• Feeling isolated? You're not alone.

    Join 20,000+ people who understand exactly how your day went. Whether you're newly diagnosed, self-identified, or supporting someone you love – this is a space where you don't have to explain yourself.

    Join the Conversation → It's free, anonymous, and supportive.

    As a member, you'll get:

    • A community that actually gets it – no judgment, no explanations needed
    • Private forums for sensitive topics (hidden from search engines)
    • Real-time chat with others who share your experiences
    • Your own blog to document your journey

    You've found your people. Create your free account

Are there any completer finishers here?

I have two opposing forces within me, the ASD which causes me to start something in an enthusiastic burst, but then I get distracted or lose the initial enthusiasm, don't like doing it anymore and move on and abandon it, so I have a chaotic mess on half-finished projects. The other force is a drive for perfection and order, which means that I need to have everything in order, no loose ends, nothing half finished, and these two forces are in constant conflict with each other. Some things get done, usually not straight away and in one go, but they get done. Other things get left for weeks, months, even years before the perfection drive will kick in and I'll get it done.
 
Mia said:
Seems as if the more I understand something the less I'm interested in it
Click to expand...

I think so that's how that works! Then onto the next. Sort of figuring out the general pattern of things.
Like the windmills of your mind song..

Mia said:
if they have some sort of familiar regurgitated plot I sometimes throw them at a wall
Click to expand...

This threw up an image of a kind of literary Elvis.

Instead of the gun toting TV shooting Elvis.
 
One basic principle (taught to me by an art teacher) was do not allow yourself to start a new project until you have finished your current one. I try to use that in a general way, not just art and it has helped me re-focus and set priorities.
 
I finish things I work on.
I work on a number of projects, concurrently.

That is to say, I have several things that I bring to
a similar stage, because working that way is
more streamlined. Sort of like an assembly line.

This works for me in sewing projects.
It goes from small work to larger to finished.

So, a number of items are in the same stage,
and then sort of like lines of dominoes toward
the end.
 
I think it depends if the task or project evolves in some way too.

Idea in mind of finished project and what it will look like and purpose served.

Plan it out, get equipment and materials together and go for it.

Somewhere along the way I may start to wonder what would happen if....?
And change the original plan slightly because whatever it is may end up stronger or better looking than the original.

Which is all vey well but I’d have to test the new idea and not just assume something will be stronger just because I tweaked the original.
(Takes time. Time I could have spent completing the project)

If I’d stuck to the original plan and didn’t try to improve it, I would have it finished.
 
I might become a 'finisher'. I have been writing a symbolic math interpretation program for almost a year, and might have it to the point where I can actually run it in the next few months. It's been an idea on paper for 9 years, and I've tried twice before to actually write the software, but got stuck, lost interest and dropped it. I have taken a few breaks from it in the last year, but I keep telling myself, "If you don't finish this, it'll never be more than a crackpot idea on paper, and you'll never know if it's useful." - so I'm doing my best to motivate myself to keep at it. Almost there, and so excited.

I have started and not finished a lot of things outside my field. I was actually thinking this weekend of starting a thread titled, "What do you do with all the ideas you know you're never going to make happen by yourself?" -- because I think of story ideas, inventions, etc. that are out of my field, but which I would love to see happen.

I've tried writing, but I'm just not a writer. Ideas that require some hardware or mechanical engineering are beyond my ability. In the end, I've just decided to focus on ideas in the area I'm most passionate about. Isaac Asimov said something like, "I don't write because I like writing. I write because I can't live without writing." (probably terribly paraphrased and misremembered by me). Since I can stop writing easily, I'm apparently not a writer. But I never stop doing math, so I'm focusing on trying to achieve something new in the math world.
 
tlc said:
...the random fires of life...
Click to expand...

That's a great phrase. I'm going to steal it.

heroes-ig-l-like-your-knife-lm-keeping-it-that-9826527.webp
 
I finish things at work, I'm meticulous about that, often to my own detriment. I do too much, everything has to be perfect/bang on time, I set myself ridiculous targets then berate myself when I don't meet them. This makes me feel exhausted and sometimes unwell.

At home, I can't even get started. I'm overwhelmed by things that I'd love to get achieve, like decorate the bathroom, sell things on Ebay, transform the garden. I'm worn out just thinking about it.
 
I believe it is an executive functioning thing -- not finishing what you start because you forgot about it, or became focused on something else, or the started-thing became boring.
 
I have one ritual that compels me to complete it every single day.

To simply make my bed. To remind myself not to give up...even over the most benign of things.

If I figure I don't need to make my bed, then there's always the possibility of not bothering to do- and complete much of any other task either. Might sound silly, but that's how I see such things.
 
the_tortoise said:
I believe it is an executive functioning thing -- not finishing what you start because you forgot about it, or became focused on something else, or the started-thing became boring.
Click to expand...

For me, I get a great dopamine shot from figuring something out. After that, the execution isn't interesting unless it reveals that there's more to figure out. It has prevented me from implementing a lot of (what I think is) cool stuff.

A few times at work, I've had the great fortune to be asked to solve a problem and then describe the solution so someone else can implement it. That was absolute heaven.
 
I do finish things but sometimes it takes a while to get there. Still others things I can't finish. Lots of projects I've started with sports data entry but can't get to complete them.
 
I have several difficulties with finishing things.
Thus, in the late years I force myself to finish things. No matter what it is. I had success to finish my animation project I made one year long . Unfortunately, half of the people disliked and overcriticized it :confounded:.

However, I'm proud of myself finishing it.
I began to learn finishing anything I started by watching or reading media. I made a list of books I want to read. It's not that easy as it looks but it's also not that difficult.

I just know it'll be important in my future.
 
I don't finish things
I don't like maintaining them either.

I like ideation, and progressing ideas.

Most people are maintainers or finishers, we just need to find and work with them.

There's a model of ideation that goes like this, can't remember the name.

Ideation
Clarification
Development
Execution.

To get an idea to market it should go though all 4, which people talented in each area.

Ideators hate the clarifiers as they pull apart our beautiful ideas and send them back to the drawing board.

I think Ideators fit MBTI types of intuitive perceiver, and clarifiers fit intuitive judger.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom