Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 45 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: 25 ways to complete your incompletes
— From The Success Principles™: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield
“Are there areas in your life where you’ve left uncompleted projects or failed to get closure with people? When you don’t complete the past, you can’t be free to fully embrace the future,” says Jack Canfield in The Success Principles. By devoting attention to these incompletes and unfinished tasks or projects, you are taking energy and focus away from the things you should be doing—or the things you want to do. Canfield says that we only have so many “attention units” and we should focus those units “to completing present tasks and bringing new opportunities and abundance into [our] life.”
Canfield suggests continually asking, “What does it take to actually get this task completed?” At that point you can move forward with the next steps that will lead you to completion: filing the completed paperwork, mailing in the forms, etc. “The truth is that 20 things completed have more power than 50 things half completed. One finished book, for instance, that can go out and influence the world is better than 13 books you’re in the process of writing.”
So, what to do about this?
In addition to the 4 Ds—Do it, Delegate it, Delay it or Dump it—Canfield suggests scheduling a completion weekend and devoting 2 full days to completing as many things as possible. He provides the following list of 25 categories as a starting point and suggests you add your particular items. He also recommends selecting just four items and completing them, then moving on to another four, and so on. “At a minimum,” says Canfield, “I encourage you to clean up one major incomplete every 3 months.”
Here’s the initial list for you, it contains both personal and professional suggestions. Happy completing!
1. Former business activities that need completion.
2. Promises not kept, not acknowledged, or not renegotiated.
3. Unpaid debts or financial commitments (money owed to others or to you).
4. Closets overflowing with clothing never worn.
5. A disorganized garage crowded with old discards.
6. Haphazard or disorganized tax records.
7. Checkbook not balanced or accounts that should be closed.
8. “Junk drawers” full of unusable items.
9. Missing or broken tools.
10. An attic filled with unused items.
11. A car trunk or backseat full of trash.
12. Incomplete car maintenance.
13. A disorganized basement filled with discarded items.
14. Credenza packed with unfiled or incomplete projects.
15. Filing left undone.
16. Computer files not backed up or data needing to be converted for storage.
17. Desk surface cluttered or disorganized.
18. Family pictures never put into an album.
19. Mending, ironing or other piles of items to repair or discard.
20. Deferred household maintenance.
21. Professional relationships with unstated requests, resentments, or appreciations.
22. People you need to forgive.
23. Time not spent with people you’ve been meaning to spend time with.
24. Incomplete projects or projects delivered without closure or feedback.
25. Acknowledgments that need to be given or asked for.
ACTION
TODAY: Check the list and add your own incompletes that come to mind. Determine if there is any task that you can complete today. If so, get it done — woohoo!
FUTURE: Pick a date in your calendar and schedule your first completion weekend. Make it a habit to schedule them at least once a quarter.
Know someone who could benefit from completing some incompletes? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!