SiteWhat does the end look like?
Are you the type of person who always has a long list of to-dos? Do you manage to check off items fairly easily, but never feel like you accomplish much despite being “busy”? Or maybe you’re a writer who has a lot of projects on the burners, but you rarely complete them to your satisfaction?
If you fit any (or all) these types, then I urge you to read blogger Cal Newport’s guest post on Scott H. Young’s blog about completion-centric project planning. When I first read it, I thought “duh.” But then I looked at some of my lists and had to admit to myself that I had no idea what some of my finished projects would look like. I spent a couple hours with some of those ideas and developed measurable criteria for the end product — stuff like writing book proposals, building my food writing specialty, and organizing my pantry. Seriously, I felt more motivated than I’ve felt in months about these formerly nebulous ideas. I could clearly see that some of the activities I thought were moving me toward the finish line were only slowing me down.
Cal showed a sample of his completion-centric project planning sheet. I created one that’s similar to his, and if there’s enough interest, I’ll upload it to our server as a free download.
Do you plan with a clearly defined goal in mind? Is this news to you? Please, add your comments below. [db]
5 Responses to “What does the end look like?”
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cal
Said this on October 31st, 2007 at 8:17am:I’d love to see how you applied this — I read his post but had a hard time seeing exactly how I would do that in terms of writing, pitching etc, especially the one-week break part =)
valeria
Said this on October 31st, 2007 at 10:11am:Yes, me too. I have a huge (read daunting) revision project to deal with and to see a writer’s approach to any writerly project would be super helpful. I cannot relate to Newport’s examples somehow.
DianaBurrell
Said this on October 31st, 2007 at 10:14am:OK, I’ll upload mine later on today to give you an idea. I wrote the projects/completion criteria by hand, so I’ll type them in — no one will be able to read my chicken scratch.
Mary
Said this on November 1st, 2007 at 9:25pm:I’m looking forward to seeing your planning sheet, Diana. Interesting concept!
Mary
Self Improvement eBooks
Said this on January 25th, 2008 at 6:03pm:This is great - I’m that person with a mile long list (actually, 20 block long lists) that are forever changing.
Great idea!