Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done

"Start Finishing lives up to its promise to help people get good work done." – Foreword Reviews

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Start Finishing: How to Go From Idea to Done

Too often we look back at the end of the week and are frustrated that we didn’t make progress on our soul-deep dreams and goals that seem to remain eternally out of reach. Start Finishing presents a 9-step method for success — including identifying your genius, building a success pack of supporters, navigating multiple projects, and overcoming the challenges that come with doing the work that matters. Start Finishing features contributions from Seth Godin, Susan Piver, Jonathan Fields, James Clear, and more. Now available in paperback and hardback.

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Cut through all of the superficial productivity noise and really learn how to:

Use the Five Project Rule to prioritize your daily schedule and be at peace with the work you choose – and the work you choose not to do
Chunk, link, and sequence your ideas down to doable parts, and heatmap your schedule so you do the right work at the right time
Overcome the three ways projects routinely get stuck, and learn to finish strong by celebrating, reviewing, and ride the momentum to your next goal

Infographic with the title "37 Verbs for Breaking Down Projects"

Infographic with the title "Organize Your Weekly Schedule Using Themes and Time Blocks"

"Charlie Gilkey knows you have little trouble beginning new projects. But finishing them? That’s often another story. The good news is that Gilkey is here to help. His terrific book offers a 9-step program to turn those great ideas into finished products — and your dreams into realities."

Daniel H. Pink, Author of Drive and When

Learn More About Start Finishing

How much of your time and attention lately has been focused on things that truly matter to you?

Most people's honest answer is: Not enough. Everyone is buried by busywork, responsibility, distraction, and fatigue.

The joy-producing, difference-making ideas are waiting for when the time is right, when the current project is over, when they have a little more money, when the kids are grown, or when they get a more understanding boss. They are waiting for someday.

The trouble is someday never comes on its own.

You are not incapable, wired to struggle, or fated to be unable to get your act together. With a few key steps, you can change the way you show up, how you plan, and how you respond when things get tough.

Start Finishing includes original contributions from Seth Godin, Susan Piver, Jonathan Fields, James Clear, and many other teachers. Pick up a copy today and start finishing the work that matters most to you.

“My decades of helping people create their body of work and start businesses have repeatedly shown that the greatest threat to success is the lack of ability to get things done and out into the world. Charlie Gilkey is uniquely qualified to solve this problem, and Start Finishing will fundamentally change the creative and entrepreneurial landscapes. Read this book and reap the rewards for the rest of your life.”

Pamela Slim, Author of Escape from Cubicle Nation and Body of Work

About Charlie Gilkey

Charlie Gilkey helps people start finishing the stuff that matters. He's the founder of Productive Flourishing, author of Start Finishing (2019) and The Small Business Lifecycle (2012), as well as the host of the Productive Flourishing podcast.

Before starting Productive Flourishing, Charlie worked as a Joint Force Military Logistics Coordinator while simultaneously pursuing a PhD in Philosophy. He lives with his wife, Angela, in Portland, Oregon.

"Start Finishing is a heartfelt hug, bundled with a loving kick-in-the-ass, a masterclass in getting un-stuck and a set of tools that finally... FINALLY... get you out of your own way and send you sprinting (and laughing) toward that thing, you know - that ONE BIG THING - that, until now, you've wanted so desperately, but never knew how to make your reality. Read it, do it, done!"

Jonathan Fields, Bestselling author and the founder of the top-rated podcast The Good Life Project

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Charlie has handpicked Chapter 3: Pick an Idea that Matters to You as the chapter you can download below. Chapter 3 should really hit home for you and provide a really great "dip of your toe" into the waters of the book. We hope you enjoy it and that it inspires you to come back and grab the rest of the book and start finishing your best work.

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“Start Finishing is a brilliant handbook for professional excellence. Sure, it’s inspiring, but it goes way beyond the rah-rah to offer practical, doable, targeted strategies to actually accomplish what you may now think is impossible. Equal parts productivity guru, drill sergeant, and best pal, Charlie gives you exactly what you need to do your work with joy, commitment, and, most of all, to completion."

