Practical Tips for Organizing Your Projects & Stay Motivated to Work on Them | Podcast Episode #79

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Welcome to episode number 79 of the BHooked podcast. Thank you so much for joining me and a big thanks here right at the start to all of you who have left a review and a rating in iTunes. You may not know that, but that really helps the show be found and searched so that other yarn fanatics just like you and I can enjoy the show. It’s also a great motivator for me to continue doing what I do behind the scenes to prepare these episodes. So big thank you to you from the bottom of my heart if you’ve left a review.

If you haven’t left a review for this show, I would encourage you to do that if you have a spare minute or two today. You can get to that very easily by typing in the URL. All right, so today it’s just you and me in another mini workshop type of setting. I love these. It gives me the opportunity to take exactly what you have requested of me through my email, through comments on social, and it allows me to help many people, right? When you get an email come through, you spend the time, you only get to help one person. But having a broadcasting platform like a podcast, I can take those requests and turn it into an episode and potentially help thousands of people. Well, that’s my goal today.

There is one topic that keeps coming up over and over and it flows really well with our theme here in the month of August, which is planning productivity and goal setting. So last week I promised you that I would keep this a little more relatable to those of us who are just doing this as a hobby. Well, that’s my goal today. I want to speak to those of you who maybe don’t have a business at all, don’t care to have a business, but you just want to be able to organize and stay motivated to finish your projects.

Before we get into that, though, I do want to take a quick moment to thank my sponsor, Annie’s. Now you know I’ve been working on Annie’s Block of the Month Club for the past several weeks and you know how much I adore it. I think it’s a great way to really balance a passion project and a busy schedule and not feel the pressures of needing to finish something when you just don’t have the time to do it.

I don’t know about you, but I feel a little bit guilty when I have all of my subscription boxes, my projects, just kind of piling up in the corner. It just makes me a little stressed to know that those are there and they’re waiting and I just don’t have the time for them. Well, this has been a game changer for me because I don’t have to feel that guilt. I’ll get the project in the mail, but it’s just a piece of the project. You just work a few blocks at a time and at the end, you’ll have a gorgeous afghan to show for it.

So if you want to check that out, if you think this is something that can maybe solve a similar problem for you, then head over to annieskitclubs.com slash bhpodcast. That’s B-H-P-O-D-C-A-S-T. Make sure all of that is lowercase. And if you check out the service, please do use that URL. That way Annie’s will know that you heard about it on the show.

Now let’s get down to it. We all need a little help getting through a long project sometimes. Go ahead and raise your hand if you have a really big project that’s been sitting in your closet or in the corner for more than two months. I’m raising my hand here. I have so many projects that I felt really inspired to start, but I just didn’t really have the steam to push through and turn that work in progress to a finished object.

Truth is, we all have some kind of project, the afghan that’s been a work in progress for three years, the scarf you started last summer that would currently only keep your daughter’s teddy bear warm. We all have them hiding in our house, just waiting to become something great. And I want to say right here at the start, don’t feel guilty about that. It’s okay to start a project, and finish it when you finish it. The whole purpose of what we’re doing here is we’re healing ourselves. We’re occupying ourselves. We’re exercising our creative minds.

So perhaps when you started that project, you felt all those things. You were passionate about it. You loved the yarn and you loved the way it felt in your hands. And you had this great vision and you were excited about it. Sometimes that’ll fade. So the first thing we need to do is decide whether or not that work in progress that’s been sitting in the corner or in the closet for several weeks, months, or years, is that project worth finishing?

So when I have a project that has been sitting around for a long time, the first thing I do is ask myself, do I have somebody to give this to? Or will I absolutely wear or use this myself? If the answer to either one of those questions is no, then it goes in the frog pile. And by frog, I don’t mean all of those little hippity-hoppity guys. I mean frogging, when you rip out your project. If you say that over and over a few times, rip it, rip it, kind of sounds like a frog, right? Okay, so that’s where that term came from.

You’ll see it all over the place. I was not clever enough to come up with that term, but I do love to use it because honestly, when I say frog it, sometimes people on, I’ll call the outside, people who aren’t knitters and crocheters look at me like I’m crazy. And I think it’s a little funny to have an inside joke between you and me, people who just love our yarn and love our hooks and needles.

Okay, so ask yourself, do you have somebody you can gift it to? Or will you wear or use it yourself? If the answer is no, put it in the frog pile. That’s okay. That’s one of the great things about our craft. We can recycle and reuse that yarn. So then it can become something that you can gift or that you can wear or use yourself.

