I've been quieter than usual on all the socials and in my writing because I'm deep into finishing the Effective Public Speaking book. (I'm proofing that book today.)
That's because I'm stuck between the tension of finishing this project and starting a new project.
I love starting projects. Once I decide to start a project (from my project portfolio), I have tons of starting energy. It's no problem to write a short project charter or description. For a book, I use the back cover copy to define the value, the outcome(s) for the ideal reader. Starting is fun for me.
On the other hand, finishing projects challenges me. (One of the best pieces of feedback I ever received was about my lack of finishing. See Performance Reviews Are Not Useful; Feedback Is.) While I still have the product goal or vision, how do I achieve that when I'm faced with all the finishing work?
I use checklists, preferably of very small tasks. (Yes, that inch-pebble thinking.) This proofreading task is not small because I have to read and annotate the entire book before I finish it. Worse, I've already done this twice. However, I want a quality product, so I will do the work.
I have a ton of other writing I want to start. And I'm cheating a little by writing this post.
But I'm not alone with this starting vs. finishing energy problem. Many of my clients have precisely this problem. That's why they have trouble with their project portfolios. One client even called their projects “initiatives.”
Effective Project Portfolio Management Requires That We Finish Projects
While some of my clients like the term, “initiative,” I do not. I prefer the term, “project,” as a container of valuable work. (See the series that starts with Projects, Products, and the Project Portfolio: Part 1, Organize the Work to see how I think about projects.)
In a sense, I already have several more books in progress, because I've been blogging about those topics. (We will not even discuss the fiction!) That's similar to proof-of-concept projects or research prototypes that my clients do.
The more projects we have in progress, the less we can think clearly about anything. (See Flow Metrics and Why They Matter to Teams and Managers.)
We have to finish the valuable work. While books are not the same as software or software/hardware products, my potential readers do not gain the benefit of the book until I publish it. Your customers do not gain value from half-finished (or, worse, 98% finished) products.
Resolve the Tension with These Tips
If you are feeling the tension between finishing this work and starting the next piece of work, see if these ideas will help you:
- Return to the project charter or description that you wrote at the start of this project. What was the product vision, product strategy, or product goal at the start? If you didn't write one down at the start, write something now so you can see the value of your work.
- How old is the oldest project? If it's really old, is it still valuable? (See Help Yourself With This Short Series of New Year's Tips for a short version of the portfolio questions.)
- Make a checklist of all the work you need to do to finish. If you work as part of a team, consider pairing, swarming, or mobbing over that list so you can finish. That prevents the problem of half the team starting the new work and the other half “stuck” on the old work.
The checklist really helps me see how close I am to finishing. That helps me maintain my focus and energy so I do finish.
Decide What Is Most Important to Finish Before You Start Something New
I already decided that finishing the Effective Public Speaking book is the most important work in my portfolio right now. I have aspirations for more writing than I might have days on this planet. That's why I need to start-and-finish, start-and-finish.
I still feel the tension between starting and finishing, as I suspect you do, too. However, if you return to the product goal for this project and to the strategy in the project portfolio, you can decide what to do.
Choose among:
- Finish this project so it's done. Then, return to the project portfolio for the next valuable project.
- Stop work on this project because it's no longer valuable.
- Transform this project to something else and then finish it.
Those are the project portfolio principles. (See Manage Your Project Portfolio for more ideas.) Use them to resolve your tension between the finishing and the starting.