Susan Piver, Founder of the Open Heart Project

Additional Praise for Start Finishing

Part 1: Clearing the Decks for Your Best Work

Chapter 1: “Someday” Can Be Today

Why it’s time to focus on projects rather than ideas
The link between your best work and thriving
How living in a project world gives us freedom at the cost of uncertainty
What to do if your interests are all over the place
Why projects are bridges and mirrors
What separates the change-makers from the sideliners

Chapter 2: Getting to Your Best Work

What’s really in the middle of the air sandwich between your big picture and day-to-day reality
Marc and Angel Chernoff: What Else Could This Mean?
The 5 keys to unlocking your best work
The difference between positive and negative boundaries
How we confuse courage and clarity
Discipline creates freedom
James Clear: The Difference Between Professionals and Amateurs
Getting clear about your competing priorities helps you make better plans and commitments
Ishita Gupta: Build Your Courage Muscle

Chapter 3: Pick an Idea that Matters to You

Why thrashing is a sign that something matters to you
How not doing your best work leads to creative constipation
We’re built to slay dragons
The 3 gifts of failure
Chelsea Dinsmore: What to Do When Life Changes Your Plans
How not being able to do everything at once is a gift once you accept it
Why you have to let go of some ideas to trade up to the best ones
Susan Piver: Should You Break Up with Your Idea?
5 questions to help you sort through what matters most

Part 2: Planning Your Projects

Chapter 4: Convert Your Idea Into a Project

How to convert an idea into a SMART goal
The 3 levels of success and why you can’t do everything at the epic level
No date, no finish
The 4 kinds of people to put in your success pack
Pamela Slim: The Principles of Enrolling a Guide
The 5 steps to activate your success pack

Chapter 5: Make Space For Your Project

You don’t find time and space for your best work—you make time and space for it
What playing with building blocks taught us about bending time
How to use the project pyramid to break down your big projects into smaller ones
34 common project verbs that make planning easier
Using the Five Projects Rule to prioritize and plan your work
The 4 kinds of blocks that power your best work and life
3 focus blocks per week avoids a thrash crash

Chapter 6: Build Your Project Road Map

The difference between a flat list and a road map
Using your GATES to fuel your project
Jonathan Fields: Your GATES Point to a Deeper Spark
5 categories to consider for every project budget
Jacquette M. Timmons: Your Money Needs You to Give It Direction
Deadlines guide your project; capacity drives your project
The 7 steps to building your project road map

Chapter 7: Keep Flying By Accounting for Drag Points

Why every plan has drag points • The 3 kinds of no-win scenarios we often don’t realize we’re telling ourselves • Jeff Goins: The Myth of the Starving Artist • Why we choose mediocrity and what it really costs us • Seth Godin: Only the Tall Poppy Gets Full Sunlight • Don’t be down with OPP (other people’s priorities) • 9 ways to handle derailers and naysayers • Jeffrey Davis: Let Wonder Intervene with Derailers • 6 questions to ask during your project premortem

Part 3: Working the Plans

Chapter 8: Weave Your Project Into Your Schedule

How momentum planning keeps you going
The 7 environmental factors to make work for you
Joshua Becker: How a Minimalist Workspace Enhances Focus
Why batching and stacking makes you more efficient
The relationship between frogs and your dread-to-work ratio
When you’re working can be more critical than what you’re working on
Mike Vardy: You Don’t Have to Be an Early Riser to Be Productive
Rethinking “first things first”
The 5/10/15 Split makes daily momentum planning a breeze
Why planning too far in advance can be much worse than a waste of time

Chapter 9: Build Daily Momentum

3 ways to celebrate small wins—and why it’s important to do so
Srinivas Rao: Don’t Break the Chain
6 routines that will help minimize decision fatigue
What Hansel and Gretel taught us about project management
10 ways to mitigate distractions and interruptions
Cascades, logjams, and tarpits—3 ways projects get stuck and how to handle them
How to get your projects through the creative red zone

