In leadership training, they will introduce "The 4 D’s". The irony is that only a few of these seminars put them in the right order. They are:
Dump – Do you really need to do the task and should you have been asked in the first place ? If no, then say so.
Delegate – If you can’t "return to sender" but are not the right person for the job, "own it" but delegate to a better resource.
Delay – Few if any tasks are "a one man show" so if you know you will need input from others, send out those requests right away and focus on other tasks until you have received the information you need to do the work.
Do – When all else fails, "just do it".
None if this is new and none of it is my own brilliant thinking.
I find #3 to be the most powerful for most of my work. The longer I procrastinate on a task, the closer the deadline looms and the more work that falls to me to complete in "extra hours". I can get perhaps 75% or more of a task off my plate if I take just a few minutes to look over what is needed and either fire off an email to the requester for details or send out the sub-tasks (delegate). I let the responses trickle in over a couple of days and then do the assembly in one sitting.
University of California – Davis has a guide for students that really applies to business as well.
I finally got over my most recent paralysis and fear of tackling the kitchen cabinets. Sometimes a task seems so big and so fraught with potential disaster, that it is easy to "do something else" rather do the task. For the past month, I gave myself a "pass" and did not beat myself up too much as long as I did projects that needed doing and didn’t just goof off.
So, over the past two days, I did a lot of things …
I did not fall off the face of the earth. Nor did I fall into a batch of quick drying tile mortar. I still have all of my fingers and toes.
I’ve been spending about 4 hours every weeknight and most of the weekend trying to get projects finished at the farmhouse. The reality is that about 5 projects are "more done" than they use to be but nothing feels like it is ready to be scratched off the to-do list.
The floors were installed in the residence (other than the tile in the wetroom). I’m not happy with the quality of the installation and I think I am s*****d on that one. The biggest issue is that they did a sucky job with the main seam in the living room and is show SOOOO badly I don’t know what to do. I’ve been told it will "tighten up" so I’m giving it tens days before I become a clear and present PITA. (picture to follow in the next couple of days.)
The tiling job in the wetroom continues but at a glacier pace. Measuring from the floor up, there is the bottom one foot I was told to leave until last, then there is four feet of the field color. There there is the accent stripe (tiled on a 45 degree angle <oye>. I still have three more feet above that and then the floor and then that last one foot. Oh yeah … and all of the grout. I figure that’s four more nights plus a Saturday. (picture of the progress to follow in the next couple of days.)
I wanted the old-house look so I purchased 5/4" x 4" stock from the lumber yard. This stuff is far from budget minded. Unfortunately, it was all wrong. The wood turned out to be only 3-1/2" wide (something I should have realized) but worse than that, it was 4-3/16" thick – that’s 6/4 stock ! So now I have 160 board feet of the stuff in my lumber racks for some other project. It will make a nice top for a vanity or side table. It’s not hardwood but it has nice grain and it *IS* thick !
The final trim around all of the doors will be 3/4" x 4-1/2" wit ha bead detail on the inside edge. I decided to save some time and bought pre-primed. I’ll run it all through the router table today to add the detail, then start cutting it to fit each door. I’ll mark it all since I want to give the pieces a coat of paint before it goes up. (At least you know what I’m doing all day <ugh>)
There’s still some electrical to finish; the AC has not been hooked up; the plumber can’t do his thing until the wetroom and kitchen are ready; there is still a punch list on the steel; the front porch and landscaping are non-existent and will remain that way for at least a couple more months; and the spiral staircase won’t get installed until after the occupancy permit because (1) it isn’t required; and (2) it needs to go through the paint shop for primer and final color.
Random …
Zen put on some weight, I lost some weight
I have a business trip this week so will lose 2 or 3 nights work on the tiling
a 3600 sq ft shop feels small when you have so many unfinished projects and everything is still being stored on the floor (I can’t even get a car inside at the moment)
the week brought us rain, rain, thunderstorms, clouds, thunderstorms, the 3 H’s, cool-sunny-dry-windy … the weather men got every day wrong !
Wallops had to scrub the Minotaur I rocket launch three times (yes, the Eastern Shore has it’s own full scale space vehicle launch facility)
the Popcorn Hour got a replacement drive so it’s back up and running
my employer has asked I start a "business oriented" blog – it wont’ take any content from since I don’t talk about that kind of work on this blog although, I may occasionally reference one blog from the other
Dinner last night was Chicken and garlic Alfredo over garden pasta with brussels sprouts
So there you have it. One post for a week’s worth of content. It doesn’t help me get to the magical 1000 post milestone but at least you know I still care enough to write Oh, and for this to truly have been a roundup, it should have been posted by Saturday <doh!>
I had the dumb luck and good sense to call a friend of mine “out of the blue”. The call may have been inspired by our mutual appreciation of a particular beverage but more so than not, it was driven by a real appreciation of life.
For anyone who remembers the lyrics to “Wear Sunscreen“, there is one bit of sage advice,
“Understand that friends come and go, but what a precious few should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps and geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.”
If asked which friends I’d call for the greatest or worst news of my life, there are a few that come to mind – Oregon, Maine, Maryland, and Washington (both the district and the state) would be on the list as would New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It may not seem like a lot, but the depth and breadth of these few is astounding. Obviously there are lots more and I try (not too well I must admit) to stay in touch with each of them. FYI, feel free to harass me if you feel left out!
For me, what sets apart *real* friends from usual friends and a quaintnesses is the ability to chat for hours about nearly nothing and yet feel happy to have spent the time or to call “down” and close “happy and uplifted”. The time is just open. There is no “catching up”; rather, the ramblings bounce from topic to topic, as if an idle conversation over coffee or a cocktail.
So, If you are feeling up for a challenge, pick up the phone (don’t even think about using email). Find a long lost number in your Rolodex. And dial, dial, dial. (then smile, smile, smile). Consider this a new “top” on your to-do list if you dare <grin>
I went to a small public school in Maine and then went to a competitive engineering school in Massachusetts. I went from a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond. I quickly established a philosophy that served me well back then and still does today …
There will always be someone further up the food chain than me and someone further down the food chain than me.
To put this in other popular terms …
Be thankful for what you’ve got.
When I was a kid, Saturday evening was for “The Muppet Show”. (That should give a sense of my age.) One show never left my memory. Thanks to YouTube, the segment I remember is still available …
In leadership training, they will introduce "The 4 D’s". The irony is that only a few of these seminars put them in the right order. They are:
Oh, and for this to truly have been a roundup, it should have been posted by Saturday <doh!>
I had the dumb luck and good sense to call a friend of mine “out of the blue”. The call may have been inspired by our mutual appreciation of a particular beverage but more so than not, it was driven by a real appreciation of life.
