Begin by thinking about the end

Nothing lasts forever, so it's best to acknowledge that from the start

Everything has an end, in this world at least. Even things that seem eternal — say, that Tuesday morning staff meeting — will not continue forever. Some day there will be a Tuesday without that staff meeting and, possibly before that, a Tuesday when you won’t be attending.

This can be a sobering realization. Brad Paisley’s song, “Last Time for Everything,” never fails to bring on the nostalgia as he croons about the last time waking up early to see what Santa brought, or the last time running out on the field for a high school game. It all ends. And yet, when we embrace this realization, we can make wiser choices about how we allocate our time. We can often end more on our own terms, rather than just letting things happen.

Does it still make sense?

So, whenever you start a project, think about how it will end. Maybe the end will be a long time in the future! I’ve been running my two podcasts (Best of Both Worlds, and Before Breakfast) for 7 years and 5.5 years, respectively. That’s a lot in podcasting years. But I check in frequently. Does this project still make sense? Is everyone still enjoying it? Does anything need to change?

When I start something new — like this Vanderhacks newsletter — I create timelines for a decision. For instance, I’ll try it for a year and then evaluate (so far, so good!). I find this is a helpful mindset for lots of projects. Rather than starting a book club you believe will last for 1000 years (it won’t) you and your friends decide to run a book club for a year, meeting 12 times, and then figure out who wants to continue, who doesn’t, or if the club format should change significantly. My sense is that you might get more folks participating, and more enthusiastically, if they know there’s a pre-planned exit for anyone who wants it.

Conduct a pre-mortem

Some people find it helpful to do what’s called a “pre-mortem.” Rather than evaluating the cause of death after the fact (a “postmortem”) you picture the end before you begin. In particular, people sometimes picture that a project has failed spectacularly. If so, what led to that disaster? Thinking this through allows you to take steps to avoid that end if you can, and maybe plan a more satisfying one.

We often begin things with enthusiasm, and then let them peter out. It’s probably human nature to pay more attention to beginnings, but given the inevitability of an end, it’s silly not to acknowledge this. Beginning by thinking about the end can quite possibly make an experience better, so it’s worth doing.