It's Kelsey Jones' turn in the hot seat as Casey Markee fills in as host for this week's StoryShout episode. Kelsey discusses the struggle to finish projects, especially creative ones (which dovetails nicely with last week's episode with Jon Henshaw!). Casey and Kelsey discuss finishing craft projects, getting sidetracked, and learning when to walk away instead of forcing yourself to finish something.
To learn more about StoryShout podcast advertising opportunities and guest openings, visit us at StoryShout.co
And don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.
You can also connect with @StoryShout on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Kelsey is @wonderwall7 on Twitter.
It's Kelsey Jones' turn in the hot seat as Casey Markee fills in as host for this week's StoryShout episode. Kelsey discusses the struggle to finish projects, especially creative ones (which dovetails nicely with last week's episode with Jon Henshaw!). Casey and Kelsey discuss finishing craft projects, getting sidetracked, and learning when to walk away instead of forcing yourself to finish something.
To learn more about StoryShout podcast advertising opportunities and guest openings, visit us at StoryShout.co
And don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.
You can also connect with @StoryShout on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Kelsey is @wonderwall7 on Twitter.
You're listening to the story shout podcast hosted by Kelsey Jones. We're a weekly podcast dedicated to destigmatizing failure and laughing at our normalcy. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Hi, everyone, welcome to this new episode of story shout, you may be thinking, is that Kelsey? Does she have a cold? No, it is not. My name is Casey Marquis. I have known Kelsey for years. We are very good friends, she is a fellow Kansans. So clearly, we know she's good people, she was kind enough to ask me to kind of flip the script around, and we're going to interview her on what she is terrible at today. And the topic of that is, Kelsey Jones sucks at finishing projects. I know, this is something most of us struggle with. So we're gonna get into that today. So on this note, let's talk to our guests today. Introduce yourself Kelsey Jones, for joining us today. Hi, Casey, thank you so much for having me. And for hosting me. Oh, absolutely. Any excuse for me to get out of washing the dishes, because that's currently what I should be doing. Or anything like that is good. And your podcast has been fantastic. You've had some great guests on it. You've had some very good attention from the podcast. I'm excited to participate. But I think everyone has questions. You know, what does you what again, what do you provide with regards to value to the audience here? And what do you suck at and you said it was finishing projects. So let's dive right into that. Tell me a little bit about generally what you mean by you suck at finishing projects. So I'm a really creative person. And so whenever I have a new idea for something, whether it be at home or workwise, I dive in headfirst, I'm researching, I'm buying domains, if it's like a craft project, I'm buying all the projects, or all the supplies that are needed for that. And then I started I'm you know, going all in, and I just kind of lose steam, and things end up undone and it drives me nuts. Because a lot of times, you know, the final, you know, quarter 25% of a project and I just don't finish it. And is this both? When you talk about the socket finishing project, these are both personal and professional projects. Is that right? Or is there a differentiation there? Can you give us an example of one of each specifically over the last couple of weeks or months? Yes, so personal. There's a lot it's usually craft projects. So right now, I'm making this wreath out of felt and you like cut the felt pieces, all these different colors, and you cut them a certain way and then put them on the wreath form. And that's like 60% done and it's been sitting 60% done on our dining room table for months. My My poor husband bless him has not said a word about it. Because he knows that I'll get like mad and this wreath was supposed to be I assume holiday specific. Right? So it was supposed to be were you trying to get it done for the holidays? Are you just deciding you know what reads can be good for every holiday? So whichever, whenever I get it done, we're good. Right? It's gonna be for the holiday. That's right after when I get it done because it's rainbow color. Okay, so we can make it work for anything, you know, Easter's coming up. So you got some time. Right, there you go. St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, you're good to go. We could just celebrate it on your birthday. And have your own birthday reads right. There's a rolling, rolling deadline. Fantastic. So what about professional projects? Oh, the worst time at is I'll think of ideas for new websites and I'll start them and then never follow through like to I'm thinking of is I love nachos. And I know you're a fellow food lover very much so your passion is is bacon mine is nachos. And so I created this blog to rate nachos like around the world or like I used to travel a lot I know you did to like before COVID. So anywhere I go, whether it's in the States or wherever I would have nachos and I thought I could review them like in Ireland. I got nachos that were Doritos as the base and it was like changing champ right? Oh my goodness. