Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done

when I synthesized two simple observations: (1) verbs often give an indication to how big a chunk of work is, and (2) certain verbs follow and contain others.

Think about one of your top three most important projects. Ask yourself two questions about the project: What’s the smartest next step on this project? What’s the most courageous next step on this project? Your answers to these questions will likely be wildly different if you’re being honest with yourself, not just in how you feel about them but al

For many people, focus blocks and admin blocks can be summed up as “the work I want to do” and “the work I don’t want to do,” respectively.

Our lives are much closer to the seven-goat scenario in the sense that we’re often pulled in different directions to fulfill our desires.

While stacking might seem to redefine multitasking, the point of using a different term is to (a) break the habit or disrupt the belief of trying to do inefficient multitasking, and (b) have you think about the kinds of activities that you can do well simultaneously.

Displacement is simply the reality that every action we choose to do displaces countless others we could have done in the same space and time.

Second, if you’re doing your best work, you’ll always be on the edge of your capabilities and comfort levels. Imagine a Venn diagram, with your current capabilities in the left circle and your areas of incompetence in the right circle. Learning and growth happens right where those two intersect. Doing your best work will thus require you to constan

Projects are mirrors because they reflect back to us what’s really going on in our inner and outer worlds. Showing some specific piece of work to the world shows us where our passions and fears lie.

With your goal, level of success, and for-real start date, you have enough to start building your success pack. Your success pack is the group of people who are going to be instrumentally involved in helping you push your best-work project to done.

The gift of failure is that it reveals what matters to you, shows you when you’re out of alignment, and reveals a growth edge.