I am suffering from Project-0-Phobia

I need any possible advise from you guys. When i see or think of any new ideas in business, i want to get into it and do it. My partner always tells me to concentrate on what i'm doing right now and finish it first but my mind keeps taking me away , i hope you guys get the idea about my problem.. so any advise would be helpful.

thanks all

New ideas are always good! I'm always putting projects down for a temp basis to work on new things.. keeps the juices flowing.. My suggestion would be to simply work on things one at a time, do a little bit on each thing, that way nothing gets neglected, and you can work on your new stuff

thats true however the problem then is that nothing gets completed

When you decide to embark on any idea.

You may read the following book.

Bonnie Nardi. A Small Matter of Programming: Perspectives on End User Computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993

I can totally relate. I love "starting" new projects. It's the thinking that's required upfront that I find really stimulating. But there is only so much time in the day. So while I like to work on a 4-5 projects at a time, before taking on one more, I *try* to finish one off.

Its simple. I carry a notepad around with me all the time. If I have an idea I write it down. There have been times when I've even left myself a voicemail because I did not have a notepad.

The notepad is always clean the next day because I make sure to type my notes into notepad or word and save them in a folder called "IDEAS". I keep this in the "My Documents" folder which is backed up once a week at least.

The cool part about typing them in is that you get to look over the idea one more time before commiting to it. 50% of the time you can catch a BS idea and toss it into another folder. I call that folder "IDEAS/BS"

The idea here is that you really never lose your idea and if you find a way to improve on a BS idea later you can access it easily.

There is no way you are going to get anything done and well if you do too many things at once. I set MS Outlook to remind me further investigate ideas on a project.

Once I have commited to the project I pretty much manage it on paper.

I've worked a few projects out of MS Project but I am still not as comfortable with it as I'd like to be. I hear there are some good alternatives but I haven't played with those at all. Any suggestions/experience anyone want to share?

iahmed : thanks for the suggestion , i'll look for the book and read some reviews on amazon first.

aspnewbie : ya getting more projects does work for people who dont mind working under pressure. i might be one of them too

laidback : i really miss carrying a notepad. everyday i plan to go to our bookstore and get some small notepads that can be carried in a pocket but then i forget . its a very nice idea. sometimes i can add small details about a project every other day and then end up writing a full sketch of it just ready to be typed on a PC. a very good friend of mine also suggested that earlier..

*heading to the bookstore before going to work to get some notepads*

thanks all!

sorry about the late reply, a research paper deadline was due yesterday (July 1) and i ended up submitting the final draft at 11:58 pm . talk about submitting ahead of time

I can relate to this. I always have so many ideas, and I like to explore them all, and research them to determine if they are worth pursuing. I find this to be very exciting. I also have a few developers working under me these days, so I am fortunate enough to be able to explore these ideas more than some others.

I always keep my ideas on a notepad, but recently i have moved them to a pocket pc.

Over the past few years I have realized that I need to focus on my work and optimize my time in the best manner. The more I do this, the better my projects are, and I get better projects as a result. In the long run, this seems to give me more time to explore other ideas.

I am very much into planning out project schedules and what needs to be accomplished. I also try to plan time to explore my other ideas as well.

It is very important to get things done, especially when starting out. It is also very important. It is also very important to figure out how to maximize your time in a strategic way.

I'm still working on all of this.....but I have implemented some planning techniques that have helped out a lot lately. Most importantly I have realized I need to SLOW down and FOCUS... I am always going to have ideas, I need to focus on a few and get them done, and hopefully they will work out well, so I can tackle more, and realize that there will always be more ideas later.