The power of never finishing anything

"I'm a master of the unfinished."

I read that somewhere on the internet. I can't remember where or when. But I was thinking about it today because I actually finished something.

Let me back up. I have a lot of hobbies: music, programming, photography, writing. And in most of those hobbies I tend to start projects, either for fun, to learn something, or because I had a new idea that would be cool to build.

The problem is I never finish anything. Maybe because I have too many ideas, and I start more projects than I can possibly complete. To give you an idea, I have three songs I started last year, worked on for hours, and never finished. I have a few apps and tools, great ideas (?), all sitting in a folder called "graveyard."

A few days ago I was reading an article about this and came across the line: "The pattern of chronic project abandonment is well-documented across psychology." Interesting, sure. But what really got me was this one: "Every hour spent finishing an existing project is an hour not spent starting a potentially better one."

Wait. Is someone watching me?

I remember a project I started when Swift was released in 2014. I had this idea while learning it: an app to manage and create expense reports. I rewrote that app 5 times. It never saw the light of day.

I really don't know why this happens or what goes on in the brain. I could research it and add a bunch of words to make it look like I understand, but this is not my area. I feel more joy documenting what I think than explaining things.

So, why am I writing all of this? This year I decided to finish things. Mostly because of a new idea I had. Something I can't share yet, but it's related to my work and could actually become something. It's going to be a big project, a lot of effort, and definitely not another app I'll rewrite five times.

But before I actually started working on it, I decided I needed to finish a few things first. Stuff I use every day that was sitting in my graveyard, stuff I knew had the potential to steal my time and focus.

The main one was an iOS app I'd created for myself years ago. Even though I was using it every day, most of the features I'd imagined in the past were never completed. So for a few weeks I used my free time to implement those features and finished my first personal project. From idea to 100% features implemented. It felt like a victory. I smiled for two days. A friend saw it and liked it, so I decided to launch it on the App Store. Even though I had built tools and apps for small businesses before, I had never launched something to the public.

Then polishing the app and getting it live on the App Store was another victory. "Another" project done. After that, I finished some tools I use. I finished a couple of songs. I was unstoppable. I didn't recognize myself in the mirror.

It felt like I was cleaning the skeletons out of my closet. Like taking a shower after two days in the desert. But why, out of nowhere, did I feel different? Act different?

I looked over all the finished projects and I found the answer. I didn’t obsess over the perfect architecture, the cleanest code, or the cleverest solution. I wasn't trying to sound like Pink Floyd recording an album at Abbey Road. I just finished, doing the best I could at the time. For some reason, out of the blue, I broke the cycle.

I think I'm finally ready for the new project. I just need to not start the three other ideas I had while writing this.

You can check out a few of my finished projects on the projects page. The other 47 are in the graveyard.