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how to get better at projects. I've got 10 tools for you, but before we get into those, let's just set the stage briefly and talk about what it's good to remember about a project before you jump into one. So the first thing we need to acknowledge is just the wide spectrum of projects. There are personal projects, like listening to 300 albums in a year. There are home projects like going through stuff in an attic. There are responsible projects like setting up a will or getting ready to do your taxes. There are research projects like figuring out where you might want to go to college or move for a job. There are transitional projects like getting a nursery ready for a new baby or a home ready to host out of town family. Some projects last a day, some last a year. Some are fun, some are not. Some are active and some are like almost totally on your computer. Some you choose because you're excited and others you do to be responsible. The 10 tools I am going to share work no matter the type of project. But it's super important to remember how varied projects are. What project are you imagining right now? Actually, like, as I'm talking about projects, what are you specifically thinking of and how is that project making you feel? If what you are imagining is like exciting or it doesn't even have to be fully exciting, it's just like relatively positive. There's a little motivation there. I want you to stay in that place. I think that's great. If you're listening and you're already down in the dumps because you do not want to do the particular project that's on your mind or you feel like you're being a procrastinator or that you're so behind on all the responsible things that you should be doing. And I really want you to change the narrative. Listen to these 10 tools through a better lens than one of like defeat. So maybe think of a project that you might enjoy or that's really short. Give yourself a chance to absorb these tools through a kinder, more optimistic lens so you don't feel behind right out of the gate. One other thing to remember before we get to the tools are the characteristics of a project. I've shared these before. They're in my book the plan, but. But I wanna share them quickly again now. Cause they just help you see why projects can be hard to finish. So the first two are pretty practical. The first thing projects have one main objective. Like you're trying to get one particular thing done right. And then the second thing is a project has an end. Like once that objective is done, so is the project. Projects aren't ongoing really. They have a purpose and they have an end. Now these next two things are what make projects hard. Projects are out of your ordinary. You likely have some sort of rhythm in your life. Even if it like barely is a rhythm that makes any waves and a project is out of that rhythm. It's different. It requires different energy and extra time and is an exchange for something else in your life, not just something that you can easily add without any thought. And then the fourth thing, A project requires multiple decisions and tasks. A project itself should not go on your to do list. It has its own to do list. It has multiple parts. That's why if you put organize the hall closet on your to do list, you're going to keep putting it off because that is too big. It has too many parts to just like knock out real quick. So keep those last two things particularly in mind. You're probably not bad at doing projects. It's just that projects are out of your ordinary and they require a lot of decisions and a lot of things to do. They're like a whole thing. And it's hard to add a whole thing into an already busy life. So be kind to yourself about projects okay, so now that we've set the table of what a project is, let's talk through 10 tools that can make you better at them no matter the kind of project you're doing. Number one Know what keeps you going? Think about a project you have done recently and what kept you at it? What kept you locked in, enjoying yourself or committed to finishing? What did you feel alive doing? Maybe you're like weirdly really good at spreadsheets, so getting to make one for a particular project was really gratifying. Maybe you enjoy spontaneity and so working on a project or on a whim was more fun than anticipating the project happening at all. Maybe you like doing things with people or you like using your hands, using your brain, moving your body, being creative. Think about what kinds of things keep you going when you're doing something new and out of the ordinary, like a project when you know what keeps you going, you can replicate that in future projects. You know, you need a long Runway or a great playlist or a helpful family that you didn't have to coerce to do something. You know, you need to take breaks so you don't get overwhelmed or you need a fun reward at the end. Two things that keep me going when I'm actively doing a project are music and visible progress. I need like visual markers that something is moving or done. That is why I love to make a to do list of the tiniest things. I feel like I'm moving. When I can cross something off, I'm making progress. The other day I was feeling tired and under the weather and I had spent the day at urgent care with one of my kids. He's fine now. Thank you very much for asking. And even though this was not a project, I did not have the bandwidth to do ordinary things. The ordinary things of life felt like a project. So I wrote down, like I literally wrote down, okay, take pills, load the dishwasher, take out recycling, tidy and vacuum the kitchen. Altogether, those tasks took barely 10 minutes, and I could have just done them, but actually I couldn't. I couldn't get up the energy to do all of those things as one big thing. So the list of small, tiny things, even though they're automatic and already ordinary and in my rhythm, that list really helped. I put them in a helpful order and I crossed each one off as I got them done. And it helped me keep going. And I know that about myself, so because I know that I use it all the time to help me keep moving. So the more you name what keeps you