Chapter 10: Finish Strong

The under-appreciated reasons why we should run victory laps
Transition time and space between projects help us avoid burnout
Todd Kashdan: Curating and Trimming Relationships
The value of CAT time
How after-action reviews make your next projects easier
5 doors you may have unlocked by completing your project

Influencer Reviews

"Just like our houses, our work is filled with clutter that's keeping us from what matters most. Start Finishing shows us how to pick the ideas and projects that we want to keep and work through seeing them to completion. If you're ready to get over the clutter of busywork and do the work that'll make you come alive, get this book and start finishing.” – Joshua Becker, Founder of Becoming Minimalist and Author of The Minimalist Home

"Big dreams can feel overwhelming, but in this encouraging book, Charlie shows you how to get started, plan your projects, and just keeping going. You don't find the time, you make the time – and Charlie will show you how." – Laura Vanderkam, Notable writer, speaker and author of Juliet’s School of Possibilities

“If you’re wondering what you should do with your life, Charlie has the answer: start finishing your best work. He goes deep into the real challenges that get in the way when you start making things that matter and teaches you proven, adaptable tools to close the gap between you and the person you want to be. Get this book and figure out your purpose, one finished project at a time." – Jeff Goins, Bestselling author of Real Artists Don't Starve

“Start Finishing offers a step by step process to help you get from concept to completed, no matter the project you’re trying to tackle. So many books show you how to get going on projects but few focus on how to get beyond the beginning, through the middle, and to the end result. Charlie Gilkey has written a book that does that - and does it in a way that’s tried, tested, and true. Start Finishing is a book that, once read from start to finish, will allow you finish anything time and time again.” – Mike Vardy, Productivity Strategist and Founder of TimeCrafting

“Start Finishing is a game-changer for creative people. The productivity genre is filled with hacks, tricks, and half-baked strategies that oversimplify productivity, or turn productivity into an overly-complex organizational challenge that most people don’t have the patience to learn. Start Finishing reflects a paradigm shift in thinking about productivity that is grounded in both real-world application and solid academic theory.” – Cory Huff, Author of How to Sell Your Art Online

“Paths are made by walking, not waiting. In Start Finishing, Charlie Gilkey lifts us back up and walks us to the finish line of the important goals and ideas we’ve been sitting on. The result of this book is quite honestly a life filled with fewer distractions and a greater sense of daily fulfillment. It’s a must-read that we will undoubtedly be referencing and re-reading in the weeks and months ahead.” – Marc and Angel Chernoff, New York Times best-selling authors of Getting Back to Happy

“Charlie Gilkey has put together a masterpiece that defies simply classifications. To call Start Finishing ‘a guide to setting goals you actually want to achieve,’ or ‘a project management book that cuts the BS promises and actually helps you achieve those goals’ would both be true descriptions, but they would fall woefully short of the greater value Gilkey has gifted us. Start Finishing is exactly what it promises: your map and compass to bringing forth your best work. Helping the reader to get clear about what best work really means and how to distinguish it from all those other things in your life that keep you from it is in and of itself worth the read. But this brilliant, honest, and assuring book isn’t just about figuring out what or how to start – it’s a deeply thoughtful and completely engaging manual for finishing, in other words, for making that best work you’re dreaming of real. If you want to start finishing, clear space on your desk for this important work. You can forget about finding space on your bookshelf, because you’ll quickly find you want Start Finishing always handy and right by your side.” – Larry Robertson, Award-winning author of The Language of Man: Learning to Speak Creativity and A Deliberate Pause

