Thinking in Closures –or– “Now and Later” »

Incompletion: 15 Causes and Solutions

Here are 15 ways that projects don’t get completed—everything from a homework assignment to a web site.

1. Getting stuck

You ran into a problem: something in the math that you can’t figure out, some information you don’t have. Whatever, you’re spinning in circles or drawing a blank. You’re dead in the water, getting nothing done.

Preventive measure

  • When planning (a tiny task, a day, an iteration, the whole project), look for well-mapped paths to get specific elements of the project done. That is, to the extent possible, get things done by reusing known methods rather than by discovering.

Realistically, though, you can’t avoid getting stuck unless you take on only the most unchallenging projects. It’s going to happen. In fact, it’s going to happen just about every day. Multiple times. The main difference between people who complete challenging projects and those who don’t, is not that the former never get stuck, it’s that when they get stuck, they do whatever it takes to get unstuck.

Solutions

  1. In most practical cases of getting stuck, you can get unstuck just by asking for help. Ask a friend, ask an expert, have someone come over and pair with you.
  2. When asking for help won’t work, you have to use some sort of creative problem-solving. Too broad a topic for this article, but also (a) something creative people like yourself are already good at, and (b) this is not the kind of getting stuck that often leads to projects not getting completed.
  3. Work on something else and come back to it.

“When you’re stuck, change something.” —Jacquie Lowell, my first improv teacher.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 7:36 am and is filed under Productivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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