going, the better you'll get at projects and even just like, getting things done. So, number one, know what keeps you going. Number two, know what slows you down. This isn't necessarily the opposite of number one. Not having music does not slow me down. Not having a list doesn't slow me down. They do keep me going, but they don't slow the speed. Now what does? Feeling like I will never be done, that slows me down. That's why any project I do is really several projects within one with, like, a list of all the things. It's also why I don't start projects until they're completely broken down. Otherwise I'm going to get really overwhelmed and just stop. For example, my oldest son, he wants to paint his room blue. It's no matter that he's moving out in two years or that he wants it to be like a teal, AKA Carolina Panthers blue, which is really loud, that he wants his room painted. Well, before we can paint his room, there are a lot of other things that have to be done. Right before we paint his room, we have to move the furniture. Before we move his furniture, we have to go through some of his stuff, because there's a lot of stuff in his room, much of which he doesn't want to part with. And that's part of why his room is kind of difficult. In fact, when I've offered to spruce his room up a little bit, like, let's go through some stuff, maybe just very small, like one bookshelf or something, he's like, no, I like everything exactly as it is. He just wants the room blue, not realizing that it's a decent sized Project to get his room ready to paint. Because of the state of his room now, I know that there are projects before that project. And since he's not going to be motivated to do those other projects, I definitely feel like we will never be done. And that slows me down. That makes me procrastinate. I know this about myself, which helps me meet that with intention. So what about you? What slows you down? What makes a project, whether you're thinking about starting it or you're like, in it all the way? What makes you slow down, lose momentum, or even just stop altogether? It might be attitudes, tedium, distraction, details. There are lots of options and none are right or wrong. They're just as personal and neutral as what keeps you going. But when you know what slows you down, you can pay attention to that thing and you can meet it with some sort of alternative, or you can know that it's a roadblock and work around it. So number two, know what slows you down. Number three, find a reason to care. Now, some people might call this knowing your why. Like, why are you doing something? But I often need something beyond why. Why isn't always enough. I have to care about the why. I need a reason to care enough about this project to see it through to the end. For example, you're considering a project of, let's say, cleaning out the attic. You very much do not want to do this thing. Like, it's icky, it's gonna take forever. It's complicated because of, like, getting things down that little ladder. And how did all that stuff get up that little ladder in the first place? I think there's a couch in our attic. The mind reels. Like, how did this work? I don't understand. So you want to clean out the attic, but you're not actively moving right now. You also know, though, that maybe you're thinking about it. Maybe you're going to move soon and it might be nice to get a jump start on the attic so it's not hanging over your head later. That's why you're doing it. You know, it's a practical clean out before an eventual move, even a little kindness to your future self. And I mean, that's cool, that's cool. That's a great why. But also, it's still like, ew. You might need to find a reason to care. You might decide that you care enough about limiting your future stress to do this now. You know, not feeling rushed and under the gun with all the other house projects, that's worth it. To you. You might decide that your reason to care is that you honestly don't know what's up there. And it's kind of like a treasure hunt. You're gonna go up there with an adventurous spirit, maybe unearth something super cool from your childhood or your kid's childhood, or maybe it'll be a creepy box of mannequin heads, I don't know. But you might find that exploration and discovery is reason enough to care. Or the reason might have nothing to do with the attic at all. Your reason to care might mean that when you finish, you're gonna go on an overnight reading retreat by yourself. That's your reward. But you only get to do that if you finish cleaning out the attic, creating space in your house, and your future moving schedule so that you can enjoy 24 hours of reading time. Right now, some of you might be deeply disciplined on your own and like this is an unnecessary tool. But I think a lot of us put off projects that are important because we just don't care. We care about other things in our regular life more, and we need a reason to care about the project. We need a reason. Or you might not care, but someone you love does. Your reason to care is because you care about them. You still might need a little incentive, but recognize when you don't care, someone else might. So that's number three. Find a reason to care. Number four, keep the details in one place. Since a project potentially has so many pieces and parts, it's really nice to have your processing, your timelines, your end game, all in one place so you don't lose track of where you are or what you've already thought about. This prevents you from feeling scattered and forgetting things. How many times have you started dreaming about, like, redecorating your bedroom or planting a flower garden, or trying a capsule wardrobe? And you write your thoughts down in one of your many abandoned notebooks, never to find the list of ideas again. It's normal, and you don't need to feel bad about that. There's a lot to keep up with in this life. But when you choose one specific place for all your projects, always, it helps you remember what matters about them and what you've already done. This is why we have the projects playbook. It's exactly what I'm talking about. It's a place to keep track of of your project. Your notes, your thoughts, your