Advice for Project Completion

[Zim]

I am absolutely horrible at, well, life, but specifically, completing something that I start. Were it not for the automatic reflex, I would stop breathing.

There are 15 projects that I can name off the top of my head that have been started, but abandoned before being finished. There must be 15 more that I can't think of at the moment.

Maybe I'm all ADD and give up on things if the results are not immediate. Maybe I compile the list of what needs to be done on a certain project, get frustrated, and walk away. I don't know.

Now I have another bike. This one (as the other ones) needs some work. But if I'm ever to get back on two wheels again in the near future, I need to focus. I don't want this bike to become another one of those projects. I don't want to say "Oh, this is NEVER going to happen!", throw up my hands, and mope.

What advice do you have for seeing a project through to the end? How do you keep focused, instead of saying "Ooh! Shiny Object!" and forget about the task at hand? Do you get gentle ass-kickings from someone to keep you going? What does L. Ron Hubbard tell you about aliens checking off every item in their to-do list?

What Would Ootmiks Do?

[Ames]

In terms that apply equally well to acting, "What's your motivation?"
Is it just the doing of things, or is it to get things done? If it's the latter, I've got nothing; if it's the former, perhaps you need to focus on the outcome you're after.
I'd recommend making lists, very specific lists, and checking them off as you go (I find that if it's a REALLY long list then you need to build in rewards for every (insert number) that you get done. I.E. I've finished five out of twenty things I need to get done today, I get to sit down for five minutes and actually enjoy a cup of coffee.). Otherwise any sort of outside motivator is just going to be a grind and a nag and quickly become an unpleasant pain in the ass that you'd rather shoot out of a cannon through a chain-link fence...but I digress.
Bottom line, find some way of motivating yourself internally because external motivation just sucks.

Good luck.

[Pattio]

One thing that helps is to have a reason to complete the project, like, for instance, an event that you want to attend on a running motorcycle. If the reason to complete the project is 'it would be nice to be out on a motorbike', well, you might find yourself doing other nice things on any particular day. If the reason to complete the project is "I always wanted to rip the Kank on a bike with a humped seat and rearsets", well, you might find yourself thinking you also always wanted to do it on a bike with bench seat and windjammer, not really sure, maybe decide later. But if what you want is to be at Sully's annual BBQ poker run, that sets a deadline that you can use to motivate you, but its a fun deadline rather than an 'or else' deadline because you look forward to Sully's jam anyway and it makes you happy thinking about it.

Also consider shorcuts. If the reason the bike is apart is because you are hoping to someday find a good machinist so you can take the machined part to a good powder coater when you find one of those, its pretty easy to let it slide. Buying a complete motor or parts bike that you can mess with gets you past that and into the driveway tinkering stage where you can apply yourself, rather than needing others. Somtimes its better to be in the driveway filing something until it fits rather than prowling the interwebs asking if anybody has fitted this to that, or trolling ebay looking for this or that part that a guy on a forum said would fit.

[Pattio]

One other related thing, not what you asked but its on my mind: don't start a project with the intent to learn the skill needed to finish the project! Don't take apart a bike because you want to learn to put bikes together. A young man recently beamed to me 'I chopped my bike!' looking for praise. You did what? He explained that he had just hacksawed the entire subframe off of his crappy-but-running motorycle. 'Where are you going to sit?' I asked, and he said 'I'm going to learn to weld!' Facepalm.

[piccini9]

COFFEE!

Lots and lots of fuckin' coffee. The 100% natural substitute for sleep.

Plus it seems to help me focus. ADD maybe?

[Metalredneck]

Lists and motivators are good, but you also should have a vision or rough sketch of what you want. Mine almost always morph into something else, due to poverty, but a diagram gives you a visceral taste.

[DerGolgo]

Put the bike, the parts, the tools, all of it, in the middle of the kitchen or, if it is big enough, in the bathroom. Encountering it every day might help keep you focused, plus the added pressure of getting the thing finished and out of there so you can have non-mc friends come over and not think you weird or mc-friends that would give you a hard time if you keep your time about finishing it.