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, I'm gonna do that today. There you go. It was so good. And so that's an example of like, I got the domain I even got the website up I got a post up nothing else. Do you want to share the domain or do you want to not want to keep that secret? I think it was Nacho baby. I think it's expired now. Love it. So there you go, folks, your chance to jump on jump on this fantastic money making ideas. You could be the next.com millionaire if you take advantage of Chelsea's dropped ideas here. Yeah, do my, my expired domain. How about another one? You can think of anything else professionally that you've done recently? Or maybe it's something that you struggle with on a daily basis. So professionally, what projects that I really struggle with are ones where I don't have a set deadline by someone else. Like, for instance, this one thing I'm working on is this report in Data Studio. And there's no set deadline for it. So I just work on it when I have the inspiration. Well, you know, I before Kyler Patterson, who's someone who used to work at Hostgator, and I used to know him at Search Engine Journal, he coincidently works with me now. And so he helped me learn Data Studio, so it wasn't as intimidating. But before that, I just kept putting it off, because I was so intimidated by it. And I think, I think there's two reasons why I don't finish things. Either. I kind of lose steam, and it seems I just lose interest, or I feel intimidated and what right, what is the same with both of those is I feel overwhelmed. Like with the wreath project, there's probably like 100 more pieces of felt I have to cut. So that seems overwhelming to me. Like, if I jumped into it, it wouldn't be intimidating anymore, but just thinking about that it would. And the data studios the same thing. Like once he actually walked me through it, I was like, Oh, this is so easy. Like I could do this. But it took literally months of me moving out the deadline, procrastinating, like doing one thing, and then thinking I was good for the week, I didn't need to work on it again. So I think it comes from feeling overwhelmed, especially if I feel intimidated or I'm not sure how to finish something. Gotcha. And that's again, that's extremely common. I have been meaning to clean our mudroom up for a long time. And I'll just go in there and move like one thing around and consider that cook done for the day. Yeah, like you did progress on it. Yeah, there's progress on it's all good. Great. I totally get that. I totally get that. What do you think, you know, you always hear people people are great at giving advice, but they're not good at taking it. What would you tell yourself to maybe better dial in these, this inability to finish projects sometime? You mentioned one really cool takeaway, which is splitting up into smaller tasks? Is something that you're poor at or something that you're trying to working on improving? Or how do you think that would go? You know, actually, I'm going to tell you advice that maybe you weren't expecting, and I'm gonna say you need to know when to quit. So the nacho baby thing, I'm like, I just need to drop it. Like obviously, I don't care enough about it to finish it. Right. Okay, I just let let the domain I let it go. Let that ship sail off into the sea. Hopefully someone else will take it on. And so I think that's part of it is like knowing when it's okay to stop, like, even last this weekend, I was looking at how to crochet, I know how to knit but I don't know how to crochet. So I was gonna buy this starter kit and I stopped myself, I'm like, No, you're going to learn how to do a chain, which is just like one straight line of stitches, and you're not going to finish it. And so I was honest with myself, and just didn't buy the kit. So I want to learn how to do all these things. But I need to also know like, When am I really going to finish it or actually keep up with it versus is this just like a passing interest I have. And I noticed on your stream on your Twitter stream and for those of you on the call, I definitely urge you to follow Kelsey on Twitter her I believe she can be reached at at Wonderwall seven. So that's w o n B E R W A L L seven that's how you'll find her on Twitter. But she has an incredible it's fantastic and very funny stream of consciousness ramblings, thank you on her Twitter and I noticed one of those specifically was on your your recent experience in putting together micro toys and kinder eggs. And I know that can be a little frustrating. With regards to finishing projects. I'll be a little bit about that. Oh my God, you have no idea. I don't your kids are probably too old to do the Kinder eggs. But that is correct. I have teenagers and they are at many times much worse. Then I believe you're still in the toddler. toddler. Right, right. Yeah. My son's almost four. So he likes the Kinder eggs. And in the US. It's not like the Europe where the chocolate egg and there's something in it. I think Kinder eggs were outlawed in the US for a long time because they thought Americans would just eat the toys, which makes sense. I don't doubt it. You know, I don't would not put it past us. Oh, this is delicious. Oh, that was a little chewy. Oh, isn't