Lists matter

I’m good at starting projects. Finishing them is where my process gets a bit theoretical.

A pattern of failure

Over the years, I’ve started several ambitious projects, mostly coding-related. I start with an idea. Then I try to solve every problem it might ever have. Eventually, I’ve thought of so many reasons it won’t work that I don’t have to build it anymore. Very efficient. Nothing gets finished, but at least I’ve saved myself the trouble of finding out.

The thing is, I don’t know whether those ideas would work. And I’ve seen people succeed with ideas I also had. It’s hard to keep blaming the idea when my main contribution has been deciding not to finish it.

What changed

Then I read how David Goggins broke the pull-up world record by doing more than 4,000 pull-ups in 24 hours. What stuck with me was the change in perspective: “do the math,” as he calls it. Instead of staring at the whole number, break it into manageable sets.

For a rough illustration, 14 pull-ups every five minutes would add up to 4,032 over 24 hours. Still a deeply unpleasant way to spend a day. But now I can picture the next five minutes, instead of giving up at the sight of the total.

Apparently, I’d been trying to finish the entire project in my head before doing the next ten minutes of work.

I’ve been trying that smaller focus with running. In the past two months, I’ve run more than in the rest of my life combined. Turns out I enjoy pushing myself and getting better when I’m not busy talking myself out of starting.

The list

Yesterday evening, I wondered: what can I do a thousand of?

This morning, I started doing sets of 25 push-ups to see how many I can do in a day. I got 17 sets in before lunch. That’s 425 push-ups. Twenty-five at a time doesn’t look like much. The total looks rather different.

Seeing the workout log kept by Goggins and Itzler made me want one of my own. That’s what I want the list for: proof that the small stuff adds up, even when each set doesn’t feel particularly impressive.

Whether this helps me finish my coding projects remains to be seen. I still need to finish things that aren’t sets of push-ups. But I want to see whether this habit carries over: less thinking about the entire thing, more doing the next bit.

So, starting today, I’m keeping track in a list.

Now I’m back from lunch, so I gotta go back on the floor.

Pray for my arms - I bet I won’t be able to wipe my butt tomorrow.