How do I finish a nonfiction book instead of starting another?

The short answer

Three habits do most of the work:

1. Carry fewer books. Keep no more than three projects active at once. Everything else waits somewhere you can see it but do not have to carry it.
2. Park new ideas, do not start them. A new book idea deserves a note and a title, not a first chapter.
3. Make returning easy. End each session by marking exactly where you stopped and what comes next, so the next session starts with writing, not with finding your place.

Why do I keep starting new books?

A new idea is exciting and asks nothing of you yet; the book you are in the middle of asks for the hard part. Every open project also takes a little attention, even when you are not working on it. Research on working memory suggests we can hold about three to four things in mind at once, not the seven that is often quoted (Cowan, 2010). Five open books is more than the mind can carry, and the easiest one to feel good about is always the one you have not started.

What should I do with new book ideas?

Keep them, but somewhere that asks nothing of you: a single list or shelf of ideas and drafts, each with a title and a line on what it is about. The idea is safe, so there is no urgency to start it — and when one book is finished, the list is where the next one comes from.

How does Wretify help you finish?

Wretify keeps at most three books and three articles active at once, on purpose. Everything else sits on your Ideas & Drafts shelf or moves to Finished; when you pause or finish one, another can become active. My Writing (Alt+W) always opens on your active work, so what you see first is what you are finishing.

To make returning easy, leave a bookmark in the chapter — one per chapter, with a note to yourself — and the next time you open that chapter it scrolls straight to it. Nothing is deleted and nothing is forbidden: the limit only decides what you carry.

The myth of 7 ± 2 — why three →