that Hey, you didn't say that? We can't eat that. Right? See you. So as it was so now in America, the eggs are like plastic and one side is like this chocolate filling you can eat. And the other side are these like toys from home where it's like a little eagle and they're six, six different parts and I put a picture of it on my Twitter. And you look at it and you're like, oh, I can do this. I don't need the instructions. And it never fits together like you want and it's like smaller than the palm of your hand. So even if you do figure it out, you know giving that to a toddler like an hour later. Are it's it's broken again. And it's just, it is maddening. So with not finishing those, I just pray that he loses interest. And I don't have to fix them again. Because it and they all of them, like for the eagle the wings move. It's not like you can super glue them together, right? I think that that's another thing with like finishing things or not if I feel frustrated, like I have to think is it worth my time to keep working on this? Or should I just like, let it go, you know, that's another like sign to me that I need to maybe let it go. So maybe the next time my son sees a Kinder egg at the gas station, I need to point him towards something else. And just spare myself. You know, I think we should throw your husband under the bus here. What is Harrison doing to help you here with this stuff? Is he not taking over the kinder to Kinder issues. So there was a car so he got to Kinder eggs for Valentine's Day, my fault, my fault, I forgot about the toys. So one was the eagle and then one was this little truck. And I put it together forever. And I couldn't figure out the black part. I give it to Harrison to figure it out. It was so rewarding when he could also not figure it because he has like more of an engineer mind. So I'm like, I'm gonna give this to him. And he's gonna just put it together. So when he couldn't I felt smarter than how I was feeling before because I feel so stupid, right? Yeah, gotcha. Put these little things together. I'm like, I got an MBA last year like I'm not stupid, and I cannot for the life of me can. That's what also makes it so frustrating. Like, when you feel stuck at something you're like, am I you start to second guess yourself like, Am I stupid? Like why? Why is this so hard for me, but it seems easier for other people so. So when he fails at the Kinder eggs as well, honestly, that that kind of is more helpful than him fixing it. Well, that is great. You can fill together fill up words. That's what we always say, Oh, good. Yeah. And that's great. Now, besides the marker toys and the Kinder eggs, I know that you've also been an advocate of Wordle, too, is that right? You've been a big role player, you have a big I'm literally like one of only 11 people in the entire United States that has not done work at once. I just don't have the time. So let's talk about that. Because that requires you just to log in every day and do it. Are you finishing that project? No, I don't do Wordle every day, I have to be at a good mental place because I get really mad if I don't guess it Gotcha. Because like my degree was English Literature and Creative Writing at K State. I like I should get Wordle every time. I mean, I tell myself this, I think that's the other thing is I like set these super high goals for myself that maybe aren't even achievable. Like that's totally reasonable to not get Wordle every day, but literally it is yeah, I don't even feel like doing it. I'm going to fail. And there's other word games that I hate because I struggle with it, which is so stupid. But like, in my brain, I'm like, Look, if I can't be good at something, why am I even doing it? And that's like, not the right perspective to have but like crossword puzzles don't like it. Word Search. I like it. And then like word jumbles, I'm okay. And I think Wordle is kind of a word jumble. Yes, absolutely. And I know lately, this, this episode won't go out for like a month or so. But lately, a lot of people have been pissed because we're gonna move to the New York Times. And they say that the words have been harder. And I agree with that. And people on Twitter, were trying to say no, that's just confirmation bias. Like it just seems harder. But there was one word. What was it? It was like Kritik. That's six words. But it was like something where you would never use it. Tacit ta see it. That was one and I got it. Right. And I could not believe I got that. Right. But I was thinking, who uses the word tacit in every day? You just don't know how many people right. So yes, we're all good. Good. Call African about world because as you can tell, I'm very fired up about. I don't do it every day, because I think I would just be so mad. Gotcha. They don't get. So I check in with myself in the morning. I'm like, Am I okay to do a wordle today. And some days? I'm okay. And some days I'm like, no, no, this makes me mad. Now. Now, I do know from from personal experience that most people who don't finish projects tend to have too much that they're trying to get done in a regular day. Is there something that you struggle with? Do you need to dial back responsibilities? Maybe that'll allow you to finish more of these projects and suck less at it? You know, that's a really good question. And something I've evaluated like over the last year