“If you’re a productivity junkie, a frustrated creator who perennially puts other things in front of your most meaningful work, or anyone else who wrestles with those 168 hours, you need to read Start Finishing. This book hit me like the secret keys to life. It made me understand why I’ve always punted my reason-for-living work to the bottom of my list, and how to build the rock-solid, regular creative practice I’ve always wanted while also getting my “day job” done more efficiently (and with more happiness and satisfaction) than I imagined possible. The book is concrete, so you get actual strategies instead of cheerleading. Well, Gilkey cheerleads too, but it’s more about being kind to yourself, establishing right-sized expectations, connecting with others, and celebrating your wins—rather than just self-flagellating with the old self-discipline whip.” – Miranda Hersey, Author of Press Pause: A Journal for Self-Care, Intention, and Slowing Down and Life by Design: 52 Lists, Questions, and Inspirations for Finding Your Happiness

Editorial Reviews

“Start Finishing’s chief distinction for many will be the uplifting and empowering tone Gilkey takes throughout the work. He places our destiny squarely in our own hands and makes a strong case that only through action, rather than blind inertia or luck, can we realize our ambitions and goals. This is a timeless message, it never dates, and in Gilkey’s hands it comes across as indispensable wisdom applicable across a vast spectrum. Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done is a work you can revisit again and again and yield quantifiable results through each time.” – Goodreads, goodreads.com

“Start Finishing [...] has the right length, language, and tone to have that effect on any readers open to its ideas and those who are will likely find themselves consulting its pages again and again long after reading the book for the first time. This is, perhaps, the highest praise you can bestow on any work – Start Finishing has enduring value rather than fly by night virtue and, ultimately, is more interested in individuals from every walk of life than it is ideas.” – Mobangeles, mobangeles.com

“Start Finishing lives up to its promise to help people get good work done… Clear and positive tones make it easy to follow along and learn how to act upon the book’s ideas right away for fast results. [Charlie Gilkey] has lots of energy and eschews hype, extremism, and prescriptive thinking in favor of strategies that are realistic, sustainable, and adaptable…“Good work” isn’t about completing a task; it’s about fulfilling a dream, making the world better, and becoming who we want to be.” – Foreword Reviews, forewordreviews.com

"[Start Finishing] delivers an assortment of thoughts and strategies for isolating doable projects and ushering them across the finish line. […] The author’s tone is infectiously upbeat and exceptionally forgiving. The “grind hard, grind harder, eventually die” attitude on prominent display in so many productivity books is entirely absent in these pages. In one crystal-clear insight after another, the author provides readers with an enormous trove of strategies designed to help them succeed, whether their key projects are business-related, creative, or personal. The author cautions readers that it’s seductively easy to spend an entire life “in the meantime,” never hunkering down to create their masterpieces. His comprehensive book is a formidable corrective to that inertia. A powerful and optimistic guide to clearing out the clutter and finishing your best work." – Kirkus Reviews, kirkusreviews.com

“[Start Finishing is] a formidable accomplishment … [it is] a substantive look at how individuals can set about realizing their personal and professional ambitions in a systematic and steady fashion. Charlie Gilkey’s Start Finishing: How to Go from Idea to Done is a marvelous work that holds up under repeated reading and promises to offer something different with each new perusal of its pages.” – The Indie Source, theindiesource.com

5-Star Amazon Reader Reviews

“This is so much more than a productivity book - this is a book that will change your life. It goes beyond the tactical components of how to get things done faster/smarter/cleaner (fill in the blank) and gets to the heart of what needs to get done. Charlie doesn’t hold back in us giving reality checks and calling us out on the barriers we create for ourselves and excuses we use to not start or get to done. But he does so with such care and compassion that you know it’s only to push us forward and help us thrive.” – Maghan Haggerty

