Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done

by Charlie Gilkey

Overview

Productivity Meets Purpose—Start Finishing the Work That Matters Most.

How much of your time and attention lately has been focused on things that truly matter to you?

Most people's honest answer is: not enough.

The joy-producing, difference-making ideas are always waiting—for when the time is right, when the current project is over, when there is a little more money. Those ideas are waiting for someday. The trouble is someday never comes on its own.

Start Finishing provides a system for transforming your ideas into projects and shows you how to address the challenges you face by giving each project the time, energy, and attention it needs.

The book will teach you how to:

• Engage the Five Projects Rule to prioritize your daily schedule and be at peace with the work you choose not to do
• Fly through drag points—how to deal with head trash, no-win scenarios, and other people’s priorities
• Overcome cascades, logjams, and tarpits—the three ways projects routinely get stuck
• Chunk, link, and sequence your ideas down to doable parts
• Heatmap your schedule so you do the right work at the right time
• Build your success pack of supporters, guides, peers, and beneficiaries
• Finish strong—celebrate, review, and ride the momentum to your next goal

Start finishing your best work and create your future, one completed project at a time.

Start Finishing received critical acclaim from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Review, and awards with Independent Book Awards. It also won the cross-category Grand Prize from the esteemed Eric Hoffer Book Award in 2020.

* Includes original contributions from Seth Godin, Susan Piver, Jonathan Fields, James Clear, and many other teachers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683648635
Publisher:	Sounds True, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/15/2022
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	620,211
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Charlie Gilkey is the founder of Productive Flourishing, a company that helps professional creatives, leaders, and changemakers take meaningful action on work that matters. He is internationally known as a thought leader on productivity, planning, strategy, and leadership for creative people. Charlie is the author of The Small Business Life Cycle and is widely cited in outlets such as Inc., Time, Forbes, the Guardian, Lifehacker, and more. He’s also an Army veteran and near-PhD in philosophy. For more, visit productiveflourishing.com.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Clearing the Decks for Your Best Work

Chapter 1 "Someday" Can Be Today 3

Why it's time to focus on projects rather than ideas

The link between your best work and thriving

How living in a project world gives us freedom at the cost of uncertainty"

What to do if your interests are all over the place

Why projects are bridges and mirrors

What separates the change makers from the sideliners

Chapter 2 Getting to Your Best Work 19

What's really in the middle of the air sandwich between your big picture and day-to-day reality

Marc and Angel Chernoff: What Else Could This Mean?

The 5 keys to unlocking your best work

The difference between positive and negative boundaries

How we confuse courage and clarity

Discipline creates freedom

James Clear: The Difference Between Professionals and Amateurs

Getting clear about your competing priorities helps you make better plans and commitments

Ishita Gupta: Build Your Courage Muscle

Chapter 3 Pick an Idea That Matters to You 41

Why thrashing is a sign that something matters to you

How not doing your best work leads to creative constipation

We're built to slay dragons

The 3 gifts of failure

Chelsea Dinsmore: What to Do When Life Changes Your Plans

How not being able to do everything at once is a gift once you accept it

Why you have to let go of some ideas to trade up to the best ones

Susan Piver: Should You Break Up with Your Idea?

5 questions to help you sort through what matters most

Part 2 Planning Your Project

Chapter 4 Convert Your Idea into a Project 67

How to convert an idea into a SMART goal

The 3 levels of success and why you can't do everything at the epic level

No date, no finish

The 4 kinds of people to put in your success pack

Pamela Slim: The Principles of Enrolling a Guide

The 5 steps to activate your success pack

Chapter 5 Make Space for Your Project 93

You don't find time and space for your best work-you make time and space for it

What playing with building blocks taught as about bending time

How to use the project pyramid to break down your big projects into smaller ones

34 common project verbs that make planning easier

Using the Five Projects Rule to prioritize and plan your work

The 4 kinds of blocks that power your best work and life

3 focus blocks per week avoids a thrash crash

Chapter 6 Build Your Project Road Map 121

The difference between a flat list and a road map

Using your GATES to fuel your project

Jonathan Fields: Your GATES Point to a Deeper Spark

5 categories to consider for every project budget

Jacquette M. Timmons: Your Money Needs You to Give It Direction

Deadlines guide your project; capacity drives your project

The 7 steps to building your project road map

Chapter 7 Keep Flying by Accounting for Drag Points 147

Why every plan has drag points

The 3 kinds of no-win scenarios we often don't realize we're telling ourselves

Jeff Goins: The Myth of the Starving Artist

Why we choose mediocrity and what it really costs us

Seth Godin: Only the Tall Poppy Gets Full Sunlight

Don't be down with OPP (other people's priorities)