task lists, your timelines, even some guiding questions to help you figure out why you're wanting to do the project in the first place. Even if you have digital storage like a Pinterest board or a spreadsheet. You can make note of where those things are in your project playbook. You know, you just write down design ideas on Pinterest. Obviously, you can use whatever tool you like. Later in this episode, you'll hear the lazy genius of the week share the one place that she puts her projects. So whether it's in your notes app or a Google Drive or a composition notebook or the Projects Playbook, keep all of your project details in one place. The more you do, the better you're going to get at projects. All right, number five, Know what you are displacing when you do a project. Whether it's a couple of hours on a Saturday in the yard or something ongoing like training for a race, the project will displace something. It just will. You are a finite person with finite time and an already busy life. So you're not really adding a project to your life as much as you are replacing something else with that project. So number five is know what that is. Know what you are displacing. Usually the displacement is only for a short time, like maybe just a day. But whether it's short or long, knowing what you're displacing helps you accept what's being displaced. Like, if you train for a race, it's going to displace leisure, the regularity of certain chores, maybe sleep. If you decide to spend a couple of Saturdays cleaning out your kid's bedroom to transition from like a crib to a big bed, you're displacing ordinary meals, ordinary play, maybe even the actual kid so you can focus on the task you're displacing them to, you know, grandma's house. You don't have to be a superhero who can just hold more and do more. Projects are going to display something, and they should, so know what that is and find peace with it. Don't try to cram it all in to the same place. Number six, make project days easier. This holds hands with knowing what you're displacing. Project days will displace regular meals and routines. Probably they might throw off bedtimes for you, maybe even your kids. They're going to impact regular chores or activities, maybe bath time, routines for the little ones. You can do what you think is best, obviously for your family, but I encourage you to not attempt to make the day as normal as possible, hustling to do the things you would normally do. Instead, make project days easier. Order pizza. Put off changing the bed sheets until next weekend. Skip bath time. The more you make project days easier, the better you're gonna get at projects. They're gonna feel easier cause you're making them easier. Number seven. Have what you need before you begin. There is nothing that slows down a project quicker than not having what you need. Having to run to the store or something. Now, of course you're gonna have to go out and get stuff. Like you're gonna run out of mulch or cleaning supplies, or you're gonna take a run in your current sneakers and you're gonna be like, man, these are not gonna cut it if I run. You're going to need to get things mid project. But as much as you're able, have what you need before you begin. This helps you get better at projects because it makes projects easier to do. Like, if you typically have to stop mid project because you didn't have the knowledge, the tools, or the help that you need, you're going to feel less motivation in the future to keep doing projects. So being prepared in whatever ways, it's going to help you get better at projects. Even for something as small and fun as my album project for the year, I knew that I would need a list of albums to listen to when something didn't come to mind right away. I wanted like a bank or a queue of sorts of albums so that I wouldn't lose momentum. That's having what you need before you begin. So before you get started on a project, no matter how big or small, ask yourself, what am I gonna probably need? See what you can do to make sure you have those things before you start so that it's easier to going and finish. Have what you need before you begin. Number eight. Go in the right order. Go in the right order is one of the original 13 lazy genius principles from my first book, the Lazy Genius Way, and it comes in handy all the time. I think that a lot of chores, projects and processes in life, they really do benefit from going in the right order. For example, you cannot organize the contents of a bathroom vanity without first kind of pulling everything out and going through it. I mean, you can, but the organization that you're after probably will not happen if you just like move stuff around or stick random items in containers without examining what's actually there. So yes, there are right orders for all kinds of specific things. You can spend some time thinking about a helpful order for your project. But here's an order that's good for literally anything and everything. First, name what matters. Second, call them the crazy. Third, trust yourself with what Comes next. This order works for, like, kind of everything. Are you organizing the bathroom vanity? Okay, what matters most about the results of that project? Is it that you can find what you need easily? Is it that you stop buying extra toothpaste thinking you're out, but really it's just in a random drawer? Is it that you celebrate your evening routine and you want to make those few minutes each night feel really special? All three of those priorities change how you approach cleaning out and organizing the bathroom. One needs aesthetics, another one needs order. Always start with what matters. Second, calm the crazy. What crazy chaos is keeping that thing from happening? For a long time, we just put our stuff in our bathroom drawers based on where it would fit. Like, I'd buy toothpaste and deodorant and face wash for me and face wash for my boys and, you know, all kinds of things that we use, and we just chuck them in drawers that had room. But then no one could find the toothpaste or the deodorant or the face wash or whatever when they needed a new one. So what mattered was categories. And we have, like, a drawer for