It’s unfortunate to say that more often then not I lack the motivation to finish projects I start. Often they’re just too big, or other things take priority. Either way, I have a huge pile of unfinished things that will quite possibly never get done. So what can we do when that motivation lacks, and it looks like our projects aren’t going to get finished.
Lets use my bookshelf project as an example, because I’m definitely lacking a bit of motivation to finish it at the moment.
Reassess and Fall In Love Again
I think it’s important, when you’re lacking motivation to let yourself take a break. Sometimes when we have unfinished projects (due to motivation) the time we spend not doing it, we spend thinking and feeling guilty about it. So stop. Give yourself some guilt-free time away from the project. And when that time is up (make sure you set the time before you start- a week is good), start dreaming of how lovely the FINISHED project will be in your home!
Check Where You’ve Come From
Checking where the project started, and how far through you are can be a big motivator.
So, in taking my own advice, here’s what I’ve achieved so far with the bookshelf:
* All seperate shelves covered
* Top half of backboard done
* Started on middle shelf (attached)
* Started on inside of top half
Break It Down
The next thing I need to do is break the project down. The bookshelf is a huge task, probably a lot more time cosuming then I first anticipated, so I need to break down what’s left, and make it more managable. Lets look at that now:
* Trim off seperate shelves so they’re completley done
* Finish attached shelf
* Finish insides of top half
* Do back of bottom half
* Do insides of bottom half
* Do left side (outside)
* Do right side (outside)
* Do funny bit at the bottom
* Seal outside of shelves
* Seal outside of bookshelf
Assign Time
Now that we’ve broken what’s left into bite sized chunks, you can be a bit more confident to assign appropraite time slots to do it. Don’t be affraid to spread the project out for a week if it’s really monotinous. Monotny is the enemy of motivation!
So with my big, monotinous project, I’m going to assign one morning, and one afternoon session each free day until it’s done. Here’s how it might look:
Friday AM (3/4 – 1 hour) Finish inside of top half, Finish shelf
Friday PM (1/2 – 3/4 hour) Trim dettached shelves so they’re ready to be sealed, Do back of bottom half
Monday AM Insides of bottom half
Monday PM Left side (start at least)
Wednesday AM Finish left side, Right Side
Wednesady PM Bottom bit
Thursday AM Finish all sealing
Stick To The Plan
So you’ve got ‘work’ assigned to do for today, but you’re just not in the mood? Well skipping once or twice is fine, but there does come a time where, if you’re going to finish the project, you just need to get in a do it! Make sure you spend the allocated time really working on your project. Just think, the faster you get it done, the less days you have to work on it!
Do you have tips for when you’re lacking motivation?
