If you are a person who has a thousand ideas and directions you want to go, how have you managed to limit yourself to a few active projects? What are your Pro Tips ™ for delaying project gratification?

@bjhess Yes, that’s what I’d like to know too. Anyone?

@odd Prioritize by importance, time, and number of items. Delete, defer, postpone things beyond that number. Rotate “work” across the “active” set. As new items come in, insert/delete appropriately. As as I said in a previous post, having too many projects is a sign of procrastination. You are avoiding what needs to be done in favor of something new.

life

@odd The key is to prioritize and limit what you actually work on ;) That’s my approach.

@Archimage Practically speaking, how do you set aside work when it becomes lower priority? How do you document ideas/projects that are not yet prioritized for work? How often do you re-evaluate what your top priorities are? How often do you revisit what your prioritization rules are? And how might you do this among disparate projects that aren't straight-forwardly compared? How do you emotionally handle delaying a thing you are excited about, but does not yet have priority?

@bjhess Practically speaking, if you consider work lower importance, get another job if being employed or paying bills is a priority. Find something you like. If your fear of change is a higher priority, you will stay were you are.

@bjhess Priorities are subjective. You reevaluate priorities EACH time you come up with a new project/item to put on your list. You need to know what your priorities are. If you don’t, you will be where you are. Take a day off and figure out what is most important to you. Then live by that compass.

@bjhess If you’re excited about a project, maybe that’s a priority. Being excited is a distraction, usually, since it’s not normally a priority. Your choice. Do you live based on your emotions or you have a set of life values/goal that direct you. You can have emotions and excitement, but you CANNOT let that drive your life. Your life priorities do.

@bjhess Also, learn to say “no”. Good luck, this is just my approach to life in general: 1-know your values 2-come up with goals that align with those values 3-dont let others steer your values. 4-say no 5-take time for yourself (it’s YOUR time). Don’t sell it.

@bjhess I dont claim my approach will work for you. It works for me. I’m not a psychologist, psychiatrist, job coach. My opinions are my own. Good luck. It’s tough, but you can do it. :)

@Archimage I like this - thank you for sharing! To be clear, I have my own thoughts, but I'm curious what other people do. I agree that it is important to know your values, as well as have some forethought about what the work is that you find nourishing. I'm currently fortunate enough to be able to control what I work on, so I need to say no to myself when things are going astray. And I need to have systems in place to remind myself what it is I want to be doing.

The good fortune to control what I work on can also lead to a paradox of choice. Sometimes I think enjoying the work could be the best path. Sometimes I gotta remember to work those "push through" muscles at tough stages of a rewarding project.

Also, I'm currently working with one friend, but we're hesitant to get more folks involved for the time being. That's been great fun, but it can be a bit frustrating because the ideas outpace the resources even more than usual. So this is a particular situation I'm navigating. Kind of a solo founder / small team prioritization experience.

@bjhess Personal Kanban: make visible all work, limit all work in progress.

@bjhess have you looked at David Allen’s GTD method?

@bjhess Understood. If it helps, I ran a small business as well. What I learned was you have to be laser focused on a single project at a time if you want to succeed. You don’t have the resources or bandwidth for more. Put all your ideas/projects on a “Futures” list. Write them down, get them out of your mind/head so you can focus on that one project that will get/keep you going. Don’t jump too early growing the team, unless you’ve proven you can turn several (5?) projects around on time. More hands/brains will combinatorially make things more complex. More bodies does not equate to faster turnaround. Good luck. Stay on track.

@duncanhart I've never set up my project lists as Kanban, but that's an interesting idea. I might have to think on that one.

I was a fairly strict GTD'er for a number of years. Now I just have some internalized parts within me, but not the system or a systematic approach.

@bjhess Kim Ballestrin at Elabor8 knows much re personal Kanban.

@duncanhart I googled her - do you happen to have any example links?

@bjhess https://www.meetup.com/Agile-Hong-Kong/events/284653581/?utmcontent=202253954&utmmedium=social&utmsource=linkedin&hsschannel=lcp-1609185