What motivates you to get a project completed?

Every month Martha will share quick and easy solutions to simplify life.

Procrastination and Project Completion

Tell me if this sounds familiar….you come up with a ‘fantastic idea’….it is all you can think about.  You start planning, chatting with friends and family about your brainstorm, the creative juices are flowing!  Wrapped with excitement, you purchase supplies, do research, print out important information, bookmark sites….you are creating!  But suddenly everything comes to a screeching halt.  You pile the information and supplies; you avoid them like the plague.  What has happened to your great idea?  And how come you cannot move forward to completion?  If your clutter is an assortment of uncompleted projects, read on….

Resources and strategies for procrastination abound on the internet.   Here are a few that I find useful.

PROJECT DEFINITION – Just what are you trying to get done and will it be worth it?!

One interesting approach is to redefine the completion of your project.  Check out this article on About.com: Entrepreneurs.  I love the author’s challenge that, “A project is not complete until it is working for you, rather than you working for it.”

Projects that have run into roadblocks should be redefined to help determine their true value.  A technique that I suggest with my clients is to have them assign a ‘value’ to the stalled project.  The value can describe the amount of freedom they will feel (i.e. if they set up auto-bill pay, they will no longer receive so many paper bills and be on time with payments), or the lack of stress they will feel, or, more often than not, be a dollar amount they will receive upon completion.  If a relevant value cannot be placed on the completion of the project, then it is much easier for the client to shelve the project until a later date and NOT feel any guilt about doing so.

ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERS – Let’s face it, you are not alone in your struggle to get things done. 

Working with an accountability partner is a great way to feel part of a ‘team’, get valuable coaching, and feel motivated to move forward.

Some rules of the road:

• find someone who desires to have an accountability partner as well.
• Set a format, frequency and rewards.

There are several articles I found helpful when choosing MY accountability partner (yes, I do this, and I love it!  so does my partner!).  This article give some basic guidelines.  You can also receive a motivational quote of the day  - go here to join.

PROJECT PARTS – Breaking it down so you can get it done.

All projects are made up of steps.  If you have a stalled project, take the time to write down the steps that will lead the project to completion.  You may have heard this before, and inevitably put off creating a list because you didn’t see the value of the time you would invest.  But, consider this….

• A list with steps offers you smaller tasks to work.  What sounds better?  A project that you know will take 10 hours straight work time.  OR a task that will take 15 minutes?  Look at each step finished as one more step closer to your project being done.
• A list with steps will help bring a ‘never ending step’ to a close.  Frequently my procrastinating clients will have stalled projects because one of the steps never seems to end (there is always more research to do, they are still looking for the ‘perfect’ item before they move on, they are waiting for an event to take place before they proceed).  Realize that some steps just need to be brought to a close so the project can move forward.  Any new items that may come about can always be added later.

Hope these ideas help. Take what works to make your next event the very best.

Martha Goss