Become a Founding Reader!

Everyone who joins through January 13th will be featured in a dedicated Founding Reader section of the Acknowledgements.

 How it works

1. Join the Preview Edition (Just get the book, or also get live lectures and/or a small-group cohort)
2. Receive ebooks of chapters on the schedule outlined below
3. Be the first to read the book, get your projects done, and help make the book better! (You'll be thanked in the Acknowledgements.)
4. Receive the first edition on ePub ebook

About Finish What Matters

If you have too many ideas and start project after project, never finishing any, this book is for you. It may not be a personality flaw or lack of discipline: Creative projects are uniquely difficult to finish because of the uncertain nature of creative work, and creative success. The world doesn't prepare us to tame the wild horses of our curiosity.

Finish What Matters will help you embrace the true nature of the creative process, allocate your time and energy when outcomes are uncertain, and learn to harness your unique motivational style to push through even that toughest last 10%.

I present hard-won insights from decades as an independent creator, woven together with findings from psychology, and surprising examples from mathematics, art history, and interviews and surveys with the 10,000 readers on my email list.

I even traveled to Italy to immerse myself in the worlds of Leonardo and Raphael.

After writing several books and shipping hundreds of podcast episodes and newsletters, I thought I already had the answers. But this has been the most personally challenging and enlightening book I've ever worked on, making me grapple with questions about how to decide what "matters" when your resources are limited, and how to do bold, unapologetic work, even in the face of criticism.

Finish What Matters is the third and final book in the Getting Art Done series, which I started ten years ago with a 30-day writing challenge.

What you get

For the first time, I'm offering multiple levels of involvement in this Preview Edition, so you can absorb these concepts by reading, interacting, and doing.

Level 1: Preview Edition

This is included for everyone who joins, at all levels. Receive ebooks of the chapters as they become available, Google Doc access to comment and ask questions, and a WhatsApp group for discussing the book throughout the the preview period.

• January 6: Introduction (~2,000 words)
• SECTION I: Ready
  • January 13: Chapter 1: Leonardo minds in the reductive world (~5,000 words)
  • February 3: Chapter 2: Define your finish line (~5,000 words)
  • February 17: Chapter 3: Shiny object strategy (~5,000 words)
• SECTION II: Aim
  • March 3: Chapter 4: Navigating Extremistan (~5,000 words)
  • March 17: Chapter 5: The everlasting lotto ticket (~5,000 words)
  • March 31: Chapter 6: Shipping is a skill (~5,000 words)
• SECTION III: Finish
  • April 14: Chapter 7: Coming up for air (~5,000 words)
  • April 28: Chapter 8: Hills to die on (~5,000 words)
    
  • May 12: Chapter 9: The last 10% (~5,000 words)
• Fall 2026: First Edition ebook (plus Audiobook if stretch goal reached)

Level 2: Live lecture series

Everyone at this level gets the above, plus live Zoom attendance to a series of three lectures, one about each section of the book.

Format: 20 minutes lecture + 20 minutes Q&A/Discussion

1. Wednesday, February 11, 11 a.m. CT: Ready (Embracing the process)
2. Wednesday, February 25, 11 a.m. CT: Aim: (Hitting a moving target)
3. Wednesday, March 11, 11 a.m. CT: Finish: (Bringing it home)

Recordings will be available.

Level 3: "Get it done in Q1" small-group finishing sprint

Get the above, plus join a small-group cohort (limit 8) of other motivated creators who want to clarify scope, remove friction, and follow through on a creative project in Q1, without blowing up their lives.

Use this sprint to:

• Ship that app that's been "almost ready" a bit too long
• Finally publish that mostly-edited novel
• Ship a finite number of deliverables for a potentially in-finite project (6 podcast episodes, 30 video reels, etc.)
• Take any small- to medium-sized creative project from dream to done

6 weeks is long enough to finish something substantial, but short enough to commit and carve out before 2026 makes other plans.

See how the Finish What Matters content applies to a variety of real-world, real-time projects and personalities, and get the self-accountability that comes along with defining and stating your intentions to a group.

Finally shipping that project will be icing on the cake after baking in these concepts for a lifetime of confident action.

Small-group session schedule:

1. Wednesday, February 18, 11 a.m. CT: Commitment: What will you finish, and what will you not?
2. Wednesday, March 4, 11 a.m. CT: Friction: Where has momentum stalled, and what to do about it?
3. Wednesday, March 18, 11 a.m. CT: Closure: How do we get this finished, and reflect?

Session recordings available. Additional dedicated WhatsApp group for the preview period.