May - June 2009
Never Cut Wood After 4pm (and 10 more lessons about project management)
We all have different ways of working and the first challenge is to find what works best for us as individuals. Yet we can always learn from the experiences of others.
These two months I'm busy refitting the boat before leaving Toronto for Newfoundland - a 1200 mile voyage down the St. Lawrence river this summer. Won't bore you with details of the rewiring, replumbing, sea chest, new chain locker, lots of paintings etc. but I will share 10 tactics I'm learning about project management:
1) never cut wood after 4pm. No matter how much thought and planning, no matter how many times I've measured and double-checked, if I cut a piece of wood or commit to major piece of work it always goes wrong wafter 4pm. Even when the cut is correct and the piece first first time, i'll wake up the the next morning and realize I could have make a better job if I'd done it another way. So now, post-4pm is reserved for contemplating, planning, measuring, drawing out, running to suppliers, cleaning, painting, sanding, but NEVER cutting a piece of wood.
2) be grateful for your support team. We never work alone. Always there are friends or family who are supporting us - preparing meals, loaning a vehicle, running an errand, giving a hand when we need it, listening to our plans and stories of hard luck. We may think we're doing a project on our own but in reality everyone around us gets involved. (So I'd like to acknowledge Madla Krondl, Tom Cheng, Jiri and Simone Skopek, Eric Tay, Dan and Kong Kie.)
3) work to your strengths. We're all better at some things than others. So it makes sense to do the things we can accomplish easily and either hire someone else to do what's hard for us and easy for them; or accept that we need to take the time to learn a new skill and that the pace of work is going to slow down. This one can be a hard lesson to accept.
4) no-one cares as much as you do. You will always be the person who cares the most about your project. This can be frustrating sometimes, when standards slip or stamina is lacking, but it's a fact of life. (Do you care as much for a friend's project as he or she does?)
5) remember the WHY and not just the HOW. It's easy to get so caught up in the details of how to get things done, how to make something work, how to solve problems, that we forgot why we're working so hard in the first place. I like to take time every day to think of "Kuan Yin" already sailing down the St. Lawrence river and the exhilaration I'm going to feel when I spot blue whales from her decks this summer.
6) life comes in waves, so float up and down with them. Sometimes we're full of enthusiasm; other times we're tired of endless insoluble challenges. Recognizing that both enthusiasm and discouragement come in waves allows us not to get too downhearted or too carried away when things are going well. Chinese proverb: "Things are never as good as you think they are, and they are never as bad."
7) divide big jobs into small tasks. When to-do lists get too long the work becomes overwhelming and I slow down instead of speeding up. By giving myself smaller, more immediate goals, I maintain that important sense of getting things accomplished.
8) rewards are important. Small rewards make light work. Every 100 metre dash of a long project deserves it's own mini celebration.
9) take short breaks often. When there's a lot of get done, the temptation is to keep slogging on. But taking a short break every couple of hours actually keeps me working for longer. More gets done in the end.
10) keep a notebook. Don't rely on your memory (whatever your age) or worse, pieces of paper. When you get distracted, the details go out of your head. Better to keep it all written down.
Click on the month to read previous updates:
April 2009
Staying Home, How to Get Away Without Going Away - my new book, co-authored with Simone Pertuiset. Reviews have been great. 100 elegant ideas to have a great holiday at home any time, for a day or a month.
February 2009
On Course - countdown month to the final 24-hour practical exam.
January 2009
(Sorry - too rushed this month to write an update or add photos.)
Declaring a Mayday and calling out the Lifeboat after our sailboat began taking on sea water in a Force 8 gale in the English Channel. We later discovered a metre-long crack in the hull. The very real experience was also a great training exercise - though one I'm hoping not to have to repeat.
Adventures comes in all shapes and sizes. Completing a new book, due in January 2009, and preparing to go to England to begin a four-month Yachtmaster Offshore course of intensive sailing and navigation training.
A shorter visit in India than intended. Much has changed and much remains the same. It was truly wonderful to see people I met 25 years ago.
How has India changed in the last 25 years? I'm about to find out through the lives of people I met 25 years when I walked the length of the Ganges - India's holiest river.
The joy of dinghy sailing in Toronto and refitting "Kuan Yin" - including rebuilding the forward hatch. A lot of work but the glow of the finished varnish made it all worthwhile. So long as it doesn't leak!