If you’ve got a key project that you’ve chosen to work on yourself rather than finding someone else to do it for you, here’s a question to ask yourself:

“When was the last time I actually made any progress on this?”

(If the answer's today or yesterday, think about the time before that.)

If it's “a week last Thursday”, “Sometime last month” or simply “I can’t remember” then please stop fooling yourself that this is going to get done anytime soon. Or ever.

You need to find someone else to do it or find ways to reduce the impact of all the low-value stuff clogging up your work day and stopping you from completing projects like this.

Most people I talk to need to do both. They simply don’t have the space they need to do projects like this now. Many of them haven’t had that for a long time.

Not that knowing this does anything to stem the frustration and guilt they’re feeling. They know they should be able to get this done. And they're fed up because the work they want to be doing but can’t get to is the work they know they're good at and enjoy doing.

That's not a very attractive place to be.

One of the most common problems I find with new clients is an inverse relationship between the strategic value of a project and how much progress gets made on it.

A long-term or no deadline slows things up even more.

I remember asking the MD of a mid-7 figure turnover surveying company about the faded, dog-eared note she’d found buried beneath a pile of other random bits and pieces in a desk drawer.

“That’s my list of really important projects to work on whenever I get a minute.”

“When was the last time you had a minute?” I asked.

“About six months ago.”