One potential lesson here is that you should only work on projects that are immediately meaningful to you as ends in themselves. Write if you have things to say, or if you have stories to tell, but not because you want to be A Writer.

And perhaps a bigger benefit, my brain can let it go when it’s done, and give my full focus to relaxing or doing housework or exercising. We talk a lot about work/life balance, and perhaps hobby/life balance is just as important.

We’re so busy tracking completion — how many miles run, books read, calories burned, cities visited — that we forget to remember a project’s value in the first place.

It took me a long time to see past forever projects. I told myself that making promises gave beginnings gravity. I labeled my newsletter  a “lifelong project” not long after I started it. I called /mentoring a “movement” the day I announced it. Commitment marked a project as something w