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on projects and slippage
I started a series of projects on home and garden back in January and, when lockdown hit us, these became something of a primary focus for me. I said at that point that I would hit my overall objectives in terms of time and money, but, as so often happens in professional life, things have changed.
Taking my personal goals as a microcosm of business workings I have seen a familiar progression in that now, around seventy percent of the ay through my personal programme, the needs have changed and so what I had planned on in therms of certain specific objectives are no longer necessary.
Part of the problem has been in delays from external suppliers; the new shed is still not here and is now four weeks behind schedule and the new greenhouse is unlikely to arrive before next Spring. Both of these issues are primarily due to Covid-19 firstly because demand for garden products shot up during lockdown and then because the production facilities were not working at capacity having had to deal with the impact of lockdown, social distancing and the like. These things happen.
Then there were the things that were uncovered as work progressed; the bae for the new shed required digging out of some significant root systems and even the had to be raised about 10cm. Clearance of waste was affected by Covid-19 restrictions and instead of a daily trip to the tip I could not go for about a month and then was restricted to two trips a month.
If I were to be sitting with an employer discussing how well I had performed in terms of meeting the objectives set nine months ago I would not be doing too well I suspect, but therein lies another story and one that I have visited here before. The bottom line is that the world changes around us and we need to be able to recognise that.
Looking at where I am now against where I was in January the difference is huge and whilst I have not sone some of what I set out to, because of external forces, we are in a much better place than we were at the start of the year. My main aim of having the deck sorted out so that we could enjoy some of the Summer sitting out has gone because Summer is past. That is a shame, but the bulk of the hard work is done and come next Spring it will al be there for us to enjoy.
In business we often become so focussed on getting to an objective that we miss the fact that we do not need to get to that place any more. Time and money are expended on things that have become obsolete or for which the immediate need has passed. Plans should always be flexible because, to quote the old military adage, no plan survives past first contact with the enemy. Your strategy may still be current, but the tactics have to adapt to what is going on around you.
Hang loose and take advantage of what you can do as long as it helps you prgress
the lockdown log 26
Well, here we are on a bright, if cold, Thursday morning six months on from my first Lockdown Log. How time flies, but we could be in for another six months yet if not longer.
I have had my first three month review since being diagnosed as Diabetic type 2 and the first results are OK. I get the rest of the news next week when the blood test data comes through. The only negative for me so far is that my knackered kidneys are showing a fractional potassium deficiency, but I have been there before and will get back on the daily bananas. My feet have been examined and found acceptable and I go for my eye assessment tomorrow, fortunately the centre is a ten minute walk away so I have no transport problems for getting home.
On the project front my new shed is not coming until next month according to the latest estimate. Not great news, but I have plans, F, G and H ready to deploy as necessary. Hopefully the rain will hold off today and I can get a decent day’s work done out there.
Somewhere in the timetable I will try and fit in another exercise walk. Since I restarted doing these at the end of June I have racked up just over 200 km (125 miles) and am going to try and double that by the end of the year. Next year I am going to go for 1000 km in the full year just in exercise walking (I also do over 10 km a day at work five days a week, but that doesn’t count). At the moment I am contemplating trying a 10 km exercise walk. Accepting that I do that easily in four hours whilst getting paid for it and that I have been told to stop power walking on tarmac because of aging joints I reckon that 10 km is going to take me over two hours and my real reluctance is in investing that amount of time. Watch this space…
The Berkshire Belle is over her fears of going out and we have made a couple more shopping trips plus one to the doctor’s for her ‘flu jab (I had mine when I went for my diabetic tests). She loathes wearing a mask like many do, but it is one of the things that we have to put up with. At least she is past that dread of going out and that has to be good.
Autumn seems to be upon us and I am trying to remember that there are various annual jobs that need to be plugged into my assorted projects. The gutters need maintenance, bulbs need planting, leaves need clearing up and the Hawthorn is dropping a large quantity of its fruit all over the front lawn just to list a few. All of this keeps me busy and stops me thinking too much about the bad things going on around in the world. Ignorance is bliss and I am happy to maintain my own degree of oblivion.
I hope that you are all doing as well as you can, so stay safe out there wherever you are.
the lockdown log 20
Weather extremes are messing with my efforts to keep my various projects on track, the extreme heat not being conducive to labouring outside nor for some of the indoor jobs and now heavy rain has further complicated things; traipsing mud around is not popular and I have to wait for things that I could not paint because it was too hot to dry out before I can paint them.
These are the sort of buggerment factors that all project manage to face up to and I will manage somehow. The year is slipping by and it is now barely light when I get up at five in the morning and darkness is falling by around nine in the evening. There is still much to do if I am to meet my self-imposed plans, but if I look back there is a huge amount completed. I have written in my Monday Musings blogs about the need to occasionally stop and look back to see how far you have come and it is