to some sorts of projects than others -- your music and photo work is probably more suited to it than writing, which may need more sustained focus. You can adjust the amount of time (people range from 2 to 10 hours on their "time in" before switching). If you have one project that is high priority, or you want the satisfaction of really working hard on one, you then go A B A C A D A E etc. until A is done, but you don't just work full-time on A, since you already know you don't finish things that way.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:09 AM on July 3, 2013 [6 favorites]
This is better suited to some sorts of projects than others -- your music and photo work is probably more suited to it than writing, which may need more sustained focus. You can adjust the amount of time (people range from 2 to 10 hours on their "time in" before switching). If you have one project that is high priority, or you want the satisfaction of really working hard on one, you then go A B A C A D A E etc. until A is done, but you don't just work full-time on A, since you already know you don't finish things that way.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:09 AM on July 3, 2013 [6 favorites]
I find that setting myself specific goals helps. I was making a cute little object, and got stalled out deciding how to attach arms to it. This way? That way? No arms? All of the materials are sitting in a box under my coffee table, where it's been for a couple of months. I should really do something about it. My one hope of salvation is that one friend whose opinion I polled said "who cares about the arms, but you should enter it in our charity auction in mid-July" which was probably the most helpful thing ever, since now maybe I'll do it instead of stalling.
Yes, I have projects that I was formerly enthusiastic about, packed away in boxes in my closet. Yes, I have to-do lists that include "finish X", "plan Y", AND "sketch ideas for Z" which is totally counterproductive with a dabbler like myself. Yes, I will admit, the ideas that I finish up on are not always going to be my best ideas, they're going to be the most relevant ones. There are some ideas I think fondly of but will never finish because they stopped being relevant, but the boxes are still in the back of my closet.
You know the method where you prioritize your to-do list by whether they're important, and whether they're urgent? It's reasonable to apply that to work projects AND non-work projects. Having collaborators, or giftees, or events/seasons associated with your projects really helps, because it ups the urgency. Taking a step back and deciding whether you really want the finished product in your life is also useful, and can help you decide whether it's important or not. If you finished up your photos for display, where would you put them - is there space for two hundred photos, or thirty? If there's not a place for them, it's not important to finish. On the other hand, if you can come up with a particular purpose, that might get you inspired - not just "touch up photos" but "give friend a photobook for christmas". Working on your (pleasure) writing is important, but it's up to you to decide what your goals are - do you want to get something into a form you can share with friends (or my goodness, a publisher?) and get feedback on, or is the purpose of your writing to get your ideas down in text so that you've expressed what's on your mind? If you've already milked a lot of the purpose/pleasure out of the act of writing, simply by writing tue ideas down, it's okay to let it go unfinished. Maybe you could take an afternoon and listen to the music work you've done... they're just files, no need to get harsh and delete stuff, but find a way to tag things that you think are especially good.
With your (work-related?) papers, consider whether there are deadlines that have come and gone - if the idea isn't currently relevant, there's no point in working on it. No need to delete the file; you may want to refer back to it if the topic comes up again later, but there's no point in pouring effort into something that isn't a current topic. Think about whether you have colleagues who'd be interested in the writing - is there any chance you can fob it off on them (or at least get some editing and a kick in the butt) with the offer of a co-authorship?
posted by aimedwander at 11:15 AM on July 3, 2013
Yes, I have projects that I was formerly enthusiastic about, packed away in boxes in my closet. Yes, I have to-do lists that include "finish X", "plan Y", AND "sketch ideas for Z" which is totally counterproductive with a dabbler like myself. Yes, I will admit, the ideas that I finish up on are not always going to be my best ideas, they're going to be the most relevant ones. There are some ideas I think fondly of but will never finish because they stopped being relevant, but the boxes are still in the back of my closet.
