One of the problems I find in being a DIY, is getting motivated to get started on a new project. Sometimes there are so many different projects I could get started on, that I don’t get started on any for awhile. And with each project there are multiple solutions or ways of doing it. IOW each project is a custom job for me, and being somewhat of a perfectionist I waste alot of time thinking about the “best” way to do it. Also, I find it easy to second guess myself at various stages during a given project asking myself “what if I had done it this way, what if…”
Another hindrance is that I find it easy to get distracted by other pressing needs or starting on additional projects which can often lead to none of them being completed: that last piece of trimwork, that last receptacle cover, installing that weatherstripping, etc. So, in my case anyway, the best way to accomplish a task is to focus only on it and “get-r-done”! But being the multi-tasker/juggler that I am…
Another struggle is when you are motivated and all set to do something BUT… in order to do it YOU first have to do some other stuff first (that you really aren’t motivated to do). An example of this is that I want to set up my new work shop in my newly remodeled garage. I am excited about this, but before I can do this I have to prime/paint the interior block wall and I am not excited about that. It is winter here in Ohio, my garage is unheated, and therefore I can’t paint it until it warms up (unless I temporarily heat this area during the painting, which is a possibility). It is these complicating factors that can annoy, and consequently postpone getting-r-done.
Then there are those jobs that have to be done but you don’t want to do like doing your taxes in order to file your tax return. I just heard that the 9th circus court of appeals out in California overruled the IRS in favor of a couple that claimed the tax laws/codes were too complicated for anyone to understand. The court agreed and the IRS had to take the loss. (The IRS had claimed the couple owed $31K in back taxes). The IRS asked that the case not be publicized – but it was! Wouldn’t it be nice if the productive segment of society could just live their lives without having to support the bloodsucking non-productive leeches that write the unintelligible maze of rules and regulations that you have to comply with.
You are not alone by any means. I have so many “almost done, half done and never started” projects. Like you, I live in a colder climate and sometimes you just have to stop an indoor project to get out and finish an outdoor project before winter sets in. But mostly, I just get bored with one thing and start something else. But someday we will finish and then what? It will be like that commercial, “I’ve hit the end of the internet”.
Ditto for me… I have an unwritten rule for myself that I can only have three projects on the go at one time (this of course doesn’t mean that I can’t keep defining new projects, I just can’t start them). Therefore I have to finish at least one current project before I can start a new one. I also use a lot of lists (like most DIYs I am sure) and I purposely create small/easy tasks so that when I am having trouble getting motivated I just knock a couple of these off. One problem with the three project rule is that when you get down to 3 or less projects (if that ever happens) you have no incentive to complete any :-)
Politics! I’ll have to have you guest blog on my political opinions blog now;)
Whatever time you think you waste in thinking it out- you do have good outcomes, all your finished jobs are really exceptionally nice. I know I appreciate them.
I think you should forget about painting that wall… but that is just my opinion. ( oh, the loaded impact of “just the wife’s opinion”)