Join the club – it was a struggle to start this post, let alone finish. And being my 100th post on this blog, the resistance I felt signified my whole blogging journey over the last year.
And I thought, wouldn’t now be a great time to write a post about how to finish what you start – because I know I’m not the only person that struggles with this.
With so many distractions, it can be difficult to work towards a goal for a prolonged period – especially with the information overload that we’re hit with in the digital era.
Great ideas often don’t get fully implemented – we feel inspired, motivated, and excited about a new project or endeavor, and then it becomes a matter of life happening.
The rest of this article will highlight a few ways you can help yourself cross the finish line and why despite our best intentions, we struggle to finish the projects we started.
Table of Contents
How to Finish What You Start
I recently learned about a theory called The Zeigarnik Effect. This theory explains why we feel so uncomfortable about not finishing our tasks. In fact, it’s probably the reason you’re reading this post.
The Zeigarnik Effect is a psychological term derived from Bluma Zeigarnik, who first figured out that people remember their unfinished or incomplete tasks better than completed tasks. If you’ve constantly stewed over your unfinished business rather than what you’ve already achieved – this theory is why.
Understanding this theory is crucial before applying any of the below tips. The Zeigarnik Effect is clearly draining your energy and focus. Not to forget the amount of anxiety it brings. Therefore, use this theory as your motivation to finish what you start.
Either you try to avoid the feeling of The Zeigarnik Effect or let yourself become unnecessarily overwhelmed and anxious over your unfinished tasks.
Now, let’s jump into the 9 ways to finish what you start:
1. Set realistic goals and simplify your systems
Starting a new project always feels like a breath of fresh air. An incomparable excitement bubbles inside you, and you have a reserve of motivation to even fuel Olympians. And so, we overestimate how much we can accomplish.
We have unrealistic expectations and plan daily tasks that would take 5 people to complete. Initially, it might be easier to fulfill these daily tasks as excitement and drive are high. But then the project gets rolling, and we become inundated with the small details and daily minutiae, making the once exciting project boring and tedious.
A solution to this problem is to keep your goals, expectations, and systems realistic and simple.
Setting achievable goals at the start will make staying consistent, maintaining momentum, and ultimately finishing the project easier.
Your daily tasks are the systems (as James Clear calls them) you’ll put in place to achieve those big goals. These systems are the tiny things you do every day to lead you toward that end goal.
If you set unrealistic goals at the beginning, your daily systems will be challenging. And the more difficult something is, the more overwhelmed we become and the more resistant we are to completing a task.
For example, when I started my blog one year ago, I set the goal that I would publish posts twice a week – Mondays and Thursdays. And this was feasible for me as I was unemployed and had time on my hands. However, this schedule no longer works for me as I work a freelance job and need to get up to speed with my studies. Therefore, I’ve decided to take a step back for the sake of my focus, productivity, and the long-term survival of this blog.
Me trying to do too many tasks and experiencing resistance every week doesn’t help me create great content. It makes working on this blog a chore. So, I’m going to be realistic about my time, energy, and expectations.
Do the same – reevaluate your goals and see how you can optimize them to be more achievable so that you can stick with them in the long-term. If you have too much on your plate, you may need to cut some tasks out, so you can finish more projects.
I know there’s underlying guilt involved with “cutting back” or scaling down. The internet tells us to overwork and be more and more productive. However, if you aren’t finishing projects and are just accumulating tasks because you don’t have the time or energy to sort through them, then isn’t it more productive to do less and simplify your tasks, so you can actually finish projects?
It is always better to finish all 3 projects you start than have 15 unfinished ones.
So, forget what everyone else says and reevaluate your goals according to your lifestyle.
2. Let go of perfectionism
We all are perfectionists to some degree. Nobody wants to attempt anything half-heartedly.
However, by trying to reach this false idea of perfection, we delay taking action – and our projects sit in the unfinished pile.
Thomas Frank has an insightful tip to finish what you start – don’t undo your mistakes. He used a good example of when authors had to use typewriters. They didn’t have the gift of hitting undo or backspacing a mistake – it was either write well (with zero typos) the first time or start all over again with a blank page.