You know the method where you prioritize your to-do list by whether they're important, and whether they're urgent? It's reasonable to apply that to work projects AND non-work projects. Having collaborators, or giftees, or events/seasons associated with your projects really helps, because it ups the urgency. Taking a step back and deciding whether you really want the finished product in your life is also useful, and can help you decide whether it's important or not. If you finished up your photos for display, where would you put them - is there space for two hundred photos, or thirty? If there's not a place for them, it's not important to finish. On the other hand, if you can come up with a particular purpose, that might get you inspired - not just "touch up photos" but "give friend a photobook for christmas". Working on your (pleasure) writing is important, but it's up to you to decide what your goals are - do you want to get something into a form you can share with friends (or my goodness, a publisher?) and get feedback on, or is the purpose of your writing to get your ideas down in text so that you've expressed what's on your mind? If you've already milked a lot of the purpose/pleasure out of the act of writing, simply by writing tue ideas down, it's okay to let it go unfinished. Maybe you could take an afternoon and listen to the music work you've done... they're just files, no need to get harsh and delete stuff, but find a way to tag things that you think are especially good.
With your (work-related?) papers, consider whether there are deadlines that have come and gone - if the idea isn't currently relevant, there's no point in working on it. No need to delete the file; you may want to refer back to it if the topic comes up again later, but there's no point in pouring effort into something that isn't a current topic. Think about whether you have colleagues who'd be interested in the writing - is there any chance you can fob it off on them (or at least get some editing and a kick in the butt) with the offer of a co-authorship?
posted by aimedwander at 11:15 AM on July 3, 2013
Best answer: I completely identify with this problem. I even wrote a song about it, which begins "One day / I'm gonna build a robot / to say I'm sorry / to all the other robots / I'm gonna build." I should really finish that up sometime.
Anyway, one thing I find helpful is to keep a master list of projects, anywhere from vague ideas to 3/4 finished and neglected. A really quick way would be just a multi-level list in a Google doc you can access anywhere:
That's just about managing the problem. As far as actually finishing things, one thing that helped me was to lower the barriers to publishing as much as possible. So I have a simple Wordpress portfolio blog that's basically framed as "here's some stuff I made one time; take it or leave it." The first finish line I aim for with a project is to just get it close enough to done that I can post it there. The plan isn't to ever have traffic in particular, but just to have a definition of "done" that is real and public with only the bare minimum of excuses not to finish. There's a huge difference between a set of public things you made and a bunch of folders hidden on your hard drive, even if none of them bring you fame and glory.
And then that leads into the psychological fixes: (1) What drives your perfectionism? Are you imagining some brilliant reputation for yourself in the future, that your current work doesn't live up to? (Ira Glass's problem of taste.) Can you get to a place of, screw it, no one cares, just get some work out there? (2) What drives your hate of the middle stuff? Can you freeze-frame on that moment when you give up on a project and figure out what's going on there? I always thought it was just boredom or lack of discipline, but when I looked closer I ended up thinking for me it had more to do with anxiety. Dredging all that up and making it conscious gets me a lot closer to dealing with it.
Good luck!
posted by jhc at 11:29 AM on July 3, 2013 [4 favorites]
Anyway, one thing I find helpful is to keep a master list of projects, anywhere from vague ideas to 3/4 finished and neglected. A really quick way would be just a multi-level list in a Google doc you can access anywhere:
- Songs:
- A
- B
- Remixes
- A
- B
- Articles:
- A
- B
- Etc. ...
That's just about managing the problem. As far as actually finishing things, one thing that helped me was to lower the barriers to publishing as much as possible. So I have a simple Wordpress portfolio blog that's basically framed as "here's some stuff I made one time; take it or leave it." The first finish line I aim for with a project is to just get it close enough to done that I can post it there. The plan isn't to ever have traffic in particular, but just to have a definition of "done" that is real and public with only the bare minimum of excuses not to finish. There's a huge difference between a set of public things you made and a bunch of folders hidden on your hard drive, even if none of them bring you fame and glory.
And then that leads into the psychological fixes: (1) What drives your perfectionism? Are you imagining some brilliant reputation for yourself in the future, that your current work doesn't live up to? (Ira Glass's problem of taste.) Can you get to a place of, screw it, no one cares, just get some work out there? (2) What drives your hate of the middle stuff? Can you freeze-frame on that moment when you give up on a project and figure out what's going on there? I always thought it was just boredom or lack of discipline, but when I looked closer I ended up thinking for me it had more to do with anxiety. Dredging all that up and making it conscious gets me a lot closer to dealing with it.