Now let’s say… The answer to that question is yes, you do have somebody you can gift it to, or you would wear and use it yourself. So let’s look at that first scenario. If you have somebody to gift it to, let that person be your motivator to finish that project. When you’re making a handmade item for somebody, it’s a very emotional process. We’re very connected to what we’re doing. We’re investing a lot of time, effort, and energy into that thing. And honestly, it’s the pure love that fuels all of that.

Now, I will get into more motivation tactics here in just a moment. But the one that I want to pull out is to think about that person, what they mean to you, and then let that be the fuel to get you through the project.

So let’s say you answered that question and said, yes, I will wear or use this myself. When I’m personally looking for a reason to make something for myself, and I’ll be completely honest and say that I struggle the most here. For whatever reason… I feel less motivated to make something for myself than for others. Or releasing a pattern on the website. Those are all motivators, but they’re not always things that are for me.

But I found this year, and you all have heard about this as I’ve talked about my knit crate and my Annie’s Block of the Month kit clubs, that… I need a passion project. It’s something that I have realized that I need in order to balance my work life and my personal life. But it’s also just great for our sanity, right? To have a project that we can work on, that we can feel inspired by.

And I would say to pull out those little bits to help motivate you through this project especially if you’re having a hard time with the reality that you’re putting this time and effort into something for yourself.

I read a book a few months ago called The Fringe Hours and I learned so much through this book. The author walks you through some ways to save time. It’s sort of like a time management book. But the main thing I pulled from that is the reality that unless we invest a little bit of time in ourself, then we can’t be our best self for everybody else.

It took a book for me to read that and for that to sink in that it’s okay to spend a little bit of time on yourself because when you do, you can truly be your best self for others. Working on a project for yourself is a great way to give yourself the self-care that you need. So use that as a motivator to help you through this big project.

All right, so we have that project that’s in our corner. We’ve decided whether or not it’s going in the frog pile or the finish pile, and we’ve determined whether or not it’s going to be a gift for somebody or a project that’s just for you. Let’s move on to some motivational tactics.

So I have to be totally honest and say that at any given time, I have between 5 and 10 works in progress. That’s nuts, right? That is a ton of work. Some of those works in progress, or those whips as we call them, have been around for months, sometimes a little bit longer.

Honestly, I suffer from what they call squirrel syndrome and I dream up a new project. And as soon as I do, the pure excitement of that just has me drop whatever I’m doing and go to that shiny object. I dream up a new project and I leave the old ones in the dust. It happens to the best of us.

Don’t worry if you feel yourself falling into the same rabbit hole every time you have a new idea come to your mind or you see something really cool on social that you want to make yourself. One of the best ways that we can stay productive through these creative explosions is to keep track of the things that we want to do. Keep track of the projects that we want to make.

So a lot of times what I like to do, if I have an idea that comes to my mind, I immediately take a note. Now you guys know I like to use Evernote, mainly just because I always have my phone nearby and I can of course access that on my computer or whatever device I happen to be on when the idea strikes.

So I have a notebook in Evernote that’s called Ideas. And then within that notebook, are notes and I’ll jot down whatever comes to mind, whether it be a new hat design or maybe even I saw something in a lookbook that I really want to make for somebody else. I’ll keep track of those ideas in that note and that way I don’t have to worry about remembering them.

I’ve learned over the years that I personally cannot trust my memory and so I just write everything down. Another thing you can do, if you find a lot of inspiration on social media, say Instagram or Facebook, you do have the ability to save those posts. I know specifically on Instagram, you can save a post and that will place it in your personal profile. And I don’t believe it’s visible to everybody else. It’s just you. But when you save that, then you can have that for later.

So once you’ve finished your project, you say, okay, now I can work on the next thing. These are two really good ways that you can keep track and organize the projects that’s in your head or maybe even the projects that you have laying around. When you have a running list or some kind of tangible list that you can see, feel, or touch, that is the best way, at least for me, to stay organized and to know that I don’t have to memorize or keep track of all the things that I’ve been inspired by because I know that I have a very forgetful nature and a great idea is going to come and it’s going to leave just as fast as it arrived. I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. And so just write it down.

So now you’re probably wondering, okay, well, I have a plan for this project that’s been sitting in my closet or in my corner for years. I’m working through that. I now know a great way or two ways to keep track of my projects, the ideas that pop into my mind. Well, now you’re probably thinking, okay, so how do I stay motivated to work through these projects? Because honestly, you’re going to continue to have great ideas. You’re probably going to lose steam every now and then and lose the passion behind that project. How do you power through in order to follow through with the things that you’ve started?

