You Call THIS Finished?!?

          Finishing. Something I find hard to do.
          What makes it so hard for me to finish things? When you are a constant procrastinator like me, it seems as though the answer is easy. I just need to focus a little more, discipline myself a little more, write a little more.
          Or do I?
          Maybe, sometimes, occasionally it’s understandable. Not completely my doing. Maybe.
          Like now. Or rather, like two months ago. With my latest success-failure.
          At the beginning of the summer, I went on a month-long road trip/vacation. Just as that vacation began, I finished the rough draft of the TimeTracker manual. TimeTracker is the software application my husband wrote for me to keep track of where I spend my time. I’ve enjoyed using it so much, I wanted to make it available to others. For months I kept track of what I did and how I did it. I wrote detailed instructions and organized it all into a readable format. Or so I thought.
          On my first travel day, sitting in an airport during a 5-hour layover, I finished that baby. Jubilant, I emailed it to my husband. He’d have plenty of time to read it and make notes before I returned home. Not so.
          A week after I returned, he opened the file. I sat in the room with him, supposedly working on something else. His groans and complaints pulled me back into the everyday world. He’d expected a finished, polished draft. I’d sent a first draft. He’d expected icons and other “bells and whistles”. I’d put in some, but expected him to note where others belonged as well as commenting on the content. He said there was no sense evaluating the content when the format needed so much work.
          Is he right? Maybe. Maybe not. Certainly the document needs more work. But I needed input. And maybe just a teeny-tiny high-five for actually finishing a step in the process.
          Well, that’s behind me now. Yes, his lackluster response killed the enthusiasm I had for the project and sent me into a corner to nurse my wounds. That’s part of the life of the writer. Now it’s time to pick myself up and finish this project. That is what I’ll be doing this week. Really finishing the TimeTracker manual. Or at least the next draft.
          And this time . . . when hubby opens the file to evaluate it, I’ll be out of earshot.