Starting Again

What is it about picking up a project that you've started and need to finish but you just can't dive back into it again?

We have this unbelievable stack of photos that we've been scanning into our computer and we bought a scanner Feb 2006. We were REALLY gung ho on it for a little while. Then, for whatever reason, we stopped doing it about last April and it has SAT there since. I'm not kidding - this stack of boxes is five feet tall if it's an inch.

I think it's partly the intimidation factor of how far I have to go to finish the project.

It's also a recognition that I will have to reconcile which boxes I have already scanned and which boxes have yet to be scanned.

Finally, it's a motivation problem. Do I really want to open that first box to get into it? Because I can easily spend 5 minutes or 5 hours on it, but figuring out where to start is the trouble.

This is exactly the same problem I have with projects at work and with our clan's games spreadsheet (which I have not touched in several days). I also had this problem in school a lot. Another painful recent example was my Faith in God. We were enthusiastic new members at our church for about 4 months, and when that burned off, we spent about 4 MORE months home, away from church, away from God and that was extremely painful to go back and reconcile that separation.

At work, I will sometimes leave myself a one or two word note if I have to walk away from my desk just so I can pick up what I was working on at the exact spot that I left it.

I find that the longer I wait, the worse the pain of re-opening the project later on.

I guess the lesson here is to help yourself as much as you can by leaving "bread crumbs" or not ever leaving the path of a project until its done.

How do you guys deal with this?