I am an obsessive finisher. Loose ends and unfinished projects drive me nuts. Things in progress do not excite me, they stress me out. I’m always looking to cross things off, get them out of my mind and move on to the next thing. I think this is a major asset, but it has come to be a liability as well. The more complex and long-term what I do becomes, the more I’m fighting against my own habits and instincts.
When I complete a phase of a project and pass it on to someone I’m collaborating with, within days I’m impatient and contemplating just finishing it myself even if it’s imperfect. I want to close the case. This results in a lot of complex, messy projects either being dealt with in too much haste, or potential projects never launched, because it is not clear how they would be completed.
I’m trying to learn to love the process and be comfortable waiting. I’ll probably never be one of those people who has 10 books going, 25 internet tabs open at once and 50 emails they’ve read and not responded to. I’m trying to get more comfortable with the idea though. Most of the time, people with many things live at once are in that position because they are not very good at deciding how much time each project really warrants and when things aren’t worth any time at all. I’m good at that and I wouldn’t trade it. Realizing how much information is best completely ignored and how many emails should be deleted is powerful. But in my haste to purge low value tasks and complete valuable tasks, I often miss out on the richness that can come out of a slow-growing idea or a longer collaborative project.
I want to wrap this post up nicely, but maybe I’ll just leave it here…