Have you ever felt the feeling of emptiness after a successful completion of a project? That nagging “what next” feeling.
Instead of feeling elated and accomplished after a project completion, I have experienced feelings of dullness. It may be due to the fact that we have invested so much of our attention onto that ONE particular project that our minds were consciously working towards the subsequent steps, leading up to the D-day.
For example, whenever I prepare for a talk at a public forum, my mind would be busy churning out ideas and planning the flow/structure for a couple of weeks before the talk. A few days before the talk, I would be sitting down and giving my full focus and attention in preparing the slides, looking for relevant images and finalizing the outline. On the D-day, the talk would get over and a few people would appreciate or share their comments about the talk. At the end of the day, I would feel bored and dull since the one thing that my mind was completely focused is no longer there. I have experienced this feeling multiple times after the completion of various projects. And this happens not just with big projects but also for projects as small as hosting a get-together.
I was wondering what would be the solution to avoid such “blues”. Does it require being busy all the time - with more projects lined up and more deliverables with due dates? Or do I start to appreciate the times when there are no looming deadlines? I don’t have an answer yet but will write more when I figure it out.
I googled to find a good read that outlines the feelings of “post project completion syndrome” :-) Check it out if you are interested. And do share if you have faced similar feelings of PPCS.