or so. So for a long time I had so I did freelance work for like 10 years and then I worked full time at a job. And I didn't freelance because the job didn't want me to and I was okay with that. But then I just like I got sick of not having more on my plate. Like, I liked having the variety of freelancing. And it, I think it helps me like stay sharp with what's going on in marketing and sometimes the freelance projects I do I, they use, like, parts of my experience that I don't use my full time job. And so anyway, all of that to say, I think there's a good balance for me, like, I like having a lot of things on my plate, but they need to be the right things. So for right now, you know, any freelance clients I have right now, like, I have them because they're a good fit for me to balance everything else I'm doing. And I, I do have two side projects. Like right now, obviously, this podcast is a side project of mine, the labor of love. And then the other one is I'm building this app. And I talked about that in the episode before this one that's gonna go out. But I, I think I'm, I'm limiting myself to those two projects right now. So if I have another like, big domain idea, or something, I am forcing myself to not act on it. Well, I'm going to tell you that if it says it's if it's a word winner, like, like the nacho site, you need to let me know immediately. Okay, I will, I will find someone to take that to fruition for you guys. Okay, I'm already thinking, oh, man, away a site just on grading nachos. I like it. But it's a time suck waiting to happen. I know. And it could have been great. Could have been huge, could still be huge. There's probably someone on the site, someone watching this right now thinking, Oh, no, there's my retirement right here, I'm gonna have the the leading natural review site in the world done. And I have good ideas all the time, cuz I'm a creative person. And I think it just comes down to knowing which ones like make you excited. I have good ideas all the time. But that doesn't mean I need to act on them. So whenever I do have a new idea, I try to think like, is this gonna fit in with what my priorities are now? And is this something I even have bandwidth to tackle, and if I don't, I let myself write it down. Like I have a notes, you know, Doc, with all these ideas, and I just let it go. Because you really have to prioritize. But it's hard. Like when you see something, especially with crafts and things like that, like, I wish I was more crafty, or I was like passionate about craft. So I think that's why I go down this rabbit hole of the crocheting, like I said, are trying to finish my wreath. But I think that comes back to like, what I was saying, like, being honest with myself and being like, you know, I just I may like those things, but I just don't have the bandwidth to have it be this ongoing project. Like maybe I used to go to these stitch and bitch session, right? Okay, right? Where it was like two hours, and this lady organized it at a bar, and you'd pick a small little. For those of you listening, it's like I'm holding on my hand to be like a circle, a small size embroidery pattern to pattern so you'd have two hours to finish it and you're done. And so then like, you could talk with your friends and enjoy a beer at the bar, like while you're doing your little embroidery. And that was perfect for me. Because I got to be with my friends, we got to, you know, go out, have a drink. And then I had my one project that I finished. So you know, maybe going forward for like crafts and things I need to set it where it's like, in one afternoon with friends, or you know, with my son, it's one project that we planned for a day, instead of me just like feeling inspired and buying a crochet kit online, or just seeing this idea for a wreath on Pinterest, which is how it's been before, do you tend to do a lot of things at once, where I might finish a little here, finish a little here, finish a little here throughout the day, instead of just completing something to fruition. And then just moving on to the next thing. So I think before I used to jump around a ton, and now I forced myself not to do that. Because it just that just works better. When you have a lot on your plate, you have to prioritize each day. And then like, I always there's a book called Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy. And it's really good. But the main point of it is like you eat the frog in the morning, which is like the thing you are not looking forward to the most. And so you do that first. And so I try to do that and like complete it to fruition like you said, or I'll set a timer like this Data Studio project I mentioned. I'll make myself for an hour just work on that. And then I'll go on something else. Like instead of keeping it open on my screen, and maybe in between meetings, I work on it. That doesn't work for me like it never moves forward as much as as it would if I blocked off time. Or my focus of that day is like two things that I just have to get done. And that's interesting because it's different for a lot of people. I tend to have a lot of irons in the fire throughout the day. But I you know, you're aware that I basically do 100% side auditing so I usually try to finish it out. Got it, I'll pull all the polling data on one audit. And while that's running, I'll be finishing or writing up