9 ways to handle derailers and naysayers

Jeffrey Davis: Let Wonder Intervene with Derailers

6 questions to ask during your project premortem

Part 3 Working the Plan

Chapter 8 Weave Your Project into Your Schedule 173

How momentum planning keeps you going

The 7 environmental factors to make work for you

Joshua Becker: How a Minimalist Workspace Enhances Focus

Why batching and stacking makes you more efficient

The relationship between frogs and your dread-to-work ratio

When you're working can be more critical than what you're working on

Mike Vardy: You Don't Have to Be an Early Riser to Be Productive

Rethinking "first things first"

The 5/10/15 Split makes daily momentum planning a breeze

Why planning too far in advance can be much worse than a waste of time

Chapter 9 Build Daily Momentum 201

3 ways to celebrate small wins-and why it's important to do so

Srinivas Rao: Don't Break the Chain

6 routines that will help minimize decision fatigue

What Hansel and Gretel taught us about project management

10 ways to mitigate distractions and interruptions

Cascades, logjams, and tarpits-3 ways projects get stuck and how to handle them

How to get your projects through the creative red zone

Chapter 10 Finish Strong 229

The underappreciated reasons why we should run victory laps

Transition time and space between projects help us avoid burnout

Todd Kashdan: Curating and Trimming Relationships

The value of CAT time

How after-action reviews make your next projects easier

5 doors you may have unlocked by completing your project

Acknowledgments 247

Further Reading 249

About the Author 255

Editorial Reviews

START FINISHING lives up to its promise to help people get good work done…Clear and positive tones make it easy to follow along and learn how to act upon the book’s ideas right away for fast results. [Charlie Gilkey] has lots of energy and eschews hype, extremism, and prescriptive thinking in favor of strategies that are realistic, sustainable, and adaptable…“Good work” isn’t about completing a task; it’s about fulfilling a dream, making the world better, and becoming who we want to be.”
—Foreword Reviews

“Start Finishing is a game changer, a modern-day classic that will dramatically change your work. Buy two, one to write in and one to give to someone you care about.” —Seth Godin, New York Times bestselling author of This Is Marketing

“Charlie Gilkey knows you have little trouble beginning new projects. But finishing them? That’s often another story. The good news is that Gilkey is here to help. His terrific book offers a 9-step program to turn those great ideas into finished products—and your dreams into realities.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and When

“Start Finishing is a heartfelt hug, bundled with a loving kick in the ass, a masterclass in getting unstuck, and a set of tools that finally . . . FINALLY . . . gets you out of your own way and sends you sprinting (and laughing) toward that thing, you know—that ONE BIG THING—that, until now, you’ve wanted so desperately, but never knew how to make your reality. Read it, do it, done!” —Jonathan Fields, bestselling author of How to Live a Good Life and founder of the top-ranked podcast The Good Life Project

“Start Finishing is a brilliant handbook for professional excellence. Sure, it’s inspiring, but it goes way beyond the rah-rah to offer practical, doable, targeted strategies to actually accomplish what you may now think is impossible. Equal parts productivity guru, drill sergeant, and best pal, Charlie gives you exactly what you need to do your work with joy, with commitment, and, most of all, to completion.” —Susan Piver, founder of the Open Heart Project

“Just like our houses, our work is filled with clutter that’s keeping us from what matters most. Start Finishing shows us how to pick the ideas and projects that we want to keep and work through seeing them to completion. If you’re ready to get over the clutter of busywork and do the work that’ll make you come alive, get this book and start finishing.” —Joshua Becker, founder of Becoming Minimalist and author of The Minimalist Home

“Big dreams can feel overwhelming, but in this encouraging book, Charlie shows you how to get started, plan your projects, and just keep going. You don’t find the time, you make the time—and Charlie will show you how.” —Laura Vanderkam, bestselling author of Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done and Juliet's School of Possibilities

