MomtoBT, are you finding any of this helpful? LOL. Sure does seem to be a personality thing to be either/or, and neither approach is wrong.
However, I hear you feeling a need for change in order to free up space, literally and mentally.
While I am of the personality that you are, and so can relate to your struggle, I can say I only have things that help me "cope" with my tendency to "not dispatch the whole bird" after Thanksgiving. (I love that line!)
That's when I have to turn to my external motivators:
My personal motivators:
1. 15 minute timer
So, I say to myself, "What can I do for 15 minutes? Something need a seam ripper? Something need binding? Something need to be ironed? Quilted?" Set the timer for 15. I can stop at 15 if I'm out of oomph.
2. Pull something out to work on (UFO ,not new!!!) turn on a quilting podcast while I work. I like Pat Sloan's Creative Talk Radio.
3. Make the second-to-the-last day of the month my goal for finishing something. Like today is the 29th. My goal is to finish my Project Linus quilt today, knowing that I have a day's grace. Self-deluding, perhaps? But I know myself. I need a goal date plus one more. LOL
4. Keep bobbins wound w/ neutral thread. Nothing snuffs out my mood like winding bobbins. (First world problems.)
5. The trash can. Get rid of any project that I know , deep down, I won't finish. I just won't because I don't like something about it. Kind of like giving away clothes I won't wear again. Fabric isn't a person; it won't hate you if you give it away nor love you if you keep it. Just pass it along. In one case, the project was a twister quilt (small) and I couldn't stand how it looked but no way was I gonna rip it out. I literally trashed it. No regrets. (I cut up 1.5 inch scraps to save for someone I know who is collecting them, but that was it.)
6. Clean my sewing room. I work much better in order. Although, this takes discipline to both DO and to what I'm inclined to do NEXT in a clean sewing room: start a new project!
7. Finish the "smallest" one first--that is, that is, the one closest to completion. Like paying down debts, the advice it to pay off the smallest bill first. To see one at zero balance is very motivating to continue.
Last edited by zozee; 06-29-2016 at 11:54 AM.