A project is not complete until it is working for you, rather than you working for it.

Entrepreneurs tend to juggle many projects. One thing that we do that sometimes gives us a false sense of productivity is to inadequately define the end of a project. We feel like we're getting stuff done, when all we're really doing is adding to our pile of unfinished business.

For example, let's say you have a new marketing brochure that you're creating. You create the copy, perhaps work with a graphic designer, get the design finished, even sent to the printer and picked up. Fantastic! You have a beautiful new marketing brochure in your hand, and you congratulate yourself on a job well done and prepare to move on to the next project.

But you're not really finished with that project yet. That beautiful new marketing brochure isn't doing anybody any good sitting in a box in your office. Until you actually put it in the hands of prospective customers, your project isn't complete, and you shouldn't move on to the next project. Once you get the brochure distributed, now it's working for you, and you can go back to working for your customers or other projects, rather than being bound to an incomplete project.

Here are some other examples to help you identify places where this may be occurring in your own life:

• A verbal agreement from a customer to buy doesn't amount to anything until you have a signed contract and a down payment or purchase order.
• Signing a marquis customer doesn't really do anything for you until you issue the press release about it.
• Completing a customer job doesn't do you any good if you don't invoice it.
• Signing up as a web affiliate is just the first step. You have to also put the links to the products you're promoting on your web site.
• You can't just schedule a course or a seminar -- you also have to promote it.

Any of these sound familiar? You see how those natural milestones can give you a false sense of accomplishment? Consider carefully how you define a project being complete, and make sure you end up with something more than just another item on your to-do list.

Related: Juggling Multiple Streams of Income