Do it Now, Do it Quickly
One of the things that I find most annoying about myself is my inability to concentrate on a long term goal, or work on a project over a series of months. It’s not that I have issues seeing things through because I do eventually get there, just that I find it a huge struggle to put aside feelings of boredom to reach the end. If something is not new and fresh in my mind I have difficulty finding the motivation to work on it.
When I decided on the spur of the moment to create BellaBiblio and aim for completion in one evening, a few people thought I’d gone stark-raving mad. How can a script possibly go from conception to completion in the space of just hours? Admittedly, it took longer than that to finalise things and there are bugs that have come to light since but essentially that mini-project epitomises how I aim to (like to) work.
It’s for exactly that reason that — despite my initial excitement — I am somewhat dreading getting back into studying. Although my desire to have that certificate will overwhelm any laziness by a long shot, I worry that I am not going to be able to extend my concentration over a period of 12 weeks (for each course, of which there are 6). I am having to round up any long-neglected projects that I’ve taken on (think phpFanBase, etc) just to free myself from any distractions further down the line… and all because of this annoying little trait.
Of course this makes me wonder what you’re all like. Do you suffer from a short attention span like me or are you one of those lucky (hard-working?) souls that puts in 100% from start to finish?
Kaia said:
On 10 Jul at 6:44 pm
My problem is I see the final product in my mind, and I strive so hard for perfection that sometimes I get frustrated when it doesn’t turn out so — and usually that ends up leading me to procrastination and then it never gets done!
Amber said:
On 10 Jul at 7:06 pm
I get bored of things quickly but once I’ve set myself a goal almost nothing can stop me on my pursuit of achieving it. The best way to motivate me is to tell me I can’t do it. :P
Carly said:
On 10 Jul at 7:41 pm
It’s a bit like this project I’ve took on… I’m designing two websites for this lady and the first I did took hours to complete it looked good. The second, first of all I did loads, a spurt if you will… then it headed downhill. It wasn’t want I’d envisioned for the site – I didn’t like it at all. So then I spoke to the lady and we agreed that even though I’d spent months trying to sort that one page out (I only have 2 free days a week to work on it, but sometimes dreading turning the laptop on and working on it could mean I would go a week without working on it!) Now, I have everything looking great, how I & she wanted it, and then I designed 4 sub-site themes and did most of the coding (except one bit I am confused with!) in one day. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a very long while but never got round to – you know your images bullet points… well mine don’t sit right in internet explorer but look perfect in firefox… any idea how to fix that problem? I’ve noticed yours always look fine in both… any help would be appreciated… Cheers :-)
Hayley said:
On 10 Jul at 7:50 pm
Short attention span, definitely. I have to be ‘in the zone’ to complete things and once I stop, I almost never get round to starting again. It used to be fine because I didn’t have other commitments so if I wanted to stay up all night to keep working on something, I could. Now it’s not possible and it feels like I never get anything finished.
Hev said:
On 10 Jul at 8:17 pm
Jem, I think you will do fine in your studies. It is just a matter of will power. Are you tell me that you don’t have enough will power to get that certificate? Ha, not you Jem. Not the all know “better then you” Jem. Never! You can do it. From one “tell it like it is” woman to another. You can do it!
Stephanie said:
On 10 Jul at 8:25 pm
For me, it depends on the thing. As a high school student, I’ve been focusing on long-terms courses for years. As for extracurriculars, only music and web design and basketball to an extent have gotten me to stay in it. But since you probably already know much of the content needed for the certificate, the course may be but something very fleeting in your day.
Mari said:
On 10 Jul at 8:32 pm
My problem isn’t so much a short attention span, but that I don’t want things to take long to finish. I don’t want to get a novel published later, I want to get one published now, even though that’s completely far-fetched considering I haven’t even written a novel yet and most people don’t publish novels written by 12 year olds. Also, I’m a procrastinator and I get distracted easily, so I couldn’t just sit down and get something done without getting sidetracked by something like a good book or an interesting website. I just type up a list of stuff I need to get done and move down the list. However, sometimes I don’t really feel like doing one of them so I skip it for the time being and move to the next one. Things I want to finish really depend on what mood I’m in, like a writing mood, a work on my site mood, etc.
Rachael said:
On 10 Jul at 8:42 pm
I tend to have several lists in my head… * things I should do * things I want to do * things I actually should do pretty soon * things I want to do but probably never will * things I’ve started and should probably finish * things I forgot Each list has different things on it. List number four is unfortunately the longest…
Julie said:
On 10 Jul at 8:46 pm
Are you saying that we can FINISH the things we start? Wow! I tend not to finish any of my projects. They will linger on and on…I’m mostly referring to my texts. I have plenty of started works on my computer, and I never have the will to finish them. I have to work very hard to advance the novel I’m in the process of writing…
Katy said:
On 10 Jul at 8:49 pm
I’ve decided that things work out a lot better when I stop wasting time thinking and just get on and do it :) not really an attention span thing, just a case of staying interested and motivated I think. Quite how this is going to work with deadlines and stuff I don’t know though, heh. I’m far too good at leaving everything to the last minute…
Meli said:
On 10 Jul at 8:59 pm
I’m the same exact way. If I need a new layout for a site, I usually want to do it in a day, from mock-up to live version. If I don’t finish it, I have a hard time picking it up the next day. I think it has something to do with excitement level, to a point. That, and I tend to procrastinate, so something that should have only taken one day will take me three months, because I didn’t finish it that first day and… well, dad-gum, I don’t feel like picking it up today. I’ll leave it for tomorrow… and tomorrow… and the next day…
Han said:
On 10 Jul at 9:17 pm
I have the attention span of a gnat! Its terrible! I can’t sit down and work on something, except layouts for some odd reason.
Dave said:
On 10 Jul at 10:01 pm
I’ll warn you, Jem, It’s only going to get harder doing that course, especially the first 3-4 parts simply because they’re so easy that it’s hard to concentrate on them. If at all possible do 2-3 at the same time and put lots of time into them just to get it out the way. One other thing you’ll notice about these courses is that they are mostly theory/written. It’s rare that you get to do much practical and personally that makes it all the more boring and harder to concentrate on. I’m much happier writing code than working out how to stop freakin’ word messing indenting up.
Daz said:
On 10 Jul at 10:15 pm
I have a pathetic attention span. Lately at work I’ve had some small projects – lasting from about a day to a week, I’ve done these with full attention. But the longer ones – like six-weekers etc are “suffering” – I’ve got about 80% though them but just don’t have the motivation to finish / get back into them. Hmm. Ditto with personal projects. Last week I was loving redoing my site – stopped for the weekend and havent got back into it. Hmmmm.
Stephen said:
On 10 Jul at 10:26 pm
I think you’re just human. When you start a project, it’s all new and exciting and you get to be creative and it’s fun; but once the creative part is over then it starts to become less exciting and eventually ends up being a chore to finish up the minutiae. I always think I “work well under pressure”, but it’s really just that I can’t face the boring bit until some deadline forces me to do so. I once had a boss who said “when 90% of the project is done, there’s just 90% left to do” and he’s entirely right… it takes just as much time to finish that last 10% as the first 90, and it’s a lot less fun.