F is for Finishing

F is for Finishing

One of my biggest struggles that I have is to finish the projects that I start. I am pretty sure that I am not the only one as there are plenty of home improvement rescue shows where they have to complete the plethora of unfinished tasks.  I am aware of this tendency that I have, so I am reluctant to start new projects before I complete other ones. 

I have been trying to identify why I do not finish projects up to completion.  I think the reason that I have is that I underestimate the time required to complete the project.  Typically I allocate 1 or 2 Saturdays to complete the project, as my Saturdays are precious and get booked up with lots of different commitments, so I need to get the project done in that time or else it will be several weeks before I can return to it, this is especially compounded if I need assistance to complete the project.

Another thing that I discovered when I was studying in university was that if I said that I was almost done on an assignment I would see how much time I had put in already and that was how much more time I had left to complete the project.  For example if I was doing a lab report and it had already taken me 8 hours to get to a point where I felt it was almost done it would take me another 8 hours to complete the rest of the lab report.  I had on my own discovered the Pareto principle.  The Pareto principle is also known as the 80-20 rule, which is where 80% of the results come from 20% of the work.  So I guess it is human nature to move on to next item when they see their effort as diminishing in returns. 

So if you have any suggestions on how to stay motivated until the end of the project, please share them in the comment section.  As always if you like what you have read, please subscribe to the blog, or follow me on twitter at @bjshideler.  Also, don't be afraid to share this with your friends on your favorite social media sites.