Be selective about what you choose to focus your energy on. Your time is precious, so be cautious about who you choose to spend your time with, and what you choose to spend your time on.
Working with technology, it’s almost like everyone has a good idea for an app or website. I’ve learned to say no more, so that I can focus exclusively on the handful of things I want to finish before the year is out.
Take advice from Marie Forleo and ‘purge and prune’ your to-do list.
2. Plan What Needs To Be Done
Now that you’ve decided on a short list of carefully selected goals to achieve, it’s time to put a detailed plan in place. What does ‘finishing this project’ look like? For one of my projects, it’s just to create a set of designs. For another project, it was about making a list of possible article titles, and committing to publish an article each week.
3. Make The Time
There is no such thing as “I don’t have time”. We all have the same amount of time, the same number of hours in each day. Where things start to differ, however, is that everyone has different priorities. I don’t always have time to spend playing as much PS4 as I’d like, but that is because playing PS4 is not top of my list of priorities. Family is my top priority. Then reading, writing, learning, drawing and designing… PS4, while I love it, probably doesn’t feature in the top 10.
In order to finish tasks, you’ll need to make it a priority. Look at your calendar and see when it’s possible to make time to work towards completing the project.
It could be getting in 1 hour early to work, and spending that hour writing. Is there a way to achieve your goal by using some wasted time more effectively? For instance, if your goal is to read more, you could bring your book on the train in the morning? Or listen to the audiobook in your car? Think about what time is available, and use it to your advantage.
4. Commit
Now that you’ve planned how you’re going to finish your small list of projects, and you’ve figured out when you are going to work on it, make sure you do it.
Because I wanted to focus on writing this year, I wrote a list of blog titles in my Trello board. Each week, I tick off which ever one I’ve written. This means I don’t get lost brainstorming when I’m supposed to be writing.
If your goal was to launch a side hustle, commit to spending a few hours each week (or whatever you can spare) and stick to it.
5. Set a Deadline
Once you’ve decided to spend a certain amount of time each week (or each day) on your project, set a deadline. There are no unreasonable goals, only unreasonable deadlines. If you miss the deadline, set another deadline.
The point of the deadline is to stop you from endlessly Lucassing*.
(*Lucassing — when you keep messing with something that was perfectly fine to begin with, in the style of George Lucas and the original Star Wars films)
6. It Doesn’t Need To Be Perfect
Designers are guilty of fiddling with things until they’re perfect, when in fact there is no such thing as perfect. For this reason, I would recommend starting a side-project with a buddy. That way, they can keep you from falling into the well of iteration.
Answers & Comments
Be Selective. ...
Plan What Needs To Be Done. ...
Make The Time. ...
Commit. ...
Set a Deadline. ...
It Doesn't Need To Be Perfect. ...
Have The End Goal In Mind. ...
Track Your Progress.
OR
1. Be Selective
Be selective about what you choose to focus your energy on. Your time is precious, so be cautious about who you choose to spend your time with, and what you choose to spend your time on.
Working with technology, it’s almost like everyone has a good idea for an app or website. I’ve learned to say no more, so that I can focus exclusively on the handful of things I want to finish before the year is out.
Take advice from Marie Forleo and ‘purge and prune’ your to-do list.
2. Plan What Needs To Be Done
Now that you’ve decided on a short list of carefully selected goals to achieve, it’s time to put a detailed plan in place. What does ‘finishing this project’ look like? For one of my projects, it’s just to create a set of designs. For another project, it was about making a list of possible article titles, and committing to publish an article each week.
3. Make The Time
There is no such thing as “I don’t have time”. We all have the same amount of time, the same number of hours in each day. Where things start to differ, however, is that everyone has different priorities. I don’t always have time to spend playing as much PS4 as I’d like, but that is because playing PS4 is not top of my list of priorities. Family is my top priority. Then reading, writing, learning, drawing and designing… PS4, while I love it, probably doesn’t feature in the top 10.
In order to finish tasks, you’ll need to make it a priority. Look at your calendar and see when it’s possible to make time to work towards completing the project.
It could be getting in 1 hour early to work, and spending that hour writing. Is there a way to achieve your goal by using some wasted time more effectively? For instance, if your goal is to read more, you could bring your book on the train in the morning? Or listen to the audiobook in your car? Think about what time is available, and use it to your advantage.
4. Commit
Now that you’ve planned how you’re going to finish your small list of projects, and you’ve figured out when you are going to work on it, make sure you do it.
Because I wanted to focus on writing this year, I wrote a list of blog titles in my Trello board. Each week, I tick off which ever one I’ve written. This means I don’t get lost brainstorming when I’m supposed to be writing.
If your goal was to launch a side hustle, commit to spending a few hours each week (or whatever you can spare) and stick to it.
5. Set a Deadline
Once you’ve decided to spend a certain amount of time each week (or each day) on your project, set a deadline. There are no unreasonable goals, only unreasonable deadlines. If you miss the deadline, set another deadline.
The point of the deadline is to stop you from endlessly Lucassing*.
(*Lucassing — when you keep messing with something that was perfectly fine to begin with, in the style of George Lucas and the original Star Wars films)
6. It Doesn’t Need To Be Perfect
Designers are guilty of fiddling with things until they’re perfect, when in fact there is no such thing as perfect. For this reason, I would recommend starting a side-project with a buddy. That way, they can keep you from falling into the well of iteration.
#carryonlearning