When you are faced with a situation where you need to abandon a project for a period of time to make time for another project, don’t go for it.
I was faced with similar situation at the end of January. I wanted to write blog post every day during the month of February. Before that, I used to write blog posts only on Friday and write my private journals everyday. However, I had to stop writing my private journals if I wanted to write a blog post everyday.
It was because it requires time for me to write a blog post and if I waste time writing my private journals, I won’t be able to achieve the goal to write a blog post everyday.
I thought of stopping my private journals to make time for writing blog posts everyday.
They were both different projects. One to write a blog post on Enwil.com daily and another to write my private journals on computer.
So, I stopped writing my private journals, which I have been doing for more than a year to start writing blog posts on February. I had planned to start writing my journals after I completed writing blog posts on February.
February came and went in a flash. I successfully completed writing blog posts everyday. However, I didn’t start writing my private journals after that, which I had planned to.
Hence, I stopped writing private journals to write a blog post everyday on February. Before that, I had habit of writing my private journals everyday. But after I finished writing blog post everyday for February, I didn’t start writing my private journals. It was because I had already broke the chain. It was my habit to write private journals. By not giving consistency to that particular project, I broke my habit.
There’s the problem. I couldn’t start doing it again. It’s because it was my habit. I had made it my habit to write private journals everyday. But I broke the chain. I stopped doing it.
After I finished writing blog post everyday for February, I should have started writing my private journals. But I didn’t.
And now, it’s very difficult for me to come back to my previous habit. I’ll have to start from scratch again.
This especially made me realize that you should never stop doing your work to make time and space for another project. Instead, you should add another project to your already existing workflow. If you need to dedicate lots of time for the new project, then it’s better to keep your previous workflow in maintenance mode.
It’s always better to add new skills to your skill set instead of abandoning your previous skills. If you want to be a programmer and a writer; and you already have a habit of writing well, dont abandon writing to start programming. Take both hand in hand.
First, improve on a skill set and then move on to creating other skill set by keeping your primary skill set on maintenance mode.
Doing that will ensure you have best of both worlds. On one hand, you’ll continue your previous project, and on the other, you will start a new project.
That’s how you should move forward. Or at least, that’s a better approach.