World's Longest Sudoku - Finished!

I set a goal to complete The World's Longest Sudoku Puzzle by August 15.  Today, 4 weeks ahead of schedule, I finished the final puzzle!  With our need for instant gratification, it feels good to plan and complete a long-term project.  And I hope that these 8,929 correct answers in the 167 interlocking puzzles will help keep my brain young. 

One Small Move

I got stuck while working a particularly challenging Sukoku puzzle this week.  There were so many squares remaining with 2 or 3 possible answers.  After reviewing every row, column and section I finally found one more answer.  This small move was all that was required to be able to solve the rest of the puzzle.  In life as in Sudoku, sometimes one small move creates the positive momentum to finish a project. 

World's Longest Sudoku

One of my gifts is the World's Longest Sudoku by Frank Longo.  It is nearly 22 feet long (21'9 3/4") and has 167 puzzles with 8,929 empty squares.  I know I can rise to the challenge and plan to complete it by August 15, 2011.  I thought 33 weeks (5 puzzles per week) was a very reasonable goal - then I saw a review on Amazon by someone who completed it in 12 days.

I still think mine is a very reasonable goal for me.  This stark contrast in expectations was a helpful reminder that we all need to set goals that are 3M:  meaningful, measurable and meetable.