Escaping the graveyard of abandoned ideas

The art of finishing what you start, with small wins, steady progress, and maybe a dance party for one.

You know that feeling of being filled with fizzy energy? Of bubbling excitement and untamed enthusiasm? It’s the feeling you get when you think of an exciting new project or idea, driven by dopamine and shiny new project syndrome.

In that initial rush, you buy a new journal, maybe even a new pen or some fancy fountain pen ink. Or perhaps you spend an entire day happily setting up the perfect Notion database.

You begin your shiny new project with a bounce in your step and romantic daydreams of what the end result will look like.

But a few days in, it all comes skidding to a halt. Your journal gathers dust in the corner, your shiny Notion space gets relegated to the database graveyard, and that fizzy feeling goes…well, flat.

Until you see the sparkle of a new idea from the corner of your eye and go on a fresh new chase.

Maybe it’s just my butterfly brain, or maybe it’s the goldfish-like attention spans we’ve all got now, but I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only one with a sad hoard of barely filled journals and Notion databases gathering dust.

So what are we to do with these graveyards of forgotten ideas?

Well, some ideas die a natural death, and that’s ok. But most times, we want the satisfaction of a completed project, to see our ideas brought to life.

The trick is to set small, boring goals. To remember that boredom is inevitable. And to train our brains to show up anyway. But before all that…

Draw the finish line before you start to sprint

All those abandoned ideas and projects probably tie back to a common problem — fuzzy goals.

“Make more art” or “Write the next great American novel” sound good on paper, but what do they mean on a random Wednesday?

Get clear on your goals — know exactly what to do and by when. Instead of “make more art,” try “finish 3 art journal spreads this week”. Instead of “write a book,” set a goal like “finish chapter one by the end of the month.”

Having a concrete and measurable finish line gives you clarity, which helps you turn your inspiration into action. It saves you from decision fatigue and gives you something you can actually complete, which means you’re far more likely to keep going.

And for projects that never really end (e.g., fitness, learning), set milestones instead. “Done = 15, 15-minute workouts a month.” Then reset.

Now that you have your finish line in sight, here’s your starter pack for keeping the momentum alive!

Tiny steps = big wins

Instead of visions of a completed magnum opus, set small, achievable goals. Not “write the next bestselling novel,” but write 200 words a day. Not “create a body of work,” but paint for 10 minutes every day.

These micro goals may seem laughably tiny, but they’re the small steps that move you past the boredom and eventually stack up into finished projects.

Trick your brain

Checklists, color-coded habit trackers, gold stars — these are just a few ways to track your progress. Tracking matters, because our brains are sneaky. They’ll ignore our progress and play up our failures.

But when you can see your tracker and look at the progress you’ve made, you can counter your brain gremlins more effectively. And maybe, that color-coded tracker or satisfyingly crossed-off checklist will give you the momentum you need when you feel your enthusiasm flagging.

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Phone a friend

Tell a friend or share updates on your project online. Progress suddenly feels less optional when you know there’s someone waiting to hear about your dazzling achievements.

The human mind is wired to keep promises to other people more reliably than the promises we make just to ourselves — most of the time, anyway.

Plus, when you hit the boggy swamp of the middle (a.k.a. boring) phase of your project, an accountability buddy can give you the spark of motivation you need to keep going.

But what if you find the idea of having an accountability partner stifling? I think that happens because of that very wiring — we don’t want to show up having done nothing about our idea week after week, after all! So we try to convince ourselves we don’t like accountability, but that’s just another nasty trick our brain plays on us to save us from what it thinks is the certain embarrassment of abject failure.

If you genuinely find the idea of external pressure exhausting, try weekly journal check-ins, monthly public project updates, or write notes of encouragement to the future-you who has hit the inevitable slump.

Dance party for one

Hype yourself, even for the tiny wins. Don’t run out and buy a fancy notebook just yet, though! Eat a cookie, dance in the living room, pump your fist, blow yourself a kiss in the mirror.

Hyping yourself trains your brain to associate progress with pleasure, which makes it easier for you to keep going. Perhaps more importantly, it reminds you to enjoy the journey itself, so you’re not constantly beating yourself up for not having arrived at the finish line yet!

Remember boredom does not equal failure

Despite the checklists and the accountability buddies and celebrating the tiny wins, at some point, the spark will fade. That is a given.

The project will start to feel like unending, thankless drudgery. You’ll question the soundness of the original idea or wonder if the project was ever worth it. You’ll convince yourself that it’s all too boring, that you’ve lost complete interest in this dumb project, that you’ve straightjacketed yourself with your idea — or spread yourself too thin — and that you don’t want to waste any more of your precious four thousand weeks on this stupid thing anymore, ThankYouVeryMuch.

This happens with every project. Knowing that you will arrive at this place will help you prepare for it better.

If you’ve lined up your micro goals, trackers and checklists, and your buddy, you already have some of the tools you need to carry you through this phase.

Another trick at this time is to reconnect with why you were excited about this project in the first place...to see if you can chase even a tiny frisson of that fizzy feeling once again. And try to lower the friction even more — maybe shrink your tiny goal a smidge, or set your space up in readiness {set out your journal, lay out your paints, keep your running shoes next to the door}, or set a hyper-specific goal for the next day before you go to bed. Doing the prep beforehand makes it harder to talk yourself out of showing up.

Remember, the dip isn’t proof that your idea was bad, it’s just proof that you’re doing the work. And your tiny goals and progress tracking are your trail markers in the fog, reminding you of your forward momentum even on days when it seems like you’re trawling through the sludge.

The fact of the matter is that we all crave the fizzy excitement of new ideas, the intoxication of dopamine flooding our system; but the real magic is in the doing, in sticking to things over the long haul, in the satisfying stack of completed projects.

Clear goals, tiny steps, gold stars, and fist pumps aren’t particularly glamorous or revolutionary, but they help you turn the sparks of ideas into something tangible. Because finishing things, however messy or imperfect they may be, teaches your brain to trust you, teaches your brain tenacity, teaches your brain that you can do hard things, and that you can finish things.

There will always be shiny new ideas winking at you from the corner of your eye. The question is, will you put in the work to build the habits that will help you take those ideas across the finish line?

Let’s chat

I love chatting with you in the comments or via e-mail. Here are a few questions to help us get the conversation rolling.

• What’s the last project to have landed on your graveyard of abandoned ideas, and why did you abandon it?

• Wait, you do have a graveyard of abandoned ideas, right? Right!

• What’s one graveyard project you really want to resurrect?

• If you had to set a finish line for one of your current fuzzy goals or ideas, what would it be?

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