Unburying Yourself From Your Personal Projects

 We've all taken on more than we can handle at some point in time. We got too excited by our hobbies or thought we had more time than we did, but now we have to unburden ourselves from our projects one finished project at a time. Let's grab our shovels together. 

Courtesy of design-fixation.com

First, you will need an open word document, piece of paper and pencil, or excel sheet. Whatever you prefer to use to organize your thoughts will do. Before I talk about prioritizing and figuring out what to tackle first we need a comprehensive list of your projects. I'll start by giving you an example. 

My projects:

Freewriting Story draft - long range, commitment, unsure how close to end I am

editing next book/novella - long range, commitment, unsure how close to end I am

diamond dots painting - long range, leisure, about one fifth through it

counted cross stitch - long range, leisure, about 90 percent through it

playing dredge - short range, leisure, three fifths through the game plot

playing harvest moon - medium range, leisure, close to through the main storyline

reading Lonesome Dove - medium range, leisure, a little more than two thirds through 

prewriting new blog series - long range, leisure, 80 percent finished

The example above follows this pattern: (project) - (long, medium, or short range) (commitment, due date, or leisure), (how finished the project is)

Take a minute and go through this for yourself. What do you have on your plate? You'll get a good overview of what you actually need to finish and what can wait. 

Prioritizing your list

Now pull out that list and look for commitments and due-dated projects. How many do you have? Maybe you can put a lot of projects on a backburner list, where you can pick them up again at a later time. I highly suggest making a backburner list for the purpose of focusing on what needs to be done. You can pick up the backburner projects one at a time and unbury yourself that way. 

Commitments and due-dated projects go on the top of your list, organized based on what is due when. For me, my writing is a commitment, which makes the story draft and editing process the top tier of my list. The next tier down is going to be what you prefer to finish soon or what is nearly finished, your choice.  For me that is the blog series and Lonesome Dove. What is left goes on the bottom of your list or the backburner list, which is entirely your call to make. 

In summary, the first tier is anything you committed to, the second tier is what you prefer to finish/ what can be finished soon, and third is whatever is left. There is also the option of having a backburner list and leaving projects put away until a later date. 

Long, medium, and short range

To clarify, let's talk about the time a project will take. I've taken on two ambitious projects at a time and stressed myself out. It does actually matter how big your project is, in time and sometimes in size. If you have no time to work on it and it takes hours of crocheting to finish you should put it on your backburner. When you have nothing but time, you can pick it up and conquer it. Basically, be aware of what your project requires of you (time, materials, money). 

Courtesy of Pinterest

In that spirit, I define long-range as something that takes a lot of your time and energy. You can't crochet a large blanket in one day, nor can you do a larger counted cross stitch in two days. Many long-range projects take supplies, too. My blog series I'm working on is actually on the back burner because it requires I take a lot of time during the week to game, which takes time out of my writing time. All these referenced projects are long-range. 

Medium-range isn't going to take boatloads of your time and energy, but it will take some time from you. A longer book can go in this category, or crocheting a baby blanket will. Energy is taken, yet not so much that you take months to finish the craft, game, or book. My current video games can fit into this category, especially games like Harvest Moon that are near impossible to speed run. Dredge and Legend of Zelda seem to fit here, too, though some games can fit into the next category. 

Short-range is a speedrun-able videogame, an easy-to-read and short book, or something that takes a day to crochet. In other words, you can finish off the project within a week or less. It doesn't take forever. Chronicles of Narnia books can fit in this category easily, mostly because they are actually written for younger readers.  My Marlowe collection and Nancy Drew collection can also fit. For you, this may mean all you need to do is devote a few afternoons to something you haven't finished yet. 

When I wrote out my list above these are the working definitions I went by. If all your projects are long-range I'd suggest putting a few on your backburner list and knocking them out one by one. Short-range may just take a few afternoons every few weeks. 

Leisure and commitment

Picking up a project for kicks and giggles is not the same as promising to make your niece a birthday gift. The most important distinction is commitment. My counted cross stitch is more enjoyable when I'm not constantly racing to finish it. It will be finished faster, believe it or not, if I am truly enjoying myself. I'll want to pick it up more when I'm having fun doing it. That doesn't mean you won't have fun making a birthday gift for your relative. It just means that you need to remember the difference between a "for fun" project and an "I promised this to someone" project. 

