Hi hvert, thanks for the reply

You are right - part of the issue is overthinking things. I spent a good part of this week trying to sort out whether I wanted to go to a food festival in a town four hours away or if I would be better off attending a plant workshop in a town about an hour away. What often happens in situations like this is that I wind up not being able to decide one way or another, so I do neither. In this case I registered for the class that's closer.

And, if all else fails .............you've weighed up each option and both have real benefits, you'd get something from both, nothing between them really but you absolutely can't decide...............maybe write down each option put them in an envelope, close your eyes, pick one out, and that's what you will be doing. It is afterall one day, you'll get something out of it regardless, right???
Or next time, maybe look for an option number 3 that might "grab you" more, something completely different???

I have basically hesitated to schedule my whole summer and now summer is almost gone - and I have little to show for it.

You know, that's OK............that's really only a "few months", and now you know that it's maybe time to get a bit more on top of things which you are trying to do. And now ........the rest of summer coming up............autumn.........winter..........there will be plenty more things to schedule as you go along

Two years ago I left my job to start a business. I still haven't started it. I've started about a half dozen projects and abandoned each one. Occasionally I pick one up again - but I am getting to the point where I will need to either generate an income or find a job within the next 12 months -- so I am feeling fairly disgusted with how I have spent my time, sort of wallowing in indecision.

How you've spent your time...............you know you will have got something from those projects finished or not...........it's all in experience, knowledge, skills you're acquiring or brushing up on regardless of how far you've seen them through...........and all of that can be really valuable in moving on.
And even finding things that are going nowhere is going to be a step in finding things that might lead somewhere. So you're saying maybe you've only taken small steps in this past two years, but they are still steps no matter how small!! They still count!!! And in no way has that time been completely wasted!!
And in generating an income or finding a job...........if either remain hard for you, maybe at some point you might want to go for both e.g. part time work and a bit of trying to generate income???? Just thinking there can be options, maybe???
But motivation........... ..............

And, yes, motivation is a big problem. Sometimes I have had to abandon nearly complete projects because I reach a point where an initial assumption was incorrect and continuing seems pointless. Sometimes that feeling is accurate, sometimes it's probably just an excuse.

You have learned something from all those actual pointless's, right?? "Knowledge is power".........and all that
But maybe a bit more reflection on what motivates/can motivate you??? And that doesn't even have to be "immediate" success...........maybe finding that passion??
Or even on how to hold onto that passion because you do seem to have some at the startup's?? Or finding different things to focus on/start on which might motivate you more???

And!! The timer idea of yours sounds like a really good idea!!



Alison