[guitargeek]

I thought we'd settled this!

Ummm... don't have any wives or kids or jobs or friends. Set up a shop with heat, a/c, good lighting and a decent stereo. Buy a little bag of weed.

[roadmissile]

I thought we'd settled this!

Ummm... don't have any wives or kids or jobs or friends. Set up a shop with heat, a/c, good lighting and a decent stereo. Buy a little bag of weed.

Put a comfy chair, like an old lazy boy or something in the shop too, and maybe a mini fridge...

/RM

[Zim]

I thought we'd settled this!

Ummm... don't have any wives or kids or jobs or friends. Set up a shop with heat, a/c, good lighting and a decent stereo. Buy a little bag of weed.

Put a comfy chair, like an old lazy boy or something in the shop too, and maybe a mini fridge...

/RM

Now see, I like those ideas.

My unemployed, friendless ass will be in the garage away from the wife and kids, stoned, warm, laid out flat in a reclined comfy chair, listening to music and raiding the well-lit mini fridge instead of working on the bike.

Not saying there's anything wrong with that...

[roadmissile]

My unemployed, friendless ass will be in the garage away from the wife and kids, stoned, warm, laid out flat in a reclined comfy chair, listening to music and raiding the well-lit mini fridge instead of working on the bike.

You would be shocked how well this actually promotes working on the bike, just sitting there for awhile contemplating it. I also keep a cheap-ass laptop on hand for EFI tuning duty/movies...

/RM

[mtne]

A view from the other side. Acceptance.

I am glacial. I move at glacial paces when it comes to projects and I accept it. I've gotten better too at times.........., Now I move at glacial speeds but have gotten rid of most of the projects so it seems that lots have gotten done. The DAG is near empty these days. And I have to pass on, or pass on to others, things I would have snapped up in years past.

I've had the 99'/02' triple for 7 years, still sitting in the corner. Make me a deal and I'll pass that one along too...........
I've had the norton basket case for about the same time, still sitting on the shelf.
Then there are the bigger and more pressing LIFE and HOME projects that have been near as long................

Two years ago I started purging, slowly. My goal and self reward is that once there are no other projects (maintenance on running bikes excluded) I will build the norton. I have only the triumph left to finish or get rid of then I will dedicate one lift to building the norton right the first time frame up. I figure when that starts I'll give myself five or so years................. acceptance.

So you've 15 you can think of? Give away if you have to sell if you can 13 of them. The 15 others just get rid of since if you can't remember you must not care that much....... right? I understand you don't have 30 actual separate bikes for projects, and some projects you can't get rid of for one reason or another, but it's the idea of it.

Small steps....................

[guitargeek]

Put a comfy chair, like an old lazy boy or something in the shop too,

No, that's a terrible idea. A comfy workchair is what you want. I have an old government-issue office chair, surplus from the Post Office.

and maybe a mini fridge...

Surprisingly, no. Stick with your caffeinated beverages. I've been known to keep a pint of Jim Beam in the shop, just to sip on.



DO NOT GET DRUNK OR STONED. The point is to just relax a little, unwind, take a bit of the edge off, prime the creative juice pump.

[Sonic Rob]

I've found some success by forbidding myself to start a new project until the old one is finished. It prevents the sort of rapid-turnover project promiscuity that I'm prone to, helps to ensure a better rate of completion. More staisfaction in the long run, too.

[Zim]

I was just at the liquor store for Thanksgiving related reasons.

Couldn't find any of this stuff:



I was awful tempted to put a boxed bottle of scotch in my hand basket, but realized that it cost about the same as a new front tire for SuziGS.

So instead I took the direct tip from GG. No, not the weed. They don't sell that there. Yet.

[guitargeek]

Mowntane has the right idea...

Be inexorable.

You want to be like the plant coming up through the crack in the pavement.

