Just Finish, Already! Five Ways to Get Your Project Done

Holy Hannah! Starting this blog has been the biggest learning curve I’ve experienced in over 10 years. Every time I think I’ve got a handle on the dang thing, I find something else I didn’t know but really need to learn. Right now, my blog has only a few posts and no less than 20 projects in the queue. What?! For every one thing I do, another 10 pop up. It’s important to tackle each task and get the project done!

It’s been hard for me to translate being a graphic designer to being a blogger. I absolutely love graphic design, but I also have other interests I want to blog about. The graphic design work for the blog is part and parcel for getting the job done. But boy do I fall down that rabbit hole. Reading designer’s blogs and the beautiful projects they create gives me so many ideas. But many aren’t even relevant to my blog. How the heck am I going to get this blog off the ground if all I do is doodle around on other websites that talk about design? I appreciate the design blogger’s advice, their beautiful websites, and probably most of all, the beautiful freebies they so generously share. But really, I gotta get to work and get something posted already! I absolutely MUST find a way to get my projects off the desktop and into the blogosphere.

To that end, here are five tactics I’m implementing to help me stay on track. I have so much I want to share. I just need to finish already!

Be Realistic

I have such high hopes for this blog, but the learning curve has been so steep that I haven’t been able to post nearly anything that I’d hoped to – yet. I want to talk about a healthy lifestyle, as well as travel and retirement. Apparently there will be motivational posts like this one. But I can’t do it all at once. If I ever hope to get this beast off the ground I need to do it one post at a time. When all the topics are swirling in my head it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Instead, I need to focus on one topic at a time. I know all subjects will get airtime; I just can’t do it all at once. Be realistic about what you can accomplish.

Prioritize

Faltering is something that has been a too-frequent companion on this journey so far. With everything going on in my life as well as all the technical aspects of this blog, writing and posting has been pushed to the bottom of the list far too many times. Then I came across a fun little printable editorial calendar from Garnishing.co (sign up to get yours). Once I took the time to fill out the calendar with the posts I had in mind, everything snapped into place. I could see what I needed to work on, and when. I realized I didn’t have to worry about everything right this minute. This simple calendar helped prioritize my workload and, as a result, clarified what it will take to achieve my goals. Prioritize your workload and focus on what needs to be done now.

Take one bite at a time

So much has been written about time management. Here’s a good article I read recently. The point is to break the project into digestible chunks so that the large elephant is divided into manageable bites. And once you know all that needs to be done, do as Celestine Chua recommends and move forward by working on what interests you at the moment. For me, the graphics of a project are always fun and something I look forward to doing. Once I let go of thinking I needed to have all the writing done first, I was able to get my projects rolling. So figure out what needs to be done, then break it into individual tasks. Do something. Do anything. Just get it out of your head and into the world. Break your end goal into doable tasks and get to work.

Let go of perfectionism

In my corporate gig, it’s essential to get everything absolutely correct. But with deadlines and copy handed to you at the last minute, even occasional mistakes are inevitable. Instead, we achieve excellence by striving to do our best in each situation. Understanding this, I thought I had let go of perfectionism a long time ago. But as I worked on this blog, perfectionism reared its head and said that as a professional designer I had to have the perfect site and everything I did must shine, right from the start. Oh, please. It will never happen if I’m looking for perfect. I can obsess over every detail and still there will be something that’s not exactly right. Rather than perfection, I’ll work towards excellence and know that my site is a work in progress. Just like me. Stop trying to be perfect, and instead work to achieve excellence.

Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it. Salvadore Dali

See It Through

Scott Young has a wonderful post on his blog about finishing what you start. One trick he recommends is to categorize any activity that lasts more than a day into either an experiment or a commitment. But it’s much more than just designating a category for each project. Finishing what you start needs to become a commitment in itself. Mental discipline is part of the process. Essentially, you must make the commitment to see your commitments through. Quitting an experiment is OK, but following through on commitments must be non-negotiable.

Reading this was enlightening for me. When I applied this reasoning to my blog, I realized I didn’t want it to be an experiment. I have so much to learn from this endeavor that I need to stick with it. Decide if you’re experimenting or if what you’re doing is worth finishing. If it’s important to you, then don’t quit. Keep working and see it through.

Be realistic about what you want to accomplish, then divide the project into manageable chunks. Do your best, but stop holding onto unrealistic expectations of perfection and make the commitment to work on your goals and see it through. These are the tips I’ve used to get me this far and even though the idea causes some anxiety, I think I’m ready to start posting weekly.

I’d love to hear what techniques help you to finish your projects. Leave a comment below!

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