Thank you all for your replies. after giving it some thought, I realize that the projects I feel overwhelmed by are most often hindered by surrounding issues. Either I've not planned appropriately before taking a project on, I don't have the right tools/information, etc, or I've hit a snag in the process that throws me off track. It's like I have to put more energy into the preamble in preparing for completion of the task so that the task itself doesn't become overwhelming.
Here's a simple example that may make my rambling clear:
Last week I bought a kitten. I decided he needed a condo or cat tree for scratching and exercise. I did some shopping around and decided that I didn't want to spend what the stores were charging for a cat condo that i could build myself for less than half the sticker price. I ran into some snags: it's too cold to work in my garage (left my vehicle outside in the -30 Celsius and now it won't start), so I had to set up an alternate work area, I ran a bit short on materials when i was doing the cutting (requires a trip to the store), and the job would be easier if I had a different type of saw that i don't want to spend the money on. Thus the partially built condo was sitting in my entryway waiting to be moved to a new workspace that I had to set up in the basement- which also required me re-arranging my storage down there.
I guess it was a classic case of poor planning. That particular project was one that I had in mind when I started this thread. I can see more clearly that better planning and preparation would have kept that project on track. It doesn't help that my habit is to waste time (TV/online/reading) as opposed to dealing with the problem. The issue really is multi-faceted and will require a lot of work to break through.  |