Well, I have 13 motivational tactics to get you through a long project, many of which are tactics that I use on a regular basis. That’s one of the biggest questions I get all the time is, Brittany, how on earth do you crochet so much? Well, I do make sure I take care of myself, my hands, my wrists so that I can do that. But I also know how to make myself as productive as I need to be. These are some of the tactics that I follow.

When you’re working on a really large project, something you know is going to take weeks or months to complete, what I like to do is work a small project in between my sessions for that bigger project. So I’m thinking specifically Afghans. Some scarves even can take a really long time if you’re working a large scarf and using a smaller stitch.

Really, what I’ve discovered is that I need a win. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a quick win. I can work for about a week to a week and a half on a project, a big project, before I start to get bored with it. And once I start feeling a little bit of dread towards sitting down and working on that project, that’s when I know you need to take a break and you need to work a quick win project.

Now for me, a quick win project is something that I can finish in a day. So a few hours, one or two evenings that I can sit down and have a finished object, something useful in just a few hours. That can be a hat. It could be a cup cozy. It could be a coaster. It could be a basket. It really just depends on, of course, the yarn and the pattern and all of those things. But I do try to have a little database of quick win projects that I can refer to when I’m feeling those blues, when I feel like I don’t want to sit down and work on my big project.

It’s not that I’m uninspired by the project at that point. It’s really that I just haven’t had the feeling of accomplishment because it’s still in progress. But if I can go to something else, get that same sense of accomplishment, it gives me a break from the stitch pattern that I’m perhaps used to for this big project. And it gives me that sense of accomplishment, that big win that I need.

So tactic number one is to crochet small projects, in between sessions on your bigger project.

All right, moving on to tactic number two, watch TV. Now, sure, it does take a little bit of skill to be able to crochet and watch TV at the same time. And there’s always a running joke for crocheters and knitters that when we’re watching a TV show, we know the characters’ names, we can recognize their voice, but half the time we don’t know what they look like. And that’s because most of the time we’re looking down at our project.

Now, certain patterns will allow you to really pay more attention to what you’re watching on the TV, and some don’t, and that’s just the nature of it. But I still like to have something playing in the background. Typically, what I’ll do is I’ll find a new show that I can watch on Netflix or wherever, stream that to my TV so that I can watch feel a little bit more entertained. And that’s really the bottom line.

When you’re working a project, you’ve been working it for a while, you’re used to the stitch pattern, perhaps you’re bored with the stitch pattern. Sometimes watching television, watching movies or whatever it may be, can give you that entertainment. And then you can just go into autopilot mode. You’re crocheting and you almost don’t even realize you’re doing it.

Now, moving on to tactic number three. Pick another project and switch back and forth. Sometimes we just get to the point where we’re used to the stitch pattern, we’re kind of bored with working the same thing or using the same color or using the same yarn. Well, switching things up a little bit can really help to fuel your motivation to work through that project.

For me, I don’t have a hard time with this at all because a lot of times, like I said, I have five to 10 works in progress going at any given time. So I’ll work a few hours on one, put that one down, pick up another one, work a few hours on that one. A lot of times I have them both right there next to me. I’ll work a few stitches on one, put it down, work a few stitches on the next. And that works really well for me. It even helps with my productivity.

Now, I’m technically splitting that time between two projects, so yes, you could certainly argue that I could work one faster if I didn’t do that, but it gives me that little break in routine and it helps me work on two projects at the same time and potentially finish them around the same time.

All right, tactic number four. Stop to weave in the ends to break up the stitching. We all joke a little bit that we leave the ends, the little tails, for the very last part because we all hate doing it. We all dread it. It’s totally normal. But I would encourage you to try on your next big project, once you feel yourself getting tired or bored or just sort of checking out of whatever project you’re working on, go weave in some of those ends.

A lot of times for me, that gives me the break that I need. It gives my hands a break as well. And then by the time I’m just totally sick of weaving and ends, I’m usually happy to go back to crocheting again.

Okay, moving on to tactic number five, start another project or two. You’re probably seeing a trend here. This goes hand in hand with tactic number one and number three. What I found is for me to be my most productive self and work as many projects and finish them is to have more than one going at the same time because I almost always find myself running out of steam about halfway to three quarters through that project.

So I think it’s perfectly okay for you to start another project or two. As long as you’re keeping track of each of those projects, you’re keeping track of your ideas and you’re keeping yourself in check, then this can be a great way for you to stay motivated to work on bigger projects.

