Hey, Creative LJ Peoples!

[allizon]

Maybe this is only an issue for those of us who are all ADD, maybe not, but:  

When you're thinking about/planning/even vaguely considering a Big Project, one which can't possibly be done in a week or less...how do you get started on something Big?  How do you know where/at what point to dive in -- how much planning or prep work is enough?  How do you measure your progress?  Or maintain your enthusiasm for the project and not let it just all...drift away?

I'm very curious here.  I want to do something Big but can't seem to keep my focus on any one project long enough, so I wonder if I'm just Doin It Wrong.  Help?

ETA:  So I successfully completed National Novel Writing Month -- I did just over 53,000 words in 30 days.  That was Big, right?  But it also had a very small window attached to it, and an external deadline (of a sort).  So I can sprint toward Big, but I think the kinds of Big Projects I'm vaguely thinking of here aren't so much sprints as marathons.  I clearly need marathon planning/training.  :)

ETA 2:  As I was responding to various comments below, a link to this post about discipline on Zen Habits popped up for me in Twitter.  Thanks, Universe!

Comments

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

I think what I do is this: I think of a huge plan, and then I figure out the vague outline of the next big step or two. I want to be a crazy urban farmer, so that involves figuring out how to manage the farming and figuring out how to manage the business, for example.

Then I figure out the immediate next step on those things. This is the basic idea of Getting Things Done: figure out the next physical action you need to take to move something forward. Sometimes there are several, which is good when you're procrastinating, as you can tell yourself you just have to do the easiest one :)

When I do that action, I figure out the next one. I keep some vague cloud of timeline in my head -- farming is convenient, as it has years, but "I want to have this cloud of stuff more or less sorted before summer" also works for me -- but don't worry hugely about it.

I've also started using reverse-engineered timelines like roozle mentions, although I agree they're best when some life or external factor makes a deadline important.

[badlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

This is the basic idea of Getting Things Done: figure out the next physical action you need to take to move something forward.

I think it's maybe worth my giving GTD another shot -- I really liked the concepts of it, but found it hard to stick with it, as I have trouble sticking with, well, anything. :)

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

I actually participate in the system with varying degrees of completeness, depending on how incapable of remembering shit I feel, and it seems to tolerate this kind of laxness pretty well :) The only thing I find to be all-or-nothing is keeping a tickler file. It's damn useful, but only if you actually seriously check it every day! In lieu of *that,* I've used google calendar reminders & similar, which work for the things you put them in for regardless of whether you put things in every day, so long as you don't give up email :)

[badlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

...so long as you don't give up email.

Pshaw. As if. ;)