This is an interesting theory to apply to your projects as well. Forge ahead without worrying about your mistakes.
This doesn’t mean you should put something half-assed into the world. But you’ll get things pretty okay the first time because when you know you only have one chance to do something right, you aim to do your best.
On the other hand, if you know that you have many chances to get something right, perfectionism sets in, and you waste time.
3. Set deadlines
The most popular yet underrated way to finish what you start is to set a deadline for when you will complete the project.
Deadlines spur us into action and force us to keep going. Without a deadline, we’d never move forward and constantly try to perfect our work.
They’d be no sense of urgency, pressure, and commitment.
I realized the power of deadlines when I did a training session a few weeks ago. The training was based on creating a business. My team and I had to think of a business idea, do a two-year revenue and cost forecast, create a business plan, and create a presentation that we would present to a potential investor – all in one week.
It’s not impossible to complete this task in a week. But I guarantee that if I did not have the one-week deadline looming over my head, I would’ve taken 3 months to finish this project.
However, my team and I accomplished the task in a week and did well too. We didn’t have to sacrifice quality for the sake of moving faster. Everyone made the time, did the work, and was ready to present after a week.
Also, the pressure to perform in a week was more significant because it was an external deadline enforced on us by a lecturer. And one can argue that self-inflicted deadlines are not that powerful. There’s always the temptation to extend deadlines when you’re only accountable to yourself.
In this situation, you have two options:
- Tell someone your deadline and ask them to keep you accountable.
- Or build self-discipline to follow through on what you’ve planned.
I recommend the 2nd option as this will benefit you in all areas of your life.
4. Gain inspiration from people in the same space as you
We’ve all started a project with the best intentions, only to find our motivation fizzle out a short while later.
It’s only normal to feel drained and burnt out. It doesn’t matter how passionate you are about your goal; there will be days when you hate it, are mentally and physically depleted, and want to throw in the towel.
However, this is when external motivation can help you.
And there’s so much of it going around. It doesn’t matter what project you’re working on; you’re guaranteed to find somebody in the same industry as you on the internet to derive motivation.
For example, if I’m stuck with content ideas or feel sick of my blog, I’ll head to YouTube and listen to other bloggers’ journeys. Or I’ll go to Medium.com and read unique posts that inspire me to write my own.
Gaining inspiration regularly (even when you’re not feeling down) will spur you on and drive you to work on your goals/projects/tasks.
5. Start the “right” projects
People often ask themselves, “why am I not finishing things?” but the question should be, “why am I starting these things?”
Not finishing what you start might signal an underlying problem with the projects you’re choosing to start.
I’ll use another blogging example. I’ve seen many bloggers choose a financially secure niche to start their blogs without any interest in the topic. So, they create the blog, write 3 posts, and then give up. This is because they didn’t start the blog that they’re passionate about.
So, if you find that you’re constantly unable to finish what you start, there might be a problem with the projects you’re taking on.
Here’s a good starting point to find out if a project is right for you:
- What is your gut reaction regarding the project? Do you feel trepidation, fear, or excitement?
- For whom are you doing this project? Is it for yourself or somebody else?
- Would you regret not undertaking this task? And by regret, I mean a more profound regret other than finances. Would your heart still cry after 20 years if you didn’t do this?
6. Have a vision for the future
Before starting any new project, ask yourself if it will guide you toward your future vision – meaning, will it assist in helping you achieve a long-term goal?
Too often, we invest our time, energy, and money in things that aren’t aligned with our greater vision.
Or on the other side of this equation, we forget our vision for the future because we’re so consumed with the little daily tasks we need to accomplish. And then the tasks start losing their novelty and become dull.
A solution is to reconnect with your bigger vision periodically, and you’ll see how each task you need to complete aligns with it.
7. It doesn’t hurt to experiment
Despite mentioning that you shouldn’t start projects that aren’t going to guide you to your long-term vision, it’s also good to try different things and experiment with projects. We never really know if something is for us until we try it, right?
