How to become a great finisher
blogs.hbr.org
blogs.hbr.org
Instead, I've found that the only way to make progress on a serious long-term goal is to focus on "What can I do now?" It's completely present-oriented, neither past nor future. I forget about everything I've done and forget about everything I'm going to do, and think about only what I'm about to accomplish in the next couple hours.
I started a 20% project with the express purpose of training myself to finish large, far-off, independent goals with a minimum of stress, because all my previous projects have hit the wall of "This is too big, I can't ever finish this on my own". When I started, I set the rule for myself: I wouldn't be bound by deadlines or obsess over the "right" way to do things, I'd only care that every time I had some free time, I'd make a little progress on it. It seems to have worked so far, as it's been a lot more fun on a project that's been intrinsically more boring than many past projects.
If my list ever gets too long from all the things I think I should do, I just cross off things that aren't important. It keeps me focused on actionable things that will make a real difference.
Stop thinking about completion, and start thinking about milestones (waypoints, checkpoints, revisions, whatever). A popular startup mantra is release early and often; another popular startup technique is to release unfinished.
I say we need to stop thinking about what's been done, and also stop thinking about what needs to be accomplished before we are finished. Think about what needs to be completed for the next checkpoint.
In the ever-popular race metaphor: Put your right foot in front of your left, then put your left foot in front of your right. Congratulations, you made it one step further. Tell everyone what you accomplished, then take the next step.
Using this concept, the hard part becomes determining what exactly constitutes a step. This is no small task, but it seems easier to deal with than constant concern about 'finishing'.
Let's extend the article's advice. Suppose, for the sake of argument, your minions do work harder when you remind them how much they have to do and how little time to do it. It follows that they'll work harder still if you mislead them about how much time they have left, and set an artificial deadline.
Now, class, pick up Peopleware, and turn to page 1.
Instead, I find that getting it 'working' with the minimum features, then adding more and more provides that sense of accomplishment while motivating me to continue making it better.
A lot of people will say 'Of course!' but once upon a time I didn't work like that. I would plan it all from the start and you couldn't do ANYTHING with it until it was almost completely done.
Now, I just plan broadly enough to make sure I'm not preventing any needed feature, and then work on making it work as quickly as possible.
You are focusing on the time left. IMHO, This is not what the article recommends. You should focus on the tasks left.
Nearly everyone would say to focus on the first type of statement and not the second, but this article seems to contradict that. I'm sure the amount of magnitude of the negativity would play a role as well.
However, dieting is a different animal. You aren't building something. You don't have hands-on control of the situation. The best you can do is alter some metadata and hope the right outcome occurs. Less food, more exercise... You can't actually say 'If I jog for 10 more minutes, I'll lose .2 lbs." It just isn't measurable like that.
As far as focussing on positivity or negativity, most everyone will say think positive, because they want to be encouraging and not seem/feel mean. For yourself though, you need to discover how motivation works for you. There are definitely people who are driven by the things they hate, or at least an emphasis on what needs improvement.