This suggestion has come up time and time again on social in reference to motivation and staying motivated through your project. Start another project or two. Don’t be hard on yourself and say, well, I can’t start another one because I haven’t finished the first one. Well, you might just need to start another project to finish that first one. So give it a try.

Make sure it’s not two big projects or three big projects at once. I find that it’s great to have a little balance. A lot of times I have one big project in the works, one medium project, and those quick win projects. And those fill up my schedule.

All right, now tactic number six. Make dishcloths for a quick finish reset. Many of us can crank out a dishcloth in just an hour or two. So this is an incredibly quick win to reset your mind and to reset your motivation.

All right, tactic number seven, make little things to feel accomplished. And by little things, I mean embellishments. I love to work embellishments, flowers, curlicues, hearts, doesn’t matter what it is, I love to make little tiny things to shake up the mix.

I actually have this little basket in the corner of my studio here that has all of my little bits and pieces of flowers and hearts and different shapes that I’ve played around with in between some of my bigger projects. And what I do with those things is use them for gifts, for cards, packaging or wrapping for Christmas. I like to use yarn and to incorporate those things in it.

And I’ll just attach a flower to it or a heart to it. Or I’ll make a card for somebody for their birthday and I’ll attach a heart to it. Make little tiny embellishments. Make them up too. That’s part of the fun, playing around with the shapes and seeing if you can make it work.

The truth is these things sometimes only take minutes to make, but that shift in perspective from your mundane, perhaps boring, long project that you’re working on, this can spark your creativity once again, light you up, and then you’ll be motivated to work through your big project.

Tactic number eight, go back to your vision for the project before you even started. What was it about that project that made you say, yes, I’m going to go out and buy the yarn and I’m going to make it? When we go back to our original train of thought, our original motivation, that need to see the finished project is so heavy in our minds that we just want to finish it.

Because you can very easily go back to why you started that project, reignite the fire and the passion for that project, and power through to finish it. Talked about this a little bit at the start of the episode. Finding your why. Are you making it for somebody and you’re gifting it to them?

Or is it a self-care project and you’re making it for yourself? Go back to your why and then you’ll find the need to finish it.

Tactic number nine. This is one of my favorites. Listen to music or a podcast. I have a big playlist of podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. A lot of times I will binge on some of these shows. I’ll find a show that’s been in production for several years and I’ll go back to episode number one and I’ll listen to the whole thing and soak up everything that that podcaster is offering.

Now, sometimes that podcast stimulation is just a little bit more than I can handle because squirrel syndrome, right? I’ll learn lots on these podcasts and then I’ll want to go do other things. So I do have to strike a balance between that. When I find my mind just racing and racing and being so excited about anything other than what I’m working on, that’s my cue to go back to Pandora or just listen to music.

I find that it’s really relaxing. It gives me some background noise, gives me some motivation and a sense of calmness, and I can just go to my meditative state of mind and work on my project.

Now we have just a few more left to go. We’re moving into tactic number 10. Plan your next project. In many cases, the planning phase is really what excites us to work through and finish our project. I know that’s definitely the case for me. You know, I am a planner. I plan everything out almost to a fault. That’s just my personality.

But I do know that a lot of us can relate to the excitement that goes into planning something. Think about vacations, right? How fun and exciting is it to plan a vacation or a birthday party or a holiday party? We love to plan things and that gets us excited.

So when you feel yourself losing steam on your current project, give yourself a little time to put it down and start thinking about the next project. Most likely, what’ll happen is when you start getting really excited about that next project, then you’ll want to finish what you’re working on so that you can go do the next thing.

All right, so tactic number 10, plan the next project.

Tactic number 11 is probably something that we’ve all done already. Just take a break from it. That’s probably why that project is in the corner, in the drawer, in the closet, wherever it might be hiding. It’s there because you just needed a break from it.

And I’m here to tell you it is 100% okay to put a project down for a while and come back to it later. I can think of at least five projects right now that I have somewhere in my vicinity that I just need a break from. I know that I’ll come back to them and I know I’ll enjoy it when I do, but I just need a little time. Take a break from working on it.

All right, tactic number 12. Make yourself finish a certain number of rows or skeins before you stop. Now you do have to have a little bit of a flexible schedule in order to do this. It’s definitely easier to work through to set a certain number of rows that you want to work before you stop.

But I find that this is incredibly helpful. Now you’ve seen this tactic in play if you’ve ever heard of the weather afghans. So the idea for this is to work one row of a blanket every single day of the year. And at the end of the year, you’ll have this gorgeous new blanket. And so you’re just working one row a day.