Courtesy of paradisefibers.com

The truth of the matter is that I'm guilty of putting leisure too high on my priority list sometimes. I have to adjust it quite regularly so I'm focusing where I need to be. Harvest Moon, Dredge, and my counted cross stitch are not at the top of my list, and if they were I'd never get any writing done. I'd be behind on blogs daily if that were the case. Many of us forget that our leisure shouldn't necessarily be the top priority in our lives. It is a blessing to have it, but it's a side quest in the long run. 

This is the ideal place to write out the back burner list. While your back burner list may never end, at least you didn't try to do it all at once. One at a time is a real way to get a lot of fun projects done. Finish what you started and put all your focus on one goal at one time. It'll be a better outcome when you are not trying to multitask (something science says you can't do).

A plan of action

What do you tackle first? Where do you start? Pull out that list. The first commitment you see will be your starting point. Anything on the first tier is coming first. Once you've got most of the first tier tackled, you jump to the next one. Finally, the last tier can be conquered. 

The thing is, though, that you are going to find other side quests coming up to tempt you. The back burner list is where these should go. Once your list is down to only a few projects maybe you can pick one up. This is going to take time, depending on how many projects you buried yourself in. 

Another way to think about this is progress; making it a goal to make progress on something can go a long way. Schedule out time to knock out a few short and medium-range projects, while also scheduling out time every week or so to make forward progress on long-range projects. Forward motion on something weekly will finish off at least one or two things on your list. The goal is to unbury yourself. Plan and schedule all that out as much as you can. 

Projects vs perpetual tasks

Projects that lead to perpetual tasks are not what I'm talking about. Blogging, promoting my book, managing my social media, and writing are never going to end for me. The tasks that I speak of in this post specifically are projects with an ending. 

Another thing to consider is when your hobby is not going to end for you. Diamond art, as long as I have the next one on hand, is also perpetual. Books and puzzles are perpetual, too. You might want to take what you do for fun over and over again off of the top priority list and focus on what isn't perpetual. Unburdening yourself of what you do only once may give you more time to do the hobbies you love. 

From now on

This will happen again. I'm just telling you now. Yet, personal rules may be set in place to make it less overwhelming to handle. For example, I don't take on more than one long-range sewing or crochet project at a time and force myself to finish reading the book I'm on before starting another one. Setting that boundary is worth it for your mental health. 

It may be that you don't generally plan out projects and what they'll require. Maybe you should be doing that. Remembering how long a counted cross stitch usually takes may color how often you pick one up in the future. Looking at the instructions and size of your project will help you figure out if you have time to do it right now, or if you need to put it on your back burner list for later. 

Courtesy of University of Toronto

Creative souls tend to overbook themselves because they have ten million ideas. A million dreams are keeping us awake. We want to make all the things for all the people for Christmas. We want to do all the stuff on our cat crochet Pinterest board. Every embroidery and cross stitch looks adorable. I, personally, would love to try out every Stardew Valley farm and name it something fictional every time. You get the idea. I need not continue listing all my ambitions. I am no stranger to overbooking myself.  I did, however, set personal rules for myself to stop me from doing this. I may not read every book on my shelf, but I can try. 

There is another element that makes it a promise that you'll have to do this again. Boredom is the enemy, dear readers, and an empty mind wanders. After you finish getting the list down you may start to get bored again. Depending on how much you had on your plate before this, it may not happen, but you may just find your hands itch for something to do with themselves and you want some new adventure. Put those personal rules in place. You'll need to do that if you don't want to unburden yourself of 10 projects you started and got overwhelmed over. 

I wrote a book! I am delighted to say that I have two five-star reviews up on Amazon now, which is amazing. I hope you like it, too. If you're interested in buying a paperback or ebook version go to my website link in this blog or click here to go straight to my Amazon page.

Jack Thomas is running from a past case. He's hiding in Wrenville. Is his past case catching up with him? 

Find out in my first book, Wrenville, a stand-alone suspense novel.