There comes a point in the life of almost every project where it is nearly completed. The planning, creativity, excitement of something new and the interest of the initial stages are over. Perhaps the challenges have been successfully mastered and all that remains is the final wrapping up and cleaning up of the details. During those times it is extremely tempting to jump headlong into a new project. You may think it will relieve the boredom, add the anticipation back into your days and be able to get even more projects completed.
However, you will find that you will be much more effective in your work and in your personal life as well if you make a point of completing one project before beginning the next one. There are a number of reasons why this is so. First, it leads orderly thinking. If you routinely practice the philosophy of tasks having a beginning, middle and an end, your planning phase of the project will be more accurate. Planning a project is as much as learning experience as actually completing the project, and you will find it to be good experience as well as more efficient to build in all three parts of the project. It is even more important to have each part of the project function in an orderly fashion.
Completing one task before beginning the next helps you to stay focused on your final goal. While creative thinking and planning may be done while also doing a routine manual task, it is also true that often the final stages of a project may be the most important ones, because that is where the learning part of the project occurs. That is where loose ends are neatly tied and conclusions drawn. It is also the part of a project where one learns and quantifies and determines how such a project might be done differently or better in the future. It’s important to stay focused on the current project through the end times as well as the beginning and middle portions of the task.
Related to staying focused by performing one job at a time is the issue of procrastination. If you allow yourself to put off the completion of any portion of the task, regardless of whether or not you enjoy doing it, you are training your brain in negative habits. Procrastination is a difficult habit to rid oneself of. If you consistently start out strong on a project, manage to complete the middle portions with only minor delays, but then fade on the end, perhaps completing it in a slipshod manner or not at all, you will soon gain a reputation as someone who can’t be trusted to follow through. This can be annoying at best to someone waiting on your completed project, and can be absolutely disastrous to a career. A task not completed is a task that might as well not have been started.
Finally, it’s important not to start a new project before completing the old one, because you need the experience of shutting down the lines of thought and action that you’ve developed to move the first project through to completion. You would not take a ferry boat across the river and then not tie it up on the far side. It is the mental securing of the boat on the distant side of the river that will allow you to continue your journey effectively.
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译文:
新事业开始时的一些建议
在人的一生中，几乎当每次事业胜券在握的时候，都会发生这样的一幕。周密的计划，
极致的创造力，对新事物的激情，在事业初期的兴趣都消散了。也许，所有的复杂问题都已经被成功的解决而且其余的就只是最后总结和资料的清理工作了。在这些时期我们会迫不及待的想要一头扎进新的事业中去。你也许会认为那样做可以缓解完成之前事业后的无趣，带着那种对成功的期待重新回到奋斗中去并取得更多事业上的成功。
然而，如果你在开展一个新事业之前能特别重视眼前正在奋斗中的事业并取得成功，那么在以后的工作和个人生活中你会发现你将更加出色。以下有为什么这样做的原因。首先，这样会引导我们有条理的思考。如果你能够按规律从头到尾实行所有事务的基本定律，那么就会更精确的达到事业的预期阶段。事业规划和认识实际经验差不多，和实际地完成事业类似，那时你会发现那些是难得的经验，同样对构筑事业的三阶段会非常有帮助。事业规划对事业的各部职能都处于良好状态是非常重要的。
完成当前的事业后再开始新事业可以帮助你把精力持续集中在你的最终目标上。当创造性思考和规划完成的时候也把日常的手作业同时搞定了，我们还可以确定事业的最终阶段往往是最重要的，因为那正是认知这项事业本质重现的时候，正是零碎材料被整理成型并最终结论被拍板的时候，还是获悉事业精髓，使事业量化，决定事业将来能否顺利完成的一部分。把注意力自始至终的集中在当前的事业上是非常重要的。
造成拖延这种结果和精力过分集中在一次执行一项任务是有关系的。如果你允许自己将事业中的一部分任务推迟完成，不管你喜欢去完成它与否，你正在使你的头脑变的更消极。拖延是很难自我摆脱的习惯。假如你能始终如一的坚持开展一项事业，并能较顺利的完成事业的中间阶段，可是最后阶段却没有干劲儿，多半只是漫不经心的完成或者根本就是消极怠工，你很快就会得到一个不可信赖，不能依靠，对工作不能坚持到底的评价。这极有可能惹恼那些焦急等待时也能顺利完成的人，而且绝对能让你的大好前途泡汤。没有完成的任务也许就是那个没有启动的任务。
最后，在当前的事业没有完成之前千万不要开展新的事业，因为你需要停止为了推动先前的事业走向成功的而设定的策略和行动的经历。你不可以乘一艘渡船过了河却不能把它泊在适当的位置。只有在心智上把握好船距离对岸的距离（未雨绸缪）才能帮助你在以后的旅途中更胜一筹。