Day 19 - How to write the conclusion for your course
Three steps to end with a bang
Today I wrote the Epilogue or conclusion to my course.
Before I explain the steps I took, I just want to mention how this moment feels. I'm almost in a state of surprise that this day has arrived. It was nearly three weeks ago that I started building this course.
Don't get me wrong. There's still more work to do.
I must edit what I've done so far. I have a list of elements I need to add that I hadn't planned on originally. I also have to go through the whole thing imagining I'm a student to see if it makes sense. I have graphics to add and maybe a video or two to shoot too.
However, today is an important milestone.
It's a day of "almost completion." What's left feels more like polishing. I'm very far from the blank page.
I've shared my process for writing the main body of the course but I neglected to share my process for writing the introduction.
I won't make that mistake today.
Here's my process for writing the epilogue:
Ask “What thought do I want to leave them with?”
Boil it to one word
Find a story or analogy related to the one word
I answered the question "What thought do I want to leave them with?" My answer: Progress despite interruptions.
I boiled it down to one word "interruptions."
I then thought of examples of interruptions in my life. And since I was getting interrupted while writing the epilogue, I wrote about that and connected it to the idea that PARA lets you make progress despite the many interruptions life brings us.
That's it. I've included the full text below so you can see how it turned out.
If you've gotten this far, you're a champ.
When I see that people are opening this newsletter each day, it motivates me to continue. So thanks for reading.
Until tomorrow,
Rodney
Epilogue
In the last hour or so, I've been interrupted in my work a half dozen times.
It's the Friday after Thanksgiving and the kids are home. However, in between fun and games with the little ones, I decided to get a some work done.
And that means inevitable interruptions.
In my daily work, there are far fewer breaks in my flow, the kids are in school and I work from home. Yet there are many responsibilities that interrupt my work on major projects.
For example, last year, during a quiet week, I started retooling a course I deliver annually. But days after I began, other projects took precedence and I couldn't get back to changing the course for months.
In the past, this would have meant a lot of lost time trying to find my place.
Time trying to remember the location of documents with specific ideas. Time to find all the feedback I'd collected. Time wasted trying to remember the next steps I'd planned to take.
But because of PARA, I knew exactly where these things were located. Everything was waiting for me in a folder dedicated to changing the course. I could make progress despite interruptions.
All of this was by design.
I'm definitely no super being. I'm not naturally organized. My desktop was once filled with dozens of items. I'd tried and failed many times to organize my work. PARA helped me finally clean up that mess.
But even more, it helped me get things done even when I have to work in spurts and starts.
Earlier in my career, I wouldn't start a project until I'd cleared enough time and space to work on it from start to finish.
But in recent years, that approach was no longer workable.
My low work periods were too short. I could put off starting a project until I had more "free time" but at the present rate the day I can freely work on a project might not arrive until I retire.
Like me, you probably don't have the luxury of taking a sabbatical to write a book, conceptualize a business or even retool a course. We have to get work done on our special projects whenever we can.
PARA lets you do this.
You now know how to organize your stuff so you can start when the iron is hot, even if you can't finish. You can keep collecting ideas until the day you are finally able to produce what you intended.
What's the next project you'll bring into your life?
Make a folder in PARA and put your thoughts down. Know that you'll be able to come back to that folder every time you have an idea, see or hear or read something relevant.
You now have a place to store it all.
Eventually, you'll have everything you need. There's no reason to put it off. Get started today.