“If you’re wondering what you should do with your life, Charlie has the answer: start finishing your best work. He goes deep into the real challenges that get in the way when you start making things that matter and teaches you proven, adaptable tools to close the gap between you and the person you want to be. Get this book and figure out your purpose, one finished project at a time.” —Jeff Goins, bestselling author of Real Artists Don’t Starve

“My decades of helping people create their body of work and start businesses have repeatedly shown that the greatest threat to success is the lack of ability to get things done and out into the world. Charlie Gilkey is uniquely qualified to solve this problem, and Start Finishing will fundamentally change the creative and entrepreneurial landscapes. Read this book and reap the rewards for the rest of your life.” —Pamela Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation and Body of Work

“Paths are made by walking, not waiting. In Start Finishing, Charlie Gilkey lifts us back up and walks us to the finish line of the important goals and ideas we’ve been sitting on. The result of this book is quite honestly a life filled with fewer distractions and a greater sense of daily fulfillment. It’s a must-read that we will undoubtedly be referencing and re-reading in the weeks and months ahead.” —Marc and Angel Chernoff, New York Times bestselling authors of Getting Back to Happy

“Start Finishing offers a step-by-step process to help you get from concept to completed, no matter the project you’re trying to tackle. So many books show you how to get going on projects but few focus on how to get beyond the beginning, through the middle, and to the end result. Charlie Gilkey has written a book that does that—and does it in a way that’s tried, tested, and true. Start Finishing is a book that, once read from start to finish, will allow you finish anything time and time again.” —Mike Vardy, productivity strategist and founder of TimeCrafting

From the Publisher

★ 2020-01-06
A manual advocates an array of unconventional approaches to achieving productivity.

This new book from Gilkey (The Small Business Life Cycle, 2014), founder of Productive Flourishing, delivers an assortment of thoughts and strategies for isolating doable projects and ushering them across the finish line. The author asserts that projects allowing people to do their best work are “bridges to a better world.” Gilkey opens his overview with a stern look at other productivity and personal development guides, many of which intentionally or unintentionally make people feel faulty. He stresses instead the plasticity of potential: “We’re more than the thoughts we have and actions we take and we can adopt new thoughts and take new actions that lead us to be the best versions of ourselves.” On the journey to accomplishing these projects and realizing those amazing versions, one of the main obstacles the author identifies is “thrashing.” This is the kind of “emotional flailing and metawork” people do while resisting the commitment to complete a task, the stirring of “head trash”–like fears and insecurities. Paradoxically, it’s when faced with attacking the projects that personally mean the most that many people experience “creative constipation,” an “inner toxicity” that can lead them to lash out at others and themselves. In order to relieve this stress and move things in the right direction, Gilkey proposes many tactics, including such concepts as “chunking” (breaking projects into more easily handled segments), “linking” (connecting some “chunks” with others), and “sequencing” (lining up “chunks” to fall in a smoother order). And, human nature being what it is, there are also tips on how to combat the thoughtless or obstructive actions of others. In expanding on all of this, the author’s tone is infectiously upbeat and exceptionally forgiving. The “grind hard, grind harder, eventually die” attitude on prominent display in so many productivity books is entirely absent in these pages. Gilkey’s advice includes such simple practical items as assessing your work environment (a change may unblock some key piece of congestion) and handling email more efficiently (“processing” it only when you have email-related work to do rather than “checking” it far too often for no constructive purpose). He also recommends reshaping the habits and routines that can remove “scores of daily microdecisions” but can also clog up productivity if they’re not policed and periodically reexamined. In brightly well-designed and inviting chapters, Gilkey warns his readers to beware of projects that seem easier because they involve less “thrashing”: “Thrashing is…not a sign that you can’t finish the project or that you’re doing the wrong project. It’s a sign that…you’ll need to show up powerfully to get it done.” In one crystal-clear insight after another, the author provides readers with an enormous trove of strategies designed to help them succeed, whether their key projects are business-related, creative, or personal. He gives intuitively catchy names to the mental snarls that readers experience when working alone or in groups. The author cautions readers that it’s seductively easy to spend an entire life “in the meantime,” never hunkering down to create their masterpieces. His comprehensive book is a formidable corrective to that inertia.

A powerful and optimistic guide to clearing out the clutter and finishing your best work.

Kirkus Reviews