It’s good to have some unfinished business

Why it’s a good idea to leave some things incomplete

We’ve just learned, courtesy of The Reading Agency, that it is perfectly normal not to finish a book. If you’re slogging on to the end simply to get to the end, you’re proving nothing – and you might as well give up.

Well, what a blessed relief that is. It’s like discovering that it’s fine to sign up for 10 Pilates lessons and only turn up to two. No guilt necessary. And if not finishing books is now allowed, then there must be plenty of other activities that we can, on reflection, recategorise as Better Left Unfinished. How about…

♦ The really bad play. To be fair, leaving at the interval is a bigger decision than abandoning, say, Fifty Shades of Grey

(the book with the distinction of being top of the “most frequently unfinished” chart). You must live with the knowledge that the cast will, at some point, see your abandoned seats and, in that moment, realise that they have failed in their job. Then again, half a play, plus dinner, is a night salvaged.

♦ The last bottle of wine that you said you should not open – for pity’s sake, leave it. What is £7.99 down the drain as compared with sleeping on the bottom stair and, in the morning, driving over your handbag?

♦ The declutter. It’s a good idea to bin the seed catalogues from 2014, and the out-of-date star anise, and the Jo Malone boxes (what are you saving these for?), but you will need to stop well before the finish line. The truth is that most of your possessions are on the clutter spectrum. Pretty much everything needs replacing or refreshing and, if you’re not very careful, you’ll end up living in a room with nothing in it but a sofa, the TV, the Dyson and your new pasta tongs.

♦ The game of Monopoly/ Trivial Pursuit. Any board game really – they never end. Also, croquet.

♦ The late-night argument. Some arguments are worth finishing; others pop up out of nowhere and, even in the thick of them, you can’t quite recall what it is you care about so much. A good tip for spotting the Better Left Unfinished argument is if you find yourself shouting: “LISTEN! Whatever I said Just Before This Is What I ACTUALLY THINK.”

♦ Catching up on the last series of Line of Duty (and all the other programmes you have recorded). Life is, literally, too short. And you need to hurry up and get on with six hours of Wild Wild Country.

♦ The “Go On, Someone’s Got To Finish It” dish. This is another myth from the time before fridges and cling film. You could easily put it in a bowl, cover it, and then throw it out a week later. Far better call.

♦ The disastrous haircut. Always better left unfinished so it can just about be salvaged by the expensive hairdresser the following day (albeit by giving you a Henry V bob, because there’s “not much to work with”).

♦ The conversation that ends “Right, That’s It” (with the one who’s in the middle of A-levels, say). Much better to leave that unfinished, otherwise you’re into what “It” is and if “It” has previously been hinted at you may have to see “It” through and, let’s face it… you’ve got enough on your plate.

♦ The slightly too long Pilates class. An hour is one thing, but an hour and a half? Come on. Best to adopt an “I Will Just Make It To My Power Point Presentation” expression, and duck out early.

♦ The tour of the historic site. You know when you get the strong impression that the tour guide is the cousin of the one with the history of art degree, and you can’t hear him anyway, and there are 60 of you trudging up the stairs of the tower, one at a time, in 30-degree heat… never finish those ones.

‘The slightly too long Pilates class. An hour is one thing, but an hour and a half ? Come on’