Hey Reader

I've always considered myself to be a serial project starter.

The problem is I'm not also a serial project finisher 😅

Don't get me wrong, I still get a lot done, but if we compared the list of finished projects to a list of every project I ever started…

I have a sneaking suspicion that my completion percentage wouldn’t look that great 😝

Of course, this assumption is very much coloured by the Zeigarnik effect (or the tendency for our brains to keep incomplete tasks in mind while letting go of finished ones), but how to tackle unfinished projects has been taking up a lot of my thinking recently.

While last week we talked about the time bomb strategy, this week we've got a different one which can get unfinished projects off our list even faster.

Let’s have a look! 👀

The idea - You don't have to complete everything you start

Hear me out! 😂

If I'd finished every project I'd ever started, or tackled every goal I'd ever had, life would definitely look different right now.

For one, I'd be a hairdresser-dentist-radiologist-pop star who owned a flower-candy-café-book shop, living in Australia-New Zealand-Canada with a turtle-lizard-mouse-dog-cat and my boyfriend-girlfriend-husband-wife with 0-3 children.

But along with that, I'd have completed every household project, every side hustle, every personal quest, every creative dabbling...

Seems like a lot 🫠 I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Our time, effort, and energy are precious...and limited.

While we can do pretty much anything, we can't do everything, and despite what we may tell ourselves, we probably don't want to either.

We can keep clutching onto and accumulating unfinished projects, saying "I'm going to get to these one day", and getting increasingly annoyed at ourselves when "one day" never materialises and our "to do" list feels more like a "to do" tome.

Or we can recognise that some of the projects we start are destined to go unfinished and let go of the need to complete every single thing we start.

The thing is though, I don't want to just leave which ones do or don't get done up to the fates. I want to actively decide which ones get completed in full.

So how do we sort between the unfinished projects to let go of and the ones to recommit to? 🤔

Make the choice again

The fastest way to get an unfinished project off your "to do" list is to let it go, but often we just let life decide which projects this happens to.

If we aren't intentional in choosing which projects get done versus get scrapped, then the only unfinished projects that get completed are those that are most easy, quick, or fun to finish.

This doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the most helpful, impactful, or important though 😅

Instead, we want to proactively decide which ones we'll let go of. This can either be by telling ourselves:

• I'm actively deciding not to finish this, or
• I've decided that where I'm up to is "finished"

Rather than letting all projects linger on our "to do" list just for the simple fact that they got started, instead we're going to redecide whether they're projects we'll work on.

Some of the questions I like to use to help me decide if a project is going to be recommitted to or retired are:

• How much work is left to complete this project?
• How beneficial/impactful will it be to complete this project?
• Do I actually care if this project gets finished?
• If I hadn't already started this, would it still be important enough to start today?
• If I lost everything I'd already done towards this project, would I start over?

For any of the projects that don't come out of this questioning having justified their place on my list, it's time to let them go 👏

All this to say, it's okay if some of the goals and projects we start don't get completed. That's very normal!

We don't have to be beholden to the things that past-us started, especially if it is not going to serve our current or future self.

Letting those ones go in favour of the stuff that is still important to us will pay off in the long run 💪

Let's take action

Write out a list of your unfinished projects, or more specifically the ones that you keep telling yourself you'll get back to "one day".

For each project on the list, use the questions below to decide if it gets to stay on the list, or if it gets retired.

• How much work is left to complete this project?
• How beneficial/impactful will it be to complete this project?
• Do I actually care if this project gets finished?
• If I hadn't already started this, would it still be important enough to start today?
• If I lost everything I'd already done towards this project, would I start over?

If you've got an unfinished project that you're feeling ready to let go of, let me know 😄

Until next time!

- Jess