Good luck!
posted by jhc at 11:29 AM on July 3, 2013 [4 favorites]
Oh! Another thing is that brains are plastic -- you can change how yours work by forcing it to work differently for a couple of months. From time to time I've run eight week "Practice Projects" where I just commit to do something I want to be better at for exactly half an hour at the same time of day, every morning for eight weeks. (Mornings are better because you have more mental reserves to make yourself do stuff and fewer distractions; doing it at the same time means you don't have to think about it.)
So I'll get together some people who wanted to do their own projects, log into a chatroom at 7AM every morning whether or not I feel like it to record that I was there, and then practice guitar or something for half an hour. Eight weeks is long enough to make a serious difference in how you think, but short enough to commit to. You can pick anything that's a mental block for you -- photo processing and printing? Making bibliographies? Turning beats into songs and actually publishing them? Whatever it is, just seriously commit to put in half an hour a day for eight weeks and see how it goes.
(There's a website that does something similar, right? What am I thinking of?)
posted by jhc at 11:48 AM on July 3, 2013
So I'll get together some people who wanted to do their own projects, log into a chatroom at 7AM every morning whether or not I feel like it to record that I was there, and then practice guitar or something for half an hour. Eight weeks is long enough to make a serious difference in how you think, but short enough to commit to. You can pick anything that's a mental block for you -- photo processing and printing? Making bibliographies? Turning beats into songs and actually publishing them? Whatever it is, just seriously commit to put in half an hour a day for eight weeks and see how it goes.
(There's a website that does something similar, right? What am I thinking of?)
posted by jhc at 11:48 AM on July 3, 2013
Best answer: I am like this. I have had to learn to enjoy the sheer work of it. It's like that saying - creativity is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. So can you learn to enjoy the mastery of it? You're not perfect at it now, but can you get in touch with your love of the craft and your personal desire to master it? Don't focus on the perfection of the specific song, so much as the perfection of the craft of songwriting. Then the failures are fun, they are learning, just as someone mentioned above.
The other thing - since you are the creative type who likes starting things, then you're likely very emotional and fluid. When you feel "it" you start a song (or project) about "it", and go as far as the excitement/feeling carries you until [something else] happens and then you're off in a different direction. So when you return back to "it", the feeling is gone, so you don't want to do "it" anymore. Well, this time when you return to the project, take some time to get back in touch with the original feeling. Imagine, think, feel, just marinate in it for a half an hour. The feelings will come back, and then you'll be all psyched to do "it" some more.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:53 AM on July 3, 2013 [3 favorites]
The other thing - since you are the creative type who likes starting things, then you're likely very emotional and fluid. When you feel "it" you start a song (or project) about "it", and go as far as the excitement/feeling carries you until [something else] happens and then you're off in a different direction. So when you return back to "it", the feeling is gone, so you don't want to do "it" anymore. Well, this time when you return to the project, take some time to get back in touch with the original feeling. Imagine, think, feel, just marinate in it for a half an hour. The feelings will come back, and then you'll be all psyched to do "it" some more.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:53 AM on July 3, 2013 [3 favorites]
Essentially you need (we all need) to learn to conjure the feeling of flow at will.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:57 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:57 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: jhc and St. Peepsburg, your comments are super-helpful. The problem of taste and flow ideas are right on target. The hard part really is re-igniting the completely absorbed, flowish feeling that comes at the beginning of a project when anything seems possible, or at the very end when you can see how its all going to come together...
posted by googly at 12:26 PM on July 3, 2013
posted by googly at 12:26 PM on July 3, 2013
Kind of an alternate tool to Omnifocus, but better than jhc's Google doc bulleted list, MeFi turned me on to Workflowy a while back, and I've found it useful for getting out of too-many-project ruts.
jhc, you've really gotta finish that song and post it to Projects.
posted by deludingmyself at 12:30 PM on July 3, 2013
jhc, you've really gotta finish that song and post it to Projects.
posted by deludingmyself at 12:30 PM on July 3, 2013
This isn't a tool, it's a strategy.