all the teeth things. We have a drawer for all the body things. That was the chaos is that everything was everywhere. So I calmed that chaos by sorting what was all over the place. So that's number two. Calm. The crazy three is to trust yourself with what comes next. Because the Internet exists, there's always an idea of how something should get done. You might search and watch videos or pin stuff on Pinterest to find out, like, the best way to finish whatever project you're working on. And that is fine. You can totally do that. But I don't want you to do that because you don't trust your own opinion of how to do it. Trust yourself with what comes next. Know what you like. You know how your home works, what its limitations are in terms of, like, keeping an organizational system going with you or your family. If you see someone on the Internet, say that you should organize your closet with labeled bins because they're going to help you know where stuff is. But you know that you will run out of energy to do that so fast because you know that tedium slows you down. And making labels and having to put things in labeled boxes is tedious to you. Then don't label your stuff. Just use, like, clear bins. Stack stuff, like, make it orderly in a way that works for you if you want that, not in a way that you think should work based on what the Internet says. Trust yourself. So name what matters? Calm the crazy and trust yourself with what comes next. You will get better at projects when you go in the right order. All right, number nine, expect to pivot. Let me first talk to my planners out there. You will not be able to plan your project perfectly. Not everything will go in the order you think or will take the time you expect. You've got to expect to pivot. If you build that into the DNA of doing a project, you'll feel less stressed out when the pivot happens. For people who aren't as detailed, you also need to expect a pivot. Sometimes fun things happen here, though I find that people who are spontaneous, they find pivoting easier. Like, this is a delight for you. If you don't mind a pivot and even find it energizing, expect to do it during your project. That knowledge might give you a little boost that it's not going to be like, as linear or exacting as you're afraid it's going to be. It's okay to pivot midway through and solve problems as you go for both kinds of people. Now, this is true not just for projects, but for life. One of my favorite things to remind you all of is that it's more valuable to learn how to pivot instead of learning how to plan. Pivoting is such a necessary skill in this crazy life, so expecting it and riding the wave of a pivot is so much more important than planning something to a T and sticking to it at all costs. Not everyone agrees with that or wants to live that way, but I know I sure do. You're just going to get so much better at projects if you expect to pivot. Don't let it throw you off or discourage your process. Pivots happen, expect them and roll with it. And you will get better at projects. And finally, number 10, plan some fun. You will get better at projects if you plan fun into them or even fun after them. Imagine if you were putting up your Christmas decorations with no music playing, no candles burning, no like, cozy sweatshirt on, no plans for a mug of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace. Show when you're done, you just like, did it in silence with no fun vibes, like purely utilitarian. That is not a fun project. Right now. You're still doing the same actions, but without the fun infused into that project. It is mechanical and lifeless. So plan some fun in your projects. Play great music, ask questions of people around. You know that you're gonna get like, Chinese takeout when you're done. Invite friends over to have a drink in your newly painted, moody living room. Years ago, Kaz and I were both involved in the high school youth group at our church as like volunteers and we would take a trip every summer to do some type of mission work in the United States. Well, one year we went to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and we helped people get their homes back together. Well, Kaz and I had a group of about eight kids maybe, and we spend the entire week on the enormous project of removing all the soaked and rotted insulation in a house and replacing it with new. It was arduous, like truly physically uncomfortable. Super hot insulation is itchy and it gets in every nook and cranny of your body. It is not a fun project at all, but because my husband makes everything fun, we honestly had a great time. We would like take turns asking each other fun questions. I mean basic stuff like top three favorite movies of all time or funniest movie of all time singer you would listen to nonstop for a month without listening to anyone else. What sport you do in the Olympics if you could like suddenly be awesome at it. Just like silly easy questions. And it was fun. It made the project fun. We often try and do this spontaneously, which is great, you know, adding fun into a project, but I want you to think about doing it intentionally. Inject fun ahead of time. Think about it before or plan something fun at the end. The more you do this, the more you're going to enjoy doing the projects on your list. So let's recap. Projects come in all shapes and sizes and it's good to remember that you will need to be flexible and kind in your expectations based on the kind of project that you are doing. But no matter the type of project, use these 10 tools. Even if you just use one, it's going to make things better. Know what keeps you going and know what slows you down. Find a reason to care. Keep all the details in one place. You can check out the projects playbook@thelaceygeniuscollective.com playbooks if you don't already have a place for your projects, know what you are displacing and make project days easier. Have what you need before you begin, go in the right order, expect to pivot and plan some fun when you do these 10 things every time you do a project, projects will become more and more enjoyable. I promise. And that's how to get better at projects. This episode is sponsored by ixl.