Now, depending on when you wanna have your project finished, you’ll probably need to work more than one row or one round a day. But this is great if you’re working on a deadline and if you know how big the project is going to be.

So perhaps not so relatable for designers, but if you’re following a pattern, you know that there are 65 rows in that pattern, then you can break that down. You’ll say, okay, I have one week to finish this. Well, if you do a simple calculation, that’ll tell you that you need to work about nine rows per day of that pattern and you’ll meet your deadline.

So take a slightly more educated approach to assigning a certain number of rows or skeins to use stop for tactic number 12. I think that you’ll find this tactic can be a game changer for you.

Now, last but certainly not least, tactic number 13, use color transitions to keep your interest. If I had a dollar for every time I changed to a new color and it reinvigorated my desire to work that project, I’d have a lot of dollars. Perhaps I wouldn’t be rich, but this technique, this tactic certainly works for me.

For whatever reason, whenever you change to a new color, it just feels like a new project. Now, if you incorporate a lot of different color transitions to keep your interest, then in theory, you’ll always be inspired to keep working on that project.

Now, here’s another thought, an interesting thought, sort of along the line of those temperature afghans, the ones that you work one row per day in different colors. It would be really fun to make an afghan using color transitions when you feel bored.

So you might work four rows in one color, and then you might go through a period where you’re really on fire for that project, and you might work 14 rows in another color, but then when you transition again, you only have two or three rows. That would be a pretty cool blanket, right?

Now we have covered a lot of ground here. I want to recap those 13 tactics because I know that at least one of these is going to help you power through that project you’re working on right now that you’re just losing the desire to work on.

Number one, crochet small projects in between. Number two, watch TV. Number three, pick another project and switch back and forth. 4. Stop to weave in the ends to break things up a bit. 5. Start another project or two. 6. Make dishcloths in between for a quick reset. 7. Make little things, little embellishments to feel accomplished. 8. Go back to your why. Figure out why you wanted to start that project in the first place and you’ll find the need to finish it.

Number nine, listen to music or a podcast. Number 10, plan the next project. Number 11, just take a break. Number 12, set a certain number of rows or skeins before you can stop. And number 13, use color transitions to keep your interest.

Now I want to wrap up our session here today by saying that we all have our own ways of staying motivated, but sometimes we just need a little help from the outside. We need a different perspective.

My goal for this episode was to share with you all of these tactics so that you might be able to implement even one or two into your routine so that you can power through those big projects that were so important to you at one point that maybe you’re just not feeling it anymore. Well, find that fire and finish your project, my friend.

As we’re moving into the holiday season and the busy season, the maker season, we are going to need to find ways to stay motivated to work through all of these projects. A lot of us crochet more in the winter months than any time in the year, myself included.

On top of working my projects for the website, I’m always working projects for gifts as well. Makers, you’re trying to stock your shop right now. And you’re probably making gifts as well. A lot of people spend time working projects to donate to different charities this time of year.

Whatever your situation may be, you have a lot of projects in your queue and perhaps your motivation is just a little bit lacking. All right, my friend, that is your challenge for this week. Try one of the tactics, implement it, and I hope you will tell me about it over on the show notes page.

You can get to that this week by heading over to BeHookedCrochet.com slash session079. I’ll have all of these tactics spelled out for you so you don’t have to take notes. You don’t have to memorize anything here. We have enough to remember, right?

So head over to the show notes page, find these 13 tactics, and when you try one and you found one that works for you, leave it in the comments section. And if you have a tactic that we haven’t discussed here today, leave that in the comment section as well. We can help each other get through these uninspired times.

The last thing I wanna mention here is don’t forget to check out Annie’s Block of the Month Club. This is another great representation of how you can power through a big project. Just work little chunks at a time.

Well, Annie’s Block of the Month Club will allow you to do just that because they only send you a little piece of the pattern every single month. Head over to annieskitclubs.com slash bhpodcast to learn how you can become a member today and save 50% off your first month subscription. Make sure you use that link so that they will know that I sent you their way, that you heard about the service here on the show.

Thank you so much for your time and attention today. And also again, to those of you who have left a rating and a review in iTunes, It brightens my day to read that and I thank you.

Once again, if you have a moment today and you want to leave a review, go ahead and head over to BeHookedCrochet.com slash iTunes. You can quickly leave a star rating there or if you have that minute or two, you can leave an honest rating or review.

Thank you so much for that. I appreciate you and I can’t wait to serve you in next week’s episode. I’ll see you then. Bye-bye.