Try things on a smaller scale rather than adopting a high-risk appetite and going all in. I’ve experienced this and wasted so much time, money, and energy on things I eventually gave up because they didn’t make me happy.
Also, as soon as you’re unsure about a project, never invest time or money you might regret if things go south. It’s better to go with your gut feeling and move on to something else.
8. Prepare for hard times
Regardless of your goal or project, you will feel drained and unmotivated at certain points. This also happens when you love a project so much, but it doesn’t perform to your expectations.
So, you’ll need to plan how to deal with times like these. For example, for a content creator, burnout comes with the territory. However, instead of letting it consume them, smart bloggers create content in advance that they can publish when they don’t feel inspired to write. In this way, they will still finish their project despite not constantly feeling “up to it.”
Create contingency plans for how you will deal when motivation wanes – because you’ll be less likely to throw in the towel. Instead, you can use that “downtime” to refresh your mindset and recharge your reserves without feeling like you need to give up on your project.
9. Have the good sense to know when to move on from a project
Not everything we start needs to be finished. Hear me out before you close this post.
This might seem contradictory after everything I’ve explained. However, there are some projects we start to please others or drain our energy instead of making us excited. In this case, letting go of the project is not only okay but recommended.
This post is geared toward finishing the projects that you find meaningful, but for some reason (fear of failure, rejection, judgment), you can’t go ahead with them. This post is not for those projects that don’t bring you joy. It’s better to let go of those and focus your efforts on the projects that make you happy.
Sometimes, we hold onto stuff that isn’t serving us for far too long. For example, completing a degree you aren’t passionate about because society expects it from you. Now, quitting a degree might seem horrible. But if there’s something else that you’d rather dedicate your time to, then it’s good to leave it unfinished.
I also know of many people in toxic relationships who don’t want to move on because they think they’ve invested all this time and energy into their relationship, and it will all be for nothing. But this is a sunk cost – whether you leave or not, you aren’t going to get back the time and energy you’ve already spent. So, isn’t it better to move on and focus your time and energy on what makes you happy?
Why Is It Important to Finish What You Started?
Besides a tick on your to-do list, what do you gain from seeing projects through to the end? A lot more than you would think.
When it comes to your dreams, the game-changer is always taking action. The more action you take, the quicker you will achieve your goals. It may sound trite, but it’s true — there is no substitute for getting started and finishing what you start.
Here are the benefits of finishing what you start:
- You build confidence. Leaving projects unfinished makes you feel like a failure and lowers your self-esteem. Therefore, try always to see something through, even if you’re not entirely sure it’s for you. Because how will you know if you don’t try? Furthermore, even if you supposedly fail, at least you’ll know that you didn’t sit back and let life happen to you; you took control and proved to yourself that you can follow through on your commitments.
- You learn discipline. Seeing a project through to the end means you possess self-discipline, which will help you in every avenue of your life – personal or professional.
- You have a greater sense of accomplishment. When you complete a project, you gain a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that can be very rewarding and motivating.
- You’ll have a higher chance of success. Completing projects is often a prerequisite for success in life. People who finish what they start tend to be more successful in life overall. They’re usually the ones who can stick to their goals and achieve them because they have the tenacity to see things through until the end.
- You learn patience and perseverance. Completing projects teaches patience and perseverance; both essential skills for managing difficult tasks and overcoming obstacles.
- You’ll have lower anxiety because you avoid The Zeigarnik Effect. As I’ve explained, The Zeigarnik Effect means we think more about our unfinished tasks than the ones we’ve completed. Therefore, an increase in stress and anxiety comes with incomplete tasks – which is what you’ll avoid if you become a finisher.
Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and that it taught you some valuable tips to finish your unfinished business. Of course, there are times when it’s impossible or simply not worth it to finish what you start. In those situations, it’s crucial to walk away gracefully and move on to other things.
Staying consistent with this blog has been a tough journey, as every post has a start and a finish. It’s like completing 100 mini projects. However, I’m far from finished. I’m only getting started. Please stick with me through this journey and subscribe to my new email list.