I came up with the idea of a personal finishing challenge last week. Was it only last week? It became clear that our upcoming trip to Europe (beginning in Italy) wasn’t going to happen, and as I laid awake one night, I decided I needed to make those weeks I was planning to be gone different from my usual weeks at home. I am always talking about how I need to purge, and to work on projects that have small bits left to finish. A decision was made to use my time to do that from March 30 to April 30..
Pandemic Inspired Finishing Challenge
Then, as I saw KALs sprouting and people looking for projects to start, I decided to take a different fork in the road, and the Finishing Challenge was born.
Here are the rules, plans, and details as they stand right now. As we will only be training through March 29, things may change a little. If you sign up, all will be communicated to you.
Training For the Finishing Challenge
The most important aspects of training are planning, scheduling, and estimating the time needed to complete your project(s). To that end, here is how I plan to tackle my projects:
Knitting Challenge Projects
Sort: I don’t think I have a lot of unfinished knitting that I’m not working on, but likely I will be surprised! The first step will be to go through all the likely places I will find unfinished projects and make a list. This might include some “plan to knit” projects. Next, list all those projects and give them a priority:
- A – now,
- B – soon,
- C – am I?, and
- F – frog.
Focus: I will focus on A and F projects. Focus means making that list of what needs to be done. If you can, while doing this step, pay attention to any emerging patterns. Do things get put aside when you hit a snag? Because you hate doing the 2nd whatever? Because you saw something new and exciting? Those patterns can give you some clues (which I’ll help you with if you like).
Reality Check: Almost everything takes more time than I plan on, so I recommend being generous. I think somewhere in my head I want the time I think it should take to be reality, but it isn’t. We know, There Are No Shortcuts in Knitting! So be generous. You will only get the amount of JWKBucks we determine is accurate, even if it takes much longer.
Scheduling: This step I might hate more than anything. I see my days get filled so quickly and I have so much planned! Again, this is not the place to stint. If you have limited time, you want to use it to accomplish reasonable goals, not create anxiety and distress due to underestimating.
Sign on for 2 weeks of Training
Go here to sign up. You will get the Slack Link and the Planners I created to help you plan. I’ll post on Slack about what I’m doing, and you can too. We’ll train together for the April Finishing Challenge.
This sounds like the perfect quarantine activity, and I appreciate your thoroughness. I just shared a link to this on my blog also.
Thanks Elizabeth. The more the merrier! I’ve go so many things to finish. One of them is figuring out what I am never going to finish!
That’s as important as finishing! 🙂 I have alot to finish too, as well as trying to get organized. We were so exhausted after our move that I couldn’t stand to deal with one more box after we unpacked the essentials. But it is time to get my studio in order! Thanks for putting this together!
I think it will be fun to have virtual company while doing this!