the findings from another audit. So usually, that's how it'll work for me. So I can at least compete complete completely, one or two audits a day. And then a while, while this is all happening, then I'll, I'll set an alarm and I'll you know, get up and move around the house a little bit, or I'll go out in the garage and get on the rower a little bit, or, in many cases is just me returning emails. So I totally get that it would be, I would like to say, I can just sit there, do one thing, and then move on to another thing, but it's usually impossible. As you're aware, when you're an individual consultant working for yourself. It's a nice view, and you're wearing a ton of different hats every day. Yeah, and I think, I don't know if you struggle with this. But I feel like as a creative person, or you know, as a consultant who's self employed, you tend to super focus on one thing, and then you forget to take breaks. Oh, absolutely get to eat. And that'll still happen to me now, where I realized I haven't got up for like, three hours. And my Apple Watch is, you know, begging me to stand up. Yeah, yeah, by fit put is actually my Fitbit has actually asked if I was still alive multiple times during the day. So I get I totally get that. It's, it is something I struggle with. I am very sedentary guy. And so you know, you have to really get up and move around. And yeah, you've hit the nail on the head there for sure. Yeah, so I think being more active, like taking more breaks actually helps me finish things more. Because that mental if I don't take mental breaks, I'm way more likely to burn myself out for the day. And then I can't finish as much is something I've kind of learned. So that's definitely a work in progress for me is to like be proactive about taking breaks, because I'm actually more productive when I take more breaks, surprisingly. And that's a that's extremely good advice. So kind of to kind of as a wrap up here, why don't you spend just a couple of minutes we know, again, Kelsey Jones sucks at finishing projects. But we know that you suck substantially less now because you've self identify that that's a problem. So what active steps are you taking? What would you recommend to other users listening today? Oh, man, I think owning your reality instead of wishing that you are someone you're not. So wishing, like instead of wishing that I was a more crafty person who finished craft projects, just acknowledging that I'm not being realistic about deadlines and what you can complete as like a normal human person who has a life. Like, you know, I read online, there's an article about how, you know, when the 40 hour workweek was designed, it was built for, you know, working men who had someone at home to take care of everything else. And now in this day and age, especially with parents, you know, both parents are working, like, that's just not sustainable for you to expect to have like, all your house stuff done, work full time, have your family plus have these side projects, or like passion projects or hobbies that you want to do. So I think it's definitely a balancing act. And I know that's really cliche. But I think at any given time, like whether that's even daily, or weekly, or even more like hourly, like, depending on how you have to make it like think about what's my one focus for the day, for the day, or the hour, or whatever. And I'm just going to focus on that and then move on to like something else. And all the areas of your life needs are constantly in flux. Like you're not going to be the best partner and the best mother and the best employee at the same time. I think it's it's constantly redistributing what you're focusing on. But you also need to make yourself a priority. I think nowadays, we, especially in America, we tend to frown on like passion projects, or hobbies or doing things just because you enjoy it. And so I definitely don't want myself to lose that or anybody listening to lose that just because you can't finish it. You know, I if I enjoy doing the wreath, then maybe the enjoyment is like, can be finishing for me like the act of doing it itself is enjoyable. So maybe I shouldn't focus so much on the fact that it's not done yet. But instead think about what was really relaxing. You know, the time I take the 10 minutes I took to to work on my reads today. So that's something else that I think really helps is like if they experience and what you're learning or what you're doing is helpful to you in some way either mentally or like furthers your experience, then it's worth doing even though it might not ever get finished. Very, very well said. And on that note, I'd like to again thank Kelsey Jones for interview and allowing me to interview her on this episode of story shout. You all know Kelsey, you can follow her online again on Twitter. Also check her out on her site six stories.com. And as a fellow Kansan, it's always great to talk to you, Kelsey, and I really hope that we can actually get together sometime soon. Preferably in a warm climate, drinking margaritas. So that's circle here. So on that note, thanks everyone for joining us. We'll see you again soon. Thank you and thank you Casey Thank you for listening to the story shout podcast. Don't forget to review us on iTunes and connect with us on social media at story shout, or online at story shout.co. Until next time, stay normal.