OT: Help with motivation

[Chipp Walters]

Hi Tom,

Interesting... Many people have the opposite problem. That is they jump 
into starting projects, but can't figure out how to finish them.

But, I certainly know exactly what you're going through. Many, many 
years ago, I worked for Texas Instruments as an Industrial Designer. Our 
job was to create new products and concepts using technology developed 
by TI. There was this one designer who came in every day at 8AM and 
imediately took out a pencil and drew a line on a page. Then we went and 
got coffee. He said it 'broke' the 'white space' problem many designers 
get when staring at a fresh clean piece of paper. Worked for him. 
Frankly, I never could get beyond anything but expense reports before 10 
AM :-)

Generally, when I can't get going, I tend to think about the creative 
process and try and 'invent' a new way to do something-- and this seems 
to stimulate me. Course, everyone's different. For instance, last night 
I had to put together a bunch of notes for a client...kinda boring 
stuff. I ended up spending the night creating a new web template and 
then loading it up with all the notes. Now it looks 'pretty cool' and 
solved the problem.

I really like Sarah's approach...find a small part of the problem..say 
the printing or the internet connectivity, and work it out first. 
Something which will be 'fun' to do.

Good luck!

-Chipp