“If you’ve wanted to do something but never got around to it, or had a great idea for a project but never put the pieces together, or you’ve got a project in your lap but it’s a mess and you’re stuck, not knowing what to do when or how... This book has got your back. Charlie understands. He’s been there. Like all of us, he’s failed plenty of times in life, but he’s failed enough to see what works, and this book shows how he gets things done. (I’ve been reading how to ‘get things done’ books, productivity blogs and e-mails, for years. I love Charlie’s distillation of - and importantly, gentle but accountable - methods to make plans, know why, and take action. It works. Heck, I applied the principles in the book to set aside the time to read the book! How many books have you started but haven’t finished? Start Finishing really does level up your productivity skill set. It works those muscles in the right ways so you get better at getting things done. And that’s something I now get to apply to my day job, side hustle, family projects, and creative work. Finishing work and getting it out in the world is a HUGELY important skill set that so many people lack nowadays (my hand raised first). There’s resistance, confusion, stagnation, distraction... Charlie gets it, addresses it, and gives you tools to work through it. Books are one of the best investments you can make in upgrading yourself and your life, and this one is surely worth it. Highly recommended.” – James M. Taylor

“As a creative entrepreneur and business builder, it’s imperative that I have a system for getting my work done while balancing all of the things that life throws at me. START FINISHING offers the most practical method out there for helping creatives manage the emotional and tactical sides of completing important work. I can easily become overwhelmed with all the urgent tasks that inevitably show up every day and this book is the first one I’ve read that offers a do-able approach to starting AND finishing my most important work. Gilkey’s book offers a fundamental shift in the way we think about doing creative work and will help you stay in control of your days, weeks, months, and quarters with precision planning and clarity. If you struggle with and endless to-do list and never quite feel like you have enough time to get things done, do yourself a HUGE favor and get yourself a copy of START FINISHING. This is one of those books that will stay on your desk for a long time as you continue referencing Charlie’s useful insights and applying his simple and effective method to getting things done.” – Michael Knouse

“As some other reviewers have said, I have read my fair share (make that 10 peoples’ fair share) of self-help, productivity, and business books in my life. A lot of books are good, but it’s a rare book that I would call truly a game-changer, and Start Finishing is one of them. I’m not even done with the book yet (over halfway through) and already it has helped me discern and clarify some massive things, including picking my next big project, which I have been “thrashing” peripherally around for at least a year. I have already made big progress with recruiting my Success Pack, which is a brilliant framework, and I know that the more of Charlie’s strategies that I implement (instead of just read about and go “ooh, that’s a good idea!”), this book will absolutely give me what I need to succeed with not only this project, but also the structure and flow of ALL my big projects to come, and the overall flow of my LIFE. This book is ambitious, but it’s all value, zero fluff, and truly makes me feel both inspired AND like I have the concepts and tools I need to do more of my best work in the world.” – Valerie M.

“Charlie Gilkey’s book is amazing! I have been following some of the things he talks about on his website (Productive Flourishing) and book covers his system in one great package. This books for me has been a desperately needed life management help. I have been overworking, trying to do too many projects at once and totally burning out. His process for me was a reality check for what is really possible to do (without bringing yourself out) but how to do things, manage time, manage energy more efficiently. You an be quite productive without burnout and really it has helped me to be more successful. This book really has changed my life.” – B. Kerschen

“So many of us have great ideas, plans and ideas that never really launch. This book is well written, laid out and broken down into the perfect bite-size snippets to get started and follow where the author is going. It’s almost like text book. I love the style, the writing and easy to digest information. I have post it’s and highlights everywhere. I can’t put it down. If you’re looking for a gentle push filled with great ideas and information you’ll go back to time and time again, then this is the book for you. Work, personal life... it works for whatever your situation is you need to start finishing.” – Myra View

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“There are few works on the market like this. Gilkey doesn’t hobble his book with quasi New Age babble, shallow philosophy, or data for wonks that will mean nothing to layman readers. He, instead, builds the book around practical advice rather than over-intellectualized approaches and it rewards readers because it meets them half way – he reveals something of himself rather than keeping a distance from readers and relating to Start Finishing is one of the keys to its overall success. You won’t read this book a single time and then shelve it to collect dust.”

Independent Music and Arts, Inc.

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