Here's a brand new sentence

[dianec42]

I just made a spreadsheet of all of my cross stitch works in progress that I can think of, and sorted them by "joy quotient" and then by effort remaining. Ta dahh! I have prioritized my backlog.

I gave each WIP two numbers from 1-10: How satisfying would it be to finish this (higher number is good), and how much effort remains (lower number is good). "Joy quotient" is satisfaction divided by effort.

I should probably do something similar with my spreadsheet of planned projects, although "planned" is really too strong a word. Yes, I have separate sheets for kits and charts. No, I have not catalogued every chart I own (we would be here until the heat death of the universe and probably also crash Excel); just the ones I have formed some vague intention of doing and/or have purchased materials for.

Parting thought, any kits I bought before about 1995 should almost certainly get yeeted. (Yotted? Yeeten?)


Edited to add: I did this for my backlog of charts and it came out sorted perfectly by effort (easiest at the top of the list). Hahahahaha.

I made the list of kits from memory and I have a terrible feeling that in reality I have tons more than I think I do. This is already discounting things like the pile of beginner kits I bought to teach my coworkers at game night in 2020 (RIP).


Edit edit: Strictly speaking these are UFOs (UnFinished Objects) rather than true WIPs. My one actual work in progress is Deer Trail and that's nearly done.

Comments

[mesozoic]

Hooray for joy! This is good prioritizing.

[dianec42]

I am SO pleased with myself for coming up with something called the "joy quotient"!

[fenicedautun]

What about how fun will it be to stitch? We stitch because we enjoy it, but some stitching is more enjoyable than others (types of stitching, confetti, fabric, 1/4 stitches, specialty stitches, etc). Sometimes we push through less enjoyable stitching because of the joy of the finish, but sometimes we stitch something because of the joy of the work. :)

Also, remember to redo the joy numbers from scratch every 5 years or so, as your tastes will change.

[dianec42]

I will have to give this more thought. I seem to be conflating "joy of the process" with low effort right now; plus my original angle was how to clear my backlog & get all these unfinished things out from looming over my head.

I may be a teeeeeensy bit burned out right now.

[rmd]

This is excellent use of metrics! Clever you!