How many ideas have piqued your interest but never made it to fruition? Don’t worry if your response is “too many.” You’re not alone. Many people have a lot of ideas but never follow them through because they’re waiting for the appropriate day or time when everything feels good, including their attitude, energy, and everything else. Other individuals get excited about their ideas and start working on them straight once, but they rapidly lose steam when they run into obstacles.
Ideas, on the other hand, shouldn’t have to wait for the perfect day or be discarded at the first obstacle. You may start converting your ideas into viable projects right now by following the simple procedures outlined in the book, Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done by Charlie Gilkey,
What do the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and the Dalai Lama, Buddhism’s spiritual leader, have in common? Both teach that humans prosper when they take action. But not just any action will suffice. People flourish when they do tasks for which their own particular experience, expertise, and perspective have prepared them. This is referred to as performing one’s best work by the author.
Your inner life is shown through projects. Consider this: loathing Mondays reveals a lot about what you don’t love, just as excitedly working late on a project reveals what you are passionate about. Best work assignments, on the other hand, provide opportunity for you to grow by allowing you to accomplish your best work.
When you hear the word “project,” the first thing that probably springs to mind is school or job. A project, on the other hand, is anything that requires time, attention, and effort to complete, and life is full with them. It’s a preparation assignment for the first day of school. A similar sensation is relocating to a new city.
Projects allow you to show your inner self. Consider this: hatred for Mondays shows a lot about what you don’t like, just as working late on a project reveals what you enjoy. Best job assignments, on the other hand, allow you to develop as a person by allowing you to do your best work.
But how can you decide which of your ideas will become your first great work project? Try out the following basic exercise: To begin, make a list of all the ideas you’re considering. These can range from innovative ideas at work to garage organization or taking a dream vacation. Next, check off any ideas that don’t resonate with you or those you’re willing to let go of.
You’re left with with the ideas that are significant to you. However, you must still focus on one concept. Consider the following as a starting point: Which project would you like to celebrate the completion of the most? Which of these will have the greatest impact on your life in five years? Perhaps you have an idea for which you would gladly get up early or stay up late – or one for which you would be heartbroken if you had to relinquish it.
If you’ve ever taken on a project, you’re aware that there are sure to be some difficulties. The best job endeavors are no exception. A few obstacles stand in the way of starting or finishing the best job projects. For one thing, competing priorities can cause you to become distracted.
You also have to deal with head trash, or thoughts and ideas that convince you that you’re not capable of accomplishing your goals. Perhaps you don’t have realistic project plans or believe you lack the essential resources. Maybe the folks around you don’t understand what you’re trying to do or what you’ll need to get there.
Fortunately, there are methods available to address these issues. You must nurture specific qualities in order to complete the best work assignments. When you work, adopting certain attributes will assist you in completing your finest projects. You may need to summon all of these attributes at once, or simply a few, depending on the situation.
And how much of specific attributes you have or don’t have is determined by your upbringing, personality, and general life experience. However, by choosing to cultivate a characteristic, you may strengthen it and tackle the challenges you meet while producing your best work with confidence.
The first attribute you require is that of intent. It’s easier to build realistic plans when you have clear intentions for what you want to accomplish. Then there’s awareness, which allows you to have a greater understanding of yourself as well as the world around you. You can use this information to detect competing objectives or find ways to maximize your resources, for example. You’ll also need to figure out how to set limits. These tips will assist you in setting aside time and space to work on your project.
You can overcome the different hurdles that come your way by cultivating courage, such as challenging head trash or speaking up when you need support. In fact, a lack of courage may prohibit you from even beginning your most promising job endeavors. While courage gets you started, discipline – the ultimate quality – ensures that you stay on track. Discipline helps you create the behaviors you need to finish your projects, whether it’s sticking to your plans or setting boundaries.
“A goal without a strategy is simply a wish,” as the adage goes. The same might be stated for a project. Sure, sifting through your options and deciding on one is a good start. You’ll struggle to make any progress if you don’t know exactly how to execute it or what you’ll need to do so. It’s a little like swimming in the ocean without knowing where the shore is or whether there is one at all.
However, just as there is a formula to help you identify the greatest work project concept, there are actions you can take to plan it. It all begins with becoming SMART. Creating a SMART goal and a support network are important parts of project planning. It’s a lot easier to reach where you want to go when you have a clear destination and a sense of direction. When writing your goals, remember to include the abbreviation SMART.
The letter S stands for simple, and your aim should be simple to achieve. The M stands for meaningful, as this type of goal motivates you to put in the necessary effort. Fortunately, the idea-selection exercise ensures that you select something worthwhile.
However, no matter how important a goal is, it won’t get you very far unless you have clear actions in place to make it actionable, which is what the A in SMART stands for. Your actionable steps should also include the acronym’s last two letters: R for realistic and T for trackable. Realistic means that you have access to the resources you need, such as tools and knowledge. And there are unambiguous marks of progress and accomplishment that can be tracked. For example, “preventing childhood hunger” is not trackable, while “feeding 100,000 hungry children by 2025” is.
Consider your success pack – the people who will assist you in achieving your SMART objective. For counsel or inspiration, you’ll need experienced and educated advisers, as well as peers with whom you can share ideas and experiences. Your supporters will contribute to the project or assist you with the work, such as a buddy who babysits to give you some time to focus. Finally, your success pack should include the people who will benefit from your endeavor.
To make your success pack, ask a maximum of five people from each group. Make a list of three ways they can assist you, and keep in touch with them on a regular basis. People frequently fail to complete tasks because they believe they do not have enough time, whether it is executing a brilliant concept or cleaning out the garage. When it comes to the best job endeavors, it’s easy to slip into this trap.
But here’s the problem with time: there’ll never be enough. Instead, you must create it. And once you’ve set aside time for one project, you can utilize that time slot for any subsequent tasks.
So, how do you juggle your schedule? You begin by breaking down the project into tasks that can be completed in hours, days, weeks, and months. Consider your project as a collection of tiny components that work together to form a larger whole.
Imagine your project as a five-level pyramid to better understand how to divide it into time-based activities. The bottom of the pyramid is made up of chores that may be completed in a single day, or chunks, as the author refers to them. Above the base, there are operations that take weeks, months, quarters, and finally a year to complete.
The larger a project is, the more components it will have and the longer it will take to complete. A person establishing a business, for example, would require a few days to investigate concepts and a few weeks to develop a business plan. The business would then take several months of work to debut successfully.
You can attach the activities to a timescale once you’ve broken the project into activities. This will give you a rough estimate of how long the project will take, allowing you to plan accordingly.
Examine your weekly calendar and set out time for specific parts of the project. Focus blocks range from 1.5 to two hours in length and are used for solo work that advances the project. These are crucial to finishing the job, and you’ll need at least three per week to keep things moving. And, because every project necessitates some administrative work, such as making phone calls or planning, you’ll need 30 to 60 minute admin blocks.
Social blocks are activities that include collaborating with people, connecting with loved ones, or building your success pack. You should rest and rejuvenate just as much as you should be productive. The last thing you want is to be stopped in your tracks by burnout. This is why, for every two focus or social blocks, you should schedule one recovery block. Spend this time doing something that will revitalize you, such as jogging, reading, or attending a party.
Check out my related post: Do you procrastinate?
Interesting reads:
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43973562-start-finishing
A Better Man 