Finishing the task: the last 5-10%

marcitko

Hello everyone,

I have been noticing for many years now that I have trouble finishing a job - the last 5-10% of it. I will frequently (not always) stop and postpone or experience discomfort as if the last 10% is as difficult as, say, the previous 40%. This then results in either anxiety (if I postpone) or tiredness (if I expend too much psychological energy).

This could be while running, washing dishes, tapering off smoking, a work-task, meditating, anything really.

While running, my cousin makes a point of going maximum effort in the last stretch. Is this a good way (in all contexts)?

Do you experience this phenomenon? Any sage advice on how to make finishing tasks easier?

Thanks!

Jeroen

To be honest, I’m better at starting tasks than at finishing them. But I have been good in the past at finishing things if there was a good structure in place, like a task-tracking system. So that’s one thing I would recommend, making a checklist with a time estimate for how long each task is supposed to take, and then checking things off.

The thing I find most difficult is open-ended tasks, where things have to meet a certain quality bar and you have to determine yourself what the quality level should be like for a given piece of work.

Bunks

@marcitko said:
Hello everyone,

I have been noticing for many years now that I have trouble finishing a job - the last 5-10% of it. I will frequently (not always) stop and postpone or experience discomfort as if the last 10% is as difficult as, say, the previous 40%. This then results in either anxiety (if I postpone) or tiredness (if I expend too much psychological energy).

This could be while running, washing dishes, tapering off smoking, a work-task, meditating, anything really.

While running, my cousin makes a point of going maximum effort in the last stretch. Is this a good way (in all contexts)?

Do you experience this phenomenon? Any sage advice on how to make finishing tasks easier?

Thanks!

I never finish books or movies. And sometimes when I’m posting online I’ll just…

how

When a task to be done is chosen, the manner in which we relate to it, often reflects the conditioned behaviors of our ego's storyline.

One way to lessen such machinations is to place just enough attention on the present moment of one's task, that the conditioning related to our identities stake in the task no longer dominates how we do it.

Here, a potentially hurried or procrastinating mentality over the completion of a task gives way to a single mind/body addressing of the task in each moment, where a task's finish
can occur on its own without our ego getting unnecessarily enabled in the process.

person

I have an experience similar to @Jeroen and find that putting things on a list to be done helps me finish them, or even get to them. Something about the simple reward of ticking a box seems to help.