Focus and motivation

For me, the one thing that kills motivation on big or long-term projects is overwhelm. Knowing that with all the work I've done and all the time I've spent, I'm still not close to getting it all done and there's still a million things to do and what one of them do I focus on?

One way to avoid overwhelm is to get yourself some good ways of organising the project in a way that lets you easily shift your focus from 'macro' (thinking about the whole project) to 'micro' (thinking about particular details).

Do not try and carry the whole project round in your own head.

This might be stuff you already know but here's what works for me...

- Break the project down into logical stages or steps;
- Keep to-do lists for each stage with a way of marking what has and hasn't been done;
- Find ways of prioritising those lists so critical things don't get forgotten and less critical things can be put back (or dumped!);
- Get all that into some sort of timeline so you can see both the 'what' and the 'when' of a project;
- Don't make the organisation system bigger and more complex than the project!

There's tons of ways of doing this - anything from a whiteboard to brainstorm or a place to stick different coloured post-it notes to any of a hundred apps to more hardcore solutions like GANTT charts. The 'Eisenhower Matrix' is a good one for prioritising.

I'm a big fan of the Todoist app - that keeps me on track for everything from managing all the details of big projects to reminding me to take out the garbage each week. 

I hope some of that helps. Good luck!

Many thanks @nas82323!

I will now compile the two suggestions and plan a route of action.

I will now compile the two suggestions and plan a route of action.