Are you the type of person who always has a long list of to-dos? Do you manage to check off items fairly easily, but never feel like you accomplish much despite being “busy”? Or maybe you’re a writer who has a lot of projects on the burners, but you rarely complete them to your satisfaction?

If you fit any (or all) these types, then I urge you to read blogger Cal Newport‘s guest post on Scott H. Young‘s blog about completion-centric project planning. When I first read it, I thought “duh.” But then I looked at some of my lists and had to admit to myself that I had no idea what some of my finished projects would look like. I spent a couple hours with some of those ideas and developed measurable criteria for the end product — stuff like writing book proposals, building my food writing specialty, and organizing my pantry. Seriously, I felt more motivated than I’ve felt in months about these formerly nebulous ideas. I could clearly see that some of the activities I thought were moving me toward the finish line were only slowing me down.

Cal showed a sample of his completion-centric project planning sheet. I created one that’s similar to his, and if there’s enough interest, I’ll upload it to our server as a free download.

Do you plan with a clearly defined goal in mind? Is this news to you? Please, add your comments below. [db]

If you liked that post, you might also like:

• How to Decide What to Do Next
• The Project from Hell (And What I Learned from It)
• The world says No. The universe says Yes.
• Special offer for Become an Idea Machine class starting Monday, June 14th
• 7 Motivation Hacks for Freelancers