Sit down with a yellow legal pad and make an outline of what the bike needs. Break it down into subsections: Fuel, electrical, chassis, etc. The table of contents in your manual will be a big help here, just copy down the chapter titles and start listing what needs attention.

When you complete a task on the list, make a note of it. Jot down anything that was weird about it, like maybe you have misgivings about a certain seal or gasket or bearing.

Get a good manual, and read it. I used to keep my Kawasaki factory service manual in the bathroom, so I knew I'd have at least a few minutes alone with it every day. (I keep Proficient Motorcycling in there now.)

Take pictures of everything. Nice, clear, detailed photos. You can share it with the rest of the cult and receive encouragement, plus you'll have a record of how everything came apart in case there's any confusion about how to put it back together. If you don't have a Photobucket account, set one up now.

The way I finally got my bike together is by working on it every single day, with few exceptions. I didn't even think about riding it or completion or whatever, I just focused on the work. People would ask me, "When will it be finished?" And at first I'd say some shit like, "Oh, it should be soon! Certainly within the month!" After a while, I got where I'd just shrug my shoulders and mutter about whatever I was fabricating or modifying at the time. I had my head down, nose to the grindstone for so long that when I finally took the thing out onto the road, I found myself oddly disappointed. I milled around in the shop, wondering what the fuck to do with myself! A little more saddle time told me what needed attention, and it was ride/wrench/ride/wrench for a while, then more riding and less wrenching.



My bike still isn't finished, and I hope it never is. Right now, I'm in parts-gathering mode, scheming about the next improvements I want to make...

WWBMD?

[Pattio]

WWBMD?

what would Bob Marley do?

[rolly]

WWBMD?

what would Bob Marley do?

Oh yeah, bad advice. Get high and play guitar.

Ahem.
1. New battery
2. Clean carbs
3. ????
4. Profit!
I thought this bike was a runner? Want to ride it? Don't make a project out of it.

[Zim]

I thought this bike was a runner? Want to ride it? Don't make a project out of it.

It is becoming a project. The bike's a runner in the sense that the engine runs. It needs work. At the moment it's all about getting it good for inspection.

More issues are appearing though. For instance:


These are the bolts that (are supposed to) secure the sidestand bracket to the frame.

I've taken a bunch of pictures, wrote stuff down, spent an hour or two for the past few nights in the garage. I'll start a project topic in Features & Columns.

[rolly]

I thought this bike was a runner? Want to ride it? Don't make a project out of it.

It is becoming a project. The bike's a runner in the sense that the engine runs. It needs work. At the moment it's all about getting it good for inspection.

More issues are appearing though. For instance:


These are the bolts that (are supposed to) secure the sidestand bracket to the frame.

I've taken a bunch of pictures, wrote stuff down, spent an hour or two for the past few nights in the garage. I'll start a project topic in Features & Columns.

Oh. Well don't do what Bob Marley would do.

[roadmissile]

and maybe a mini fridge...

Surprisingly, no. Stick with your caffeinated beverages. I've been known to keep a pint of Jim Beam in the shop, just to sip on.

DO NOT GET DRUNK OR STONED. The point is to just relax a little, unwind, take a bit of the edge off, prime the creative juice pump.

To be fair, I like my caffeine cold too, although if the point is to get drunk these days the fridge would need to be more mega than mini...

/RM

[guitargeek]

WWBMD?

what would Bob Marley do?

click

click it

clicky clicky

WWBMD

[Pattio]

WWBMD?

what would Bob Marley do?

click

click it

clicky clicky

WWBMD

what would Bill Maher do?

[rc26]

Having recently completed one, I can say...set a deadline, then expect to go beyond it.
You'll get frustrated with unexpected set backs...just keep on doing what you have to do, it'll all come together. Just stick with it!

[roadmissile]

what would Bill Maher do?

The answer to this is always 'get high'

/RM

[rolly]

WWBMD?

what would Bob Marley do?

click

click it

clicky clicky

WWBMD

But I thought Zim was looking for advice on how not to take 20 years to finish the bike.