Get Everything Done

DIT's "current initiative" approach taught me the good habit of trying to start only one big new thing at a time, and to do it first thing every day, and to do something on it every day till it is up and running under its own momentum. I've tried to use this idea no matter what time management system I've used for managing the rest of my tasks.

But sometimes I run into a conflict. Let's say I have a Monster Project -- a large, difficult Current Initiative that is difficult to break down into smaller pieces. It's difficult to stop once started without losing momentum or causing problems in some other way. It's the kind of thing that needs daily focused attention, and ideally should be the thing that gets your best focused attention every day. An example could be a thesis or book project, or maybe the #1 critical project at work.

And while this Monster Project is ongoing but has not reached the point where it has self-sustaining momentum, it's in that Current Initiative spot: daily action, first thing, every day. It's really got to have sustained action to sustain and build the momentum.

But because the Monster Project takes so long to complete, it is likely that other things will come along to interrupt it. For example, a mechanical breakdown leads to a minor emergency that puts everything behind schedule for several days. OK, now you've got a bunch of backlogs, and you need to clear them out and get back on top of things. That should become your new Current Initiative for a few days. But you've already got your Monster Project Current Initiative, and it can be very disruptive to set it aside for so many days.

So what do you do?

This just happened to me -- I've been trying to focus on a Monster Project kind of Current Initiative, but one thing after another keeps pulling me away from it, eating away at the momentum. And now circumstances have literally dumped a huge mound of boxes, papers, and random backlog items into my main workspace that will take me weeks to sort through.

My intuition is telling me: double down on the Monster Project and just keep focused on that as my Current Initiative -- give my early quiet hours to it, or it will never get any quality time at all. And work through the backlog piles as much as I can in the odd bits of time that Serial No-List can help me find. Otherwise, trying to split my attention across two Current Initiatives will really mean that neither of them will get enough attention. And if that means I live with piles of boxes and papers for a few months -- well at least I will get my Monster Project done. :)

But maybe there is a better approach. Mark, I'd be especially interested in your thoughts and advice.