I'm a finisher - who'd have thought it?

I've been clearing out my computer, and yes this is textile related - eventually! 
At first it was a question of randomly deleting older files but I could see that working this way wasn't going re-assure me that I'd not missed anything so I worked out a system for checking the remaining files and am gradually searching through everywhere on my laptop. To my surprise I find I'm enjoying this task, one that I'd always considered dreary in the past, and wondered why. 

There have been several times in the last couple of years where I've gone through a similar process i.e. before starting something I've thought about the best way to tackle it and broken it down into manageable steps, each with their own target so that even bigger tasks that go on over a period of time have manageable goals. I know this isn't rocket science but for someone who's always considered themselves a starter and enjoys the research/preparation as much as the activity this is quite a turnaround.

So the big question is how do I utilise this discovery in my quilting?  I know from past experience that if I plan too much the making becomes mundane because I know what I'm going to get at the end and there's little room for a bit of serendipity. Whilst working through the intentional print exercises the author described how she went through the same basic steps when layering print techniques. The outcome differed hugely because she paid attention to contrasting design elements. I've written this post as a reminder to myself because I think this idea of a re-usable framework is something that would work for me and I need to give it some further thought and not forget about it!