I just added some thoughts for things to do at the beginning of each project over on the AP site, and immediately heard this great idea from David Gartner: celebrate project milestones with a bottle of Scotch. I’d occured to me that you could flip this on its head and celebrate the failures instead. A cool byproduct: the bottles turn into life-sized bar charts of project successess and happiness. Here’s the idea:
- At the start of a new project, you buy a bottle of booze. (David likes scotch.)
- Whenever things seem bleak, you do a shot.
- At the end of the project, you put the bottle the on your Bottle Shelf.
- Over time, the bottles line up next to each other, showing a liquid bar chart of project happiness and success.
Of course, this would work with other important life activities, too.
Years. Children. Vacations. Marriages. You name it.