When to-do has piled up, whether it's projects, housework, work, hobbies, or anything else, to the point where you have waaaaay too much to do, and it's so overwhelming that you start to avoid it all, it no longer matters what you do. The most efficient thing to do at that point is just grab the first project that comes to hand, and either finish it or chuck it. Seriously. Just choose something and do it, it doesn't matter what, because getting anything done is more effective than getting nothing done. Be ruthless. Don't waste more time trying to arrange or organize- that's just more procrastinating. Shifting the load around doesn't actually get rid of it.
Pick something up and do something with it.
That's it.
posted by windykites at 12:44 PM on July 3, 2013
When to-do has piled up, whether it's projects, housework, work, hobbies, or anything else, to the point where you have waaaaay too much to do, and it's so overwhelming that you start to avoid it all, it no longer matters what you do. The most efficient thing to do at that point is just grab the first project that comes to hand, and either finish it or chuck it. Seriously. Just choose something and do it, it doesn't matter what, because getting anything done is more effective than getting nothing done. Be ruthless. Don't waste more time trying to arrange or organize- that's just more procrastinating. Shifting the load around doesn't actually get rid of it.
Pick something up and do something with it.
That's it.
posted by windykites at 12:44 PM on July 3, 2013
One thing that helps is writing a mission statement for yourself. That clarifies your priorities.
posted by gentian at 12:45 PM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by gentian at 12:45 PM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
I love planning things, I love having done things, I hate DOING things. So when I have too many things on the burners (which is always) I pick the one that will take the least amount of time/energy to finish and just do that, devote a bit of every day to it (actually devote not say you're going to and end up doing something, this is important. And hard. But important) And while I'm doing this thing I will think about and fantasize about doing ANYTHING ELSE, cause I hate doing things. Eventually I'll build up enough steam from thinking about doing this OTHER thing while doing the thing I'm doing that when I finish, I have enough motivation to start the next thing, the thing I was fantasizing about, and the cycle starts anew.
I think of it very much like I think about the gym or boxing class or whatever. I hate HAVING to do it, and I don't really enjoy it DURING, but I love having it DONE. And let the expectation of that feeling carry you on.
posted by The Whelk at 9:28 PM on July 3, 2013
I think of it very much like I think about the gym or boxing class or whatever. I hate HAVING to do it, and I don't really enjoy it DURING, but I love having it DONE. And let the expectation of that feeling carry you on.
posted by The Whelk at 9:28 PM on July 3, 2013
Best answer: I'm a perfectionist who can't bear letting go of something that isn't completely, absolutely, positively finished.
Years ago, someone told me that "perfection is for God, completion is for humans."
When completion, rather than perfection, becomes your goal, things get a lot easier. Don't be afraid of being mediocre. Just plow ahead. It's okay if you use an obvious melody or repeat the same verb three times in a paragraph. Just keep going and you'll reach a a version of completion where either you'll feel that you did the original idea justice or you'll know with some confidence that you can desert the original idea.
There's way more satisfaction than you would think in just finishing something, even if it's not your most amazing work.
posted by potential lunch winner at 1:26 AM on July 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
Years ago, someone told me that "perfection is for God, completion is for humans."
When completion, rather than perfection, becomes your goal, things get a lot easier. Don't be afraid of being mediocre. Just plow ahead. It's okay if you use an obvious melody or repeat the same verb three times in a paragraph. Just keep going and you'll reach a a version of completion where either you'll feel that you did the original idea justice or you'll know with some confidence that you can desert the original idea.
There's way more satisfaction than you would think in just finishing something, even if it's not your most amazing work.
posted by potential lunch winner at 1:26 AM on July 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
Collaborate. Drop it all in other people's laps. Put it all on the internet. Start a band or join one. Get finishers in on your projects, people who will finish the damned song and record it and release it and promote it, who will take your paragraph and make an essay or a book, who will write songs with your lyrics, who will use your pictures in a book they're writing.
posted by pracowity at 5:00 AM on July 4, 2013
posted by pracowity at 5:00 AM on July 4, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by gauche at 10:18 AM on July 3, 2013 [2 favorites]