202509290850 Do I need to finish that?

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Cassidy Williams runs a great blog and newsletter over at cassidoo.co. One of her recent posts¹ struck a chord with me. The premise of the post is about feeling obligated to finish things we've started. I know I feel that obligation all the time. I have a list of things that hang around in the back of my mind, exerting small but continuous background stress because I never finished them. I don't like this feeling. I don't want to have this feeling. Cassidy's post suggests a method for dealing with this situation.

When you feel obligated to finish something — say a side project — you should ask yourself these questions to see why.

• Does this thing still align with my current goals?
• Would I start this again if I hadn’t already invested time and resources into it?
• Do I still want this, or am I trying to prove to myself that I can finish it?
• What would happen if I let this go?
• Am I trying to meet my own expectations, or someone else’s?
• What would I actively pursue if I didn’t finish this thing?

Doing these mental audits should either remind us why we care about the project and give us renewed energy to tackle it, or show us that we don't actually need to complete it and can let it go.