“Finishing tasks and closing sales have many things in common. The net result of both in business is more clients and more money.”

~ Debra Hilton

The ‘Almost Done’ Problem

‘Almost done’ – like ‘a bit pregnant’ is a blatant contradiction of reality.

You are either finished with a project or you are not… But ‘almost done’ suggests that you are contemplating starting something new – or getting distracted by opportunity.

I know the temptation and allure of that new project that promises great things. I also know how often that attitude scuppers progress when starting something new comes at the cost of finishing something important.

I credit ‘almost done’ with the failure of many promotions and marketing campaigns because you feel the triumph of completion without actually closing off the project and often you get lazy and the launch never happens or is jeopardised.

One of my clients was setting up a promotion that we had designed carefully. All the technical aspects were prepared:

• Infusionsoft campaign was ready
• Plus This was set up for text delivery and meeting reminders
• The copy was written
• Design was done
• Etc…

As the promotion launched the person responsible for loading the texts and emails (about 30 minutes total task time) got distracted by the ‘next thing’. After all, the first two weeks were done and he’d get back to it before week three was due to go out… Except (of course) things got in the way… And he overlooked the reminder he’d set… So texts went out with dummy content. The carefully-crafted emails weren’t sent. Instead, the emails were from something quite different.

‘Almost done’ cost this business a substantial amount of money, because it wasn’t just the direct loss of sales, it was also the erosion of trust and reputation – after all, if you can mess up on the promotion, how much will you mess up your delivery?

Inefficiency of Multi-Tasking

There are many studies that demonstrate the reality that trying to do several tasks simultaneously may make you feel more productive, but don’t actually help you get more done. One of my friends has a simple exercise that demonstrates that trying to switch between two tasks more than doubles the total amount of time required to complete those tasks. When you add a third task to the mix it doubles again, meaning that trying to do three tasks simultaneously will take you four time as long as it would take to do those same tasks in sequence.

The same is true on a project level even when you are working with a team. You cannot effectively work on more than one project at a time although you can hand portions of a project off to a colleague and work on other things while waiting for them to complete their tasks. To avoid confusion (which is another productivity killer), it is important to complete all of a designated section before handing it over to your colleague and not to take it back until they have fully completed their portion. This may seem slower, but it means that everyone has everything they need to carry out their tasks before they start.

I’ve made it a rule in my own business to finish projects before I start the next one. That means I always have a long list of projects I’m waiting to start, and a short list of projects I’m actually working on. When I’m working with a team the project is broken down into ordered segments and each one is completed before it is handed over to the next person in line. Using this method, we are able to complete more projects in a month and start generating income, clients, or other goals far more quickly than when we tried to do things simultaneously.

Strategies for Overcoming Boredom

Working on one project or task at a time may sound boring. I love the variety of my work, and I know that many people share that preference, but there are ways around this that enable me to achieve the best of both worlds.

I took a lesson from Bob Bly, one of the most prolific and productive copywriters and solo entrepreneurs alive: I classify my projects in about 5 different buckets and only let myself have three projects running at once. I tried doing just one at a time, but it doesn’t really maximise my productivity so I came up with rules around the 3 projects:

• I can only have 1 project from a single bucket (or type) at any time;
• I cannot start another project until I have handed the project over complete (or decided that it’s not worth doing – ever);
• When I finish one project I can start another from the same bucket, or from a different bucket as long as I’m not already working on a project of that type;
• If it’s client work, the client must stick to my rules;
• Work on that project happens in a focused an undistracted environment (no email, Slack, phone, messaging, or other distracting media etc.).

Several things happened as a result of that decision:

• I got more done, in less time, and it’s delivering better results;
• A couple of clients who were serial distractors with a graveyard of ‘almost done’ projects decided to work with someone else who would continue to let them get away with that;
• Two other clients who had been instrumental in this decision finished campaigns and added over $45k to their monthly income between them;
• I crossed off and closed loops on 18 projects last month, freeing up my mental and emotional energy to truly focus.

Automation Magnifies the Problem of ‘Unfinished’

• I know it’s tempting to get something to a stage where you say, “I’m far enough ahead now, let me work on something else.”
• My advice is ‘Don’t do it!’
• Admittedly, that is shaped by the dangers of automation. Automation is an amazing tool that magnifies your results, and incomplete automations can magnify your embarrassment (as in the example I mentioned above).
• Your partly-finished automations and campaigns will either run properly or they won’t (depending on where you got to in the setup). If they do run and you haven’t finished filling in your emails etc then you lose credibility, trust, and opportunity. If they don’t run at all… Then you also lose credibility, trust, and opportunity because your clients and prospects think you are inattentive.
• It takes less time than you might think to finish something once and for all and then move on leaving your mind free from distraction, than it does to jump over and start the next thing and it is especially important when you are using automation to accelerate your results and impact.

The Link Between Closing and Finishing

Remember the days when you had to shut down your computer at the end of every day to clear out the RAM? Sometimes, if you were doing memory-intensive tasks you had to restart the computer at lunch time because it wasn’t enough just to close the program. I hated wasting the time waiting for the computer to restart, but I always loved the speed with which tasks completed afterwards and finishing tasks brings the same level of freshness and speed.

When you develop the habit of finishing things completely and tying off all the loose ends, you’ll be surprised at how much more effective you become (as well as more efficient).

One of my clients does sales training and she always says, “Be grateful for the ‘no’s’. A clear ‘no’ sets you free to focus on more productive prospects – or to deliver more to your clients.”

Closing a sale or closing the possibility of a sales brings clarity and lets you put a tick or an X next to the prospect.

The discipline of finishing a task or project before you move onto the next one brings the same level of clarity and enables you to finish with less friction in a shorter amount of time.