Most people have many different layers to their lives, to who they are, what roles they play in others lives. As much as I hope to one day be able to focus my career in the off-road world, living out my childhood dreams of spending my days building rigs, being able to business expense a trip to Moab, everyday living the life we imagine the reality TV personalities live; I'm not there yet. For now I have to juggle the same things most others do, a full time job that often requires me to travel to different places for extended periods of time to manage a project, or perform some field machining/welding miracle in a tight timeframe. I am a husband to a wonderful woman whom has some fairly serious medical conditions that requires my attention to help her get through the rough times when her lupus makes it so she can't function as she once could. I'm a father to some pretty amazing kids, and now a grandfather to a young boy that will surely be riding trails with grampie SOON. And since I had a few extra hours in a week I am now a full time college student... Somewhere in there is where I get to schedule work days in the garage, clearly they don't happen as much as I would like, and normally there are time limits to them; luckily I am normally awake before the rest of my household on the weekends, so I use that early morning time to satisfy my need for building rigs.
So how then do you make the most of the few hours here and there that you can get away to the garage to work on the stuff that you need to get done? Like most things you need to have a plan, you need to have a clear picture of what you want to get done in the given time you have. It's important to be realistic about what you can actually get done, it's not realistic to think you are going to build an entire roll cage in one day, but if you break that project down into small bites it makes it much more manageable. Instead of trying to get the whole cage done, make a goal to get the rear section done, or the node at the top of the cab that you know will take the most time. It's also important to give yourself some alternate tasks for when you hit a roadblock, maybe you get into your scheduled task and realize you don't have all of the parts, that special tool you need to do the job is broken, or you just aren't feeling it.
That last one is the hardest, tools and parts can be sourced pretty easily, but motivation to do something can be tough. especially if it's a tough task, or one that you don't have a lot of experience with. hitting a mental roadblock can take some real work to get through, and most professionals can attest to how important it is to refocus rather than just pushing through when you aren't 100% in the project. Have a small list of sub-tasks that you can work on, it can be something small, but sometimes just the feeling of accomplishing something is enough to get your head in the game.
Make a List! How are you going to know what to do next? How are you going to know what you have left? How are you going to know what you need to order? It doesn't have to be a super organized list, I've tried a few different types from handwritten notes, whiteboards, to Excel spreadsheets, for me having a mixture of all of these works best. I like to have a whiteboard in the garage right by the project, that makes it easy to look at it between tasks to decide what the next step should be. I like to have a written plan of the project with a little more detail than the whiteboard, and finally I like to have an Excel spreadsheet to list the parts needed, this makes it super easy to get a rough total for parts and helps to bring the whole picture of the project into reality.
Most times I really enjoy my early weekend solo mornings in the garage, music cranking, sparks flying, getting shit done. It calms me, re-centers me. Other times you look at the workload ahead of you and need to plan out a big boys "Play date" set a date, and a list of projects, then invite your buddies to come lend a hand, most will be happy to help out where they can (especially if you feed them) when they show up make sure you have a task to give them, nothing is worse than giving up a Saturday to help someone out and them not having a plan of attack on the project, often the day is wasted trying to figure out what to do, and then nothing really gets done. Have a list of tasks you want the group to get done, and make sure you have enough of a variety of tasks that people of different levels can work on independently, it doesn't make sense to have someone come over to help then you need to show them every damn step!
I hope this blog will help you guys focus a bit, sit down and make a list, come up with a plan, that way when you only have 4 hours to get something done you can actually get 4 hours of work done.
Words of wisdom from a master
So how then do you make the most of the few hours here and there that you can get away to the garage to work on the stuff that you need to get done? Like most things you need to have a plan, you need to have a clear picture of what you want to get done in the given time you have. It's important to be realistic about what you can actually get done, it's not realistic to think you are going to build an entire roll cage in one day, but if you break that project down into small bites it makes it much more manageable. Instead of trying to get the whole cage done, make a goal to get the rear section done, or the node at the top of the cab that you know will take the most time. It's also important to give yourself some alternate tasks for when you hit a roadblock, maybe you get into your scheduled task and realize you don't have all of the parts, that special tool you need to do the job is broken, or you just aren't feeling it.
That last one is the hardest, tools and parts can be sourced pretty easily, but motivation to do something can be tough. especially if it's a tough task, or one that you don't have a lot of experience with. hitting a mental roadblock can take some real work to get through, and most professionals can attest to how important it is to refocus rather than just pushing through when you aren't 100% in the project. Have a small list of sub-tasks that you can work on, it can be something small, but sometimes just the feeling of accomplishing something is enough to get your head in the game.Make a List! How are you going to know what to do next? How are you going to know what you have left? How are you going to know what you need to order? It doesn't have to be a super organized list, I've tried a few different types from handwritten notes, whiteboards, to Excel spreadsheets, for me having a mixture of all of these works best. I like to have a whiteboard in the garage right by the project, that makes it easy to look at it between tasks to decide what the next step should be. I like to have a written plan of the project with a little more detail than the whiteboard, and finally I like to have an Excel spreadsheet to list the parts needed, this makes it super easy to get a rough total for parts and helps to bring the whole picture of the project into reality.
Most times I really enjoy my early weekend solo mornings in the garage, music cranking, sparks flying, getting shit done. It calms me, re-centers me. Other times you look at the workload ahead of you and need to plan out a big boys "Play date" set a date, and a list of projects, then invite your buddies to come lend a hand, most will be happy to help out where they can (especially if you feed them) when they show up make sure you have a task to give them, nothing is worse than giving up a Saturday to help someone out and them not having a plan of attack on the project, often the day is wasted trying to figure out what to do, and then nothing really gets done. Have a list of tasks you want the group to get done, and make sure you have enough of a variety of tasks that people of different levels can work on independently, it doesn't make sense to have someone come over to help then you need to show them every damn step!
I hope this blog will help you guys focus a bit, sit down and make a list, come up with a plan, that way when you only have 4 hours to get something done you can actually get 4 hours of work done.
Words of wisdom from a master
Excellent job on the blog!
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