Are you the type of person who wakes up in the middle of the night with “another awesome idea”, and then can’t get back to sleep for hours while your brain spins around like an excited toddler after a sugar-binge?
Have you ever completely (or at least partially) lost interest in something you were really (REALLY) excited about initially, because you’ve come up with an idea that is better/newer/more covered in glitter?
Do your friends/partner roll their eyes or even audibly groan when you start a sentence with “So, I had this idea….”
Then my friend it sounds to me like you have a severe case of Shiny New Object (or project) Syndrome.
It’s a surprisingly common condition that seems to plague the small-business owning and blogging community. And while there is no known cure, there are steps you can take to manage your inner Magpie.
First things first, you need to come to the realisation that half-starting 100 different ideas is never going to make you the success you know you want to be. It just won’t!
Being the type of person who can come up with (mostly) brilliant ideas over and over is a real gift, but it’s one that is completely wasted if you don’t give those ideas the time and attention they need to live up to their initial potential (aka why you were so excited about them in the first place).
It would be like Ian Thorpe deciding after only a few weeks of swim training that he also quite liked the idea of playing polo, and then ballet, and then learning how to create mirror murals.
Imagine the waste (unless of course Ian turned out to be even more gifted at mirror muraling, but with hands that size, I highly doubt it!)
You know it’s true!
Then once you have had that little “A-ha!” moment (it’s OK, I can wait), you need to create a system for capturing, evaluating and then scheduling (I know… I know, but you want to do it all now… well you can’t and you shouldn’t so pipe down!) all those awesome ideas you keep having so you can actually make them happen!
Magpie training
So it’s time to start getting in the habit of saying “Not right now” to yourself, and knowing that it is OK.
Now of course you don’t want to ever forget a million dollar idea, or even a $500 idea, so why not create an ideas folder in Google Drive, or Evernote, and start creating documents for each gleaming new brain gem you come up with. Put the name of the idea up the top, and then do a big brain dump onto the page of everything your hyperactive noggin is coming up with about it.
Get it all out. Come back to it later if you need to as well.
Then save and walk away (well until your current project is done).
You will be amazed at how much easier it is to stay focused on your current goal when you know that your next-big-thing is saved away somewhere safe ready for you when need it.
Those who fail to plan….
The next thing you want to do is to almost treat that shiny new project like a reward, one that you only get once your current project is signed, sealed and delivered.
And you don’t want this to me some “when I get around to it..” non-concrete thing. Grab your diary, and the to-do list for your current assignment and figure out exactly how much longer it’s going to take you do get everything done for that. Then allow yourself a small buffer and at least a two week break (your adrenal glands and your family will thank you for it), and THEN schedule in your start date for project next.
It’s as simple as that!
You’ll also be amazed the difference it can make to come back to an idea after you’ve had more time to process it. It is quite possible that idea might not actually be as exciting, as do-able, or as aligned with what you want to do, as you first thought, and you’ll be so, so glad that you didn’t ditch you last project prematurely, just because something younger and shinier crossed your path.
Or perhaps you’ll have even more new ideas for how to make it even better – how could you not, you are an ideas person, that is what you do!
