Undone

 

Well, it seems I’m back. Over the last couple (or more?) of years I’ve been trying to keep up the digital end, and doing a lot of writing for the business, but none about the business. I’ve got my fingers in so many pies, and been balancing so many plates I’ve forgotten about door number 3. It happens a lot in small businesses – things getting left undone, until something shakes things up.

Even though I’ve dropped a lot of jobs I still have a lot of jobs, and in attempting to keep up with the “new requirements” for running a business (like social media) it adds a lot of work to the day. Scheduling tools help, but you still have to come up with the content. And being a one person show, well, I’m not comfortable with someone else trying to create content to represent, essentially, me. Not to mention I’m very fussy about that content. I prefer (obviously by my spotty record) not to post over posting something I don’t think fits.

It’s all a little like learning a new language, really – but one that changes its verbage every 6 months. Don’t get me wrong – I’m enjoying most of the things I’m doing...It’s been decades since I’ve written so much and I’ve missed it – I’m loving that aspect. Because I’m sticking to my integrity, pretty much everything is something that I do love, something I am passionate about, something that I feel matters.

But life rolls on, and things happen and you suddenly realize you’ve become snowed under with unfinished tasks, and projects you put aside.

For example, I just got some knotting work. Due to several factors, including health related ones, it has been a while since I did any knotting work. And the last piece I did was filled with things new to me, and was quite personal and important to me. So, I went to grab a block to work on and saw that I have a ¾ finished moustache on one of them, a partially finished front from making notes for teaching on another…

My first inclination was to just pull them off and put them aside...but, I stopped for a minute and thought about it. My current project is important but is not a giant time pressure. So, wouldn’t it be a lot smarter to take the 3 hours, finish the moustache, finish the whipstitching on the front and photograph that stage – so that it is ready for it’s next phase when I come back to it – and THEN move on?

Having been exhausted after my last work stint, I also realized that I have 2 other projects in varying stages of being worked on in my studio, and that is on top of the two projects that I had on the list for this week.

All the projects are worth doing. They are all interesting. Some are for money, some are stock, some are for larger projects of greater scope that I am working toward. Obviously the ones with timelines and customers attached take precedence. But it is easy to get distracted and put things aside, until you get through the latest rush job, the latest life crisis, the latest whatever, and then they slip to the edges and get buried. In trying to tidy up to make work space they get cleared away and suddenly they are strangers when you find them again, and it feels like you lost your mojo, or sometimes like you’ve failed (again).

It is easy to leave things undone. It is easy to let them weigh you down and taunt your self-worth, your self-confidence, your belief in what you are doing. As with everything, you just have to find what works for you. Make a partially completed projects book that you can refer to when you have time on your hands so it doesn’t get temporarily forgotten. Make a list, or a whiteboard, or set a reminder in your calendar. Don’t let them lead you to despair. When you are able, take the 3 hours, or 3 days to finish it, or to complete a phase, before you put it away again. Sometimes you just need a break, to see it with fresh eyes for it to come back to life and make your interest or your ideas bloom again.

 

Never give up, never give up that ship!