Start Finishing

"How many brilliant ideas are left undone because we're waiting for the perfect moment to act?" Charlie Gilkey’s Start Finishing helps you transform promising ideas into thriving projects that matter.

1. Your Best Work Starts With Your Ideas

To thrive, you must act on the ideas that energize you. According to Aristotle and the Dalai Lama, fulfillment comes from pursuing actions aligned with your strengths and passions. Your “best work” reflects your unique life experiences and knowledge—ideas that resonate deeply and call for your attention.

Turning your ideas into actionable projects is the first step. Think of a project as anything that requires focused effort to complete, whether it's starting a nonprofit or planning a family reunion. Projects reveal what matters to you. When you dread some tasks but easily lose hours in others, you uncover clues about your real interests and potential.

To identify your best work, list your current ideas and cross off those you’re indifferent to. Evaluate the remaining ideas: Which ones stir excitement, have a long-term impact, or would you regret not completing? The one that fulfills most of these criteria is your starting point.

Examples

• A writer might prioritize that unfinished novel because it feels meaningful compared to other ideas.
• A professional might work on a neglected side hustle that energizes them more than their day job.
• A parent might recognize organizing a family trip as the idea they can’t stop thinking about.

2. Adopt the Qualities That Propel Projects

Successful project completion requires cultivating intention, awareness, boundaries, courage, and discipline. Each quality addresses specific obstacles you may encounter, from self-doubt to a lack of clear goals.

Intention keeps you focused on what truly matters, while awareness helps you navigate distractions and utilize your strengths effectively. Boundaries protect your time and space from being overrun by conflicting demands. Courage pushes you through moments of fear, whether it’s asking for help or starting a daunting task. And discipline ensures you sustain progress even when motivation fades.

These qualities aren’t fixed traits—you can develop them. By intentionally practicing these habits, they become tools that strengthen as you move forward.

Examples

• An artist gaining clarity on their creative goals by clearly setting their intention.
• A new entrepreneur establishing boundaries to focus on their business without burning out.
• Someone fearful of public speaking practicing courage by taking on more speaking opportunities.

3. SMART Goals Drive Progress

A clear plan turns your project from wishful thinking into attainable action. Using the SMART framework—Simple, Meaningful, Actionable, Realistic, and Trackable—keeps your project grounded.

A goal like “writing a book” can seem overwhelming, but breaking it into SMART components makes it manageable: "Write a 70,000-word novel by writing 500 words daily." Simple means focusing on one thing without overcomplicating. Meaningful ensures the goal aligns with your values. Actionable means identifying the steps required. Realistic keeps the work achievable given your skills and resources. Trackable provides clear progress markers.

Equally essential is surrounding yourself with a success pack. This includes guides for advice, peers for collaboration, supporters for practical help, and beneficiaries who will benefit from your work.

Examples

• An aspiring teacher creating a goal to gain a specific certification within three months.
• A job seeker setting a goal to send out 20 custom resumes weekly.
• A small business owner assembling a network of mentors and collaborators.

4. Break Big Goals Into Tiny Steps

Viewing a project as one large task is overwhelming. Instead, divide it into smaller, time-bound activities so it feels manageable and actionable. Imagine a multi-tiered pyramid, with tasks at the base taking just a few hours and larger ones further up requiring weeks or months.

By working on smaller chunks over specific time blocks—like carving out 1.5-hour focus sessions three times a week—you ensure steady progress. Mixing task-specific admin blocks and social collaboration blocks helps balance the workload.

Don’t forget rest between those work sprints. Incorporate recovery blocks to refresh your mind, preventing burnout so you sustain momentum.

Examples

• A person launching a blog starting with weekly posts and a month-long plan to design the website.
• Moving houses broken into "chunk tasks" like packing, cleaning, and organizing utilities.
• An author allotting time weekly for writing chapters alongside editing blocks.

5. Recognize Obstacles Likely To Delay Progress

Projects often run into delays due to competing priorities, cascading schedules, logjams, or tarpit situations. Knowing these obstacles can help you avoid permanent disruptions.

Competing priorities often arise from external demands. Cascades occur when delays in one project impact all others. Logjams, or taking on too much, leave you stuck on everything at once. Tarpits emerge when a project stalls and feels impossible to restart.

Overcome competing priorities by saying no more assertively and rescheduling conflicts. Break stagnant tasks into smaller chunks to escape tarpits, or temporarily focus only on high-priority projects.

Examples

• Declining social invitations to prioritize daily project blocks instead.
• Directly tackling overdue client work to prevent cascading delays in an overall project.
• Resetting a stuck project by tackling only the easiest tasks first.

6. Strategies For Building Momentum

To see consistent progress, use techniques that improve productivity and flow. Batching tasks that are similar in nature saves time, while stacking multiple activities together ensures efficiency.

Handle "frog tasks"—those undesirable but necessary parts of your project—first thing in the day to minimize dread and hesitation. Work during your natural energy peaks, whether you’re an early riser or a night owl. Leaving yourself a "crumb trail" after each session—writing clear notes or preparing a manageable next step—makes restarting easier.

Examples

• Batching emails, client calls, and scheduling into one session.
• Combining brainstorming sessions with walks or social meetups.
• Avoiding procrastination by completing small but important tasks every morning.

7. Celebrate, Recharge, And Clean Up After Success

Finishing your project is an achievement worth celebrating. But before diving into the next undertaking, allow time for recovery and reflection. Completing one project expends significant energy—it’s essential to clean up physically, digitally, and socially to reset.

Messy environments or neglected relationships left in the wake of the project can become burdens in subsequent work. Use downtime to reorganize or repair them. Finally, conduct an after-action review to assess what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve in the future.

Examples

• Throwing a dinner party to announce a successful charitable campaign.
• Organizing files from a completed business plan before starting the next phase.
• Reflecting on a fitness goal, noting which habits had the greatest impact.

8. Learn From Every Project With AARs

Adopt the US Army’s after-action review system to gain wisdom from each project. By asking what went right, what went wrong, and what you learned, you refine your approach.

Review the people who helped, the tools you used, and the processes involved. Positive habits like strict time-blocking might emerge as crucial, while negative ones—like overloading with commitments—become lessons to avoid.

Examples

• Writing lessons learned after launching a successful app to improve future development efforts.
• Adjusting collaboration approaches in future team projects based on feedback.
• Noting which tools made project management smoother for later use.

9. Consistency Turns Ideas Into Completed Projects

Your ultimate tool for project success is consistent effort. It’s not about grand gestures or sudden productivity sprees—it’s the compounding effect of habits, time-blocking, and iterative progress.

Progress builds over weeks when paired with consistent focus blocks, boundaries, and intentional momentum techniques. Falling off track for a day doesn’t mean quitting—simply resume small efforts as soon as you can.

Examples

• Completing a degree by working consistently on assignments daily, not cramming at deadlines.
• A writer finishing a novel one chapter at a time over six months.
• Growing a business by handling marketing tasks weekly without skipping.

Takeaways

1. Use the SMART framework to create clear and realistic project goals.
2. Carve out three weekly focus blocks to ensure steady progress on your project.
3. Create a "crumb trail" after each work session to make it easier to pick up where you left off.