I’m nearing the end of my Dear Jane journey (or at least the piecing leg of my journey), but I still sometimes get stuck in that same old trap.

And this, my very last advanced difficulty triangle, was no exception.

While complex, the piecing was relatively straightforward. Appliqué the diamond on the top piece, then piece together that intricate center diamond section and inset it into the top piece.

But I just couldn’t seem to get started. The registration marks on the Avery label patterns alone were overwhelming:

I vowed to get moving on the block on a Saturday where I was meeting with quilting friends on Zoom. But two hours into it, all I had done was cut out two pieces and appliqué one to the other.

In other areas of my life, when I’m struggling to get started on something, my go-to productivity hack is to break the big task down into smaller and smaller tasks, until I end up with something so “stupid easy” that I can’t help but commit to getting that first step done.

And once I’ve done that one simple thing, often the momentum is enough to carry me through to the second step, and the third, and so on.

So, the next morning, I vowed to cut out the four diamonds in the center and stitch them together. I didn’t do any thinking about what came next … just made myself take that first step of cutting out the four diamonds.

And once those were stitched together, it seemed only natural to continue on with the pieces that went around the edges of those diamonds.

I’ll admit, I dragged my feet a little bit on that inset seam, but once I finally just started it, it didn’t take that long to complete. And the rest of the block was a piece of cake.

The most important part of finishing a quilt block is just starting.