AG21: Seven Tips For Finishing The Big Project

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How do you start and more importantly, finish a big project? The answer depends on what we mean by a big project. Psychology, a big project is one that you can't easily redo if you mess it up completely. So washing your car is not such a big project: The whole thing might take a couple of hours from hardtop to wheels, and if you had the start over you have only lost a Saturday morning. Building a custom car, which might take months or years, is a completely different story. If you left your pliers in some inaccessible place in your hot rod, well you might have to redo months of assembly work.

So if you have a big project on your hands, what can you do to ensure that you not only start it but also finish it? Here's 7 things to keep in mind.

1. Plan But Be Flexible

Step one is make sure that you prepare, that you have a plan. Don't just plan: Plan big. Most large projects get off the ground on a tremendous blast of ambition. Tell yourself that you are going to write that opera or novel or that giant mural. This is no time for little thoughts: Think Sistine Chapel. The flip side of planning big is to execute small. The very thing that makes big projects big is that you can't finish them in one sitting. So execute small: Pick a little goal, a first or second or third step and do it. Tell yourself that, yes, I'm going to write that long novel, but it starts with writing the first page or the last page or an outline. So go ahead and write that page, make that first brush stoke or compose the first measure. Plan big. Execute small.

2. Clear The Decks

Another thing that you need to do before you start a big project is to get all the little things out of the way. Do your taxes *before you start on that masterpiece. Clear off your desk. Buy those 3X5 cards. Sharpen your pencils and clean your brushes. It helps to clear the minor things, things that will be in your way once you get underway.

3. Don't Listen To The Voices

I knew this guy in college who would say that the difference between crazy people and sane people is that crazy people will tell you that they hear voices. The sane people say they don't. It's not that the sane people don't hear the voices, it's just that they won't own up to it. I think that everyone who has ever tried to do something big has heard some voices, voices that say that you are wasting your time, that it's all going to be crap. Don't listen to the voices - they are the chorus of perfectionism. The prize - a finished project - goes to those who show up. The only way you are going to win is to be in the room when the project is finished. Mostly the voices are wrong; We are our own worst critics. If you do hear those voices, just sit down and say to yourself, "OK, maybe it's not going to be very good, at least not at first. But I'm just going to do it."

4. Let Yourself Be A Beginner

Which leads us to our next point: If you are just starting out doing something, then just accept that you are a beginner. It's all way points on the road to getting good. Give yourself the time to be bad at it, to learn. If are starting on the long journey to learn something new, then give yourself the time and the patience that you need to finish the trip. Nobody learns to program, or to paint or to play the oboe in a day or even ten days. But in the middle of day ten you will be nine and a half days closer to that oboe concerto. Hang in there.

5. Follow Your Muse But Track Your Progress

Sometimes a big project takes on a life and a path of its own. Sometimes you just need to listen to the work, to follow it to where it will take you. Sometimes we have a plan, but the project - or perhaps our muse - has a mind of its own. Sometime you need to simply follow it where it takes you. Take the project a step at a time and see where you are after each step.

Do try to have milestones though, some way to track your progress. Especially in the middle of a really big project, when you have forgotten what the beginning feels like and there is no sight of an end, knowing that you have just finished something, made some real progress can be a huge morale booster. I keep track of my large writing projects with 3 by 5 cards taped to the wall. Chris takes pictures of his guitar projects so that he not only has the 'before' and 'after' pix, but also 10,000 'along the way' shots.

6. Work Where You Are Comfortable

Find a happy place. If you like to write at Starbucks, then by all means write at Starbucks. I have my special writing desk, with the monitor set at just the angle I like. My keyboard is at just the right height. All my 3 by 5 cards are just where I want them. Find the place to work that makes you happy and go there, work, and be happy. Doing a project in your happy place will get you through the hard bits: You might get stuck on a paragraph or the way the shadow falls on her face, but at least you'll be comfortable, at least you'll have your donut/cappachino/calico cat to make you feel better.

7. Be Brave. Finish.

Finally, finish the thing. If you have a hard time simply declaring victory and saying 'this is done' ask yourself this: What is it that you are cheating the world of? It's better than you can possibly imagine. Get it out there!

Russ