{"id":6151,"date":"2025-03-24T00:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T00:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/?p=6151"},"modified":"2025-03-24T00:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T00:56:14","slug":"empezar-y-terminar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2025\/03\/24\/empezar-y-terminar\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting and finishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, so I\u00b4m back home, getting back to the routine (if there ever was one). As I imagined, the week-long work trip was well worth it, both professionally and personally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo of some lovely trees just outside the office I visited).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, it\u00b4s time for me to resume a few other things I\u00b4m doing that I want to bring to a close. And while thinking about that, I remembered this quote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.<\/em><\/p>William James<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever experienced that feeling of uneasiness when leaving tasks unfinished? Or maybe it was easier for you to notice the opposite: how good it feels to finally get them done. I read somewhere that each unfinished task we have takes away a small portion of our mental energy<\/strong>, as our brain is constantly remembering that it needs to finish it... Using the analogy of a computer or a mobile phone, it\u00b4s as if we had an open browser window for each pending task, consuming resources unnecessarily and slowing down the whole system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a way, it\u00b4s like an extended version of multitasking<\/em>, which, as we already know, doesn\u00b4t really work<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they don\u00b4t have to be big things, or even important ones. For example, today, I realized again that I have several unfinished books (due to reasons that are not relevant right now); I challenged myself to finish one of them (even if it was the shortest one), and I felt great when I accomplished that. Our unconscious mind doesn\u00b4t differentiate between big or small, important or trivial: each task we add to the list is one more burden, and each task we can tick off, an accomplishment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, you may be wondering: why do I have several unfinished books? Well, obviously, because I started reading them and never came around to finishing them, which brings me to the proposal I\u00b4d like to share with you today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop starting, and start finishing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned this phrase from an Agile coach a few years ago (thanks, Chris!). It\u00b4s a basic principle in certain work methodologies like Lean and Kanban, and it also works very well for Scrum (if you\u00b4re getting confused by all these strange words, don\u00b4t worry; you don\u00b4t need them to understand the idea).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is very simple, yet very powerful: limiting the amount of work in progress at any given moment, so that you can focus your energy better and finish tasks more efficiently.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I said, it\u00b4s a very simple idea; what\u00b4s not so simple is putting it into practice, among other reasons, because the motivation that often pushes us to get something started tends to dissipate afterwards and is no longer enough... <\/strong>(I\u00b4ll tell you more about motivation in a future article).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a new idea; there\u00b4s a popular saying in Spanish that reads \"quien mucho abarca, poco aprieta\" (\"if you hold on to too much, you lose your grip\"), and in English we can convey a similar idea with \"don\u00b4t spread yourself too thin<\/a>\".<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about you? Are there many things you have started and not finished? What can you tick off today so that your list gets lighter?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bueno, pues ya estoy de nuevo en casa, volviendo a la rutina (si es que alguna vez la hubo). Como ya me imaginaba, el viaje de trabajo de esta semana mereci\u00f3 la pena, tanto por el lado profesional como por el personal. (Foto de unos arbolitos muy monos que hab\u00eda al lado de la oficina … Continue reading Starting and finishing<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3116429,"featured_media":6150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"BinaryWords - Empezar y terminar \/ Starting and finishing","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"\u00bfEres de los que siempre acaban lo que empiezan? \/ Do you always finish what you start?","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5007,4990],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-informatica","category-inspiracion-inspiration","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DPtR-1Bd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9688,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2026\/09\/14\/ventanas-al-mundo\/","url_meta":{"origin":6151,"position":0},"title":"Windows to the world","author":"binarybea","date":"14\/09\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Esta semana o\u00ed un comentario en la radio que me pareci\u00f3 curioso: dec\u00edan algo as\u00ed como que muchos j\u00f3venes de hoy en d\u00eda consideran que se puede saber m\u00e1s de c\u00f3mo es realmente una persona por los libros que posee que por su perfil en redes sociales. \u00bfT\u00fa qu\u00e9 opinas?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/category\/diario-journal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9635,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2026\/08\/31\/reto-de-30-dias\/","url_meta":{"origin":6151,"position":1},"title":"30-day challenge","author":"binarybea","date":"31\/08\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00bfQu\u00e9 opinas de los retos de 30 d\u00edas? \u00bfAlguna vez has hecho alguno? Ahora que est\u00e1 a punto de empezar septiembre, es un muy buen momento para plante\u00e1rselo (y me acabo de dar cuenta de que hace dos a\u00f1os escrib\u00ed pr\u00e1cticamente lo mismo, cuando me propuse el reto de 30\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Herramientas"","block_context":{"text":"Herramientas","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/category\/herramientas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_20250317_194703.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3116429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6151"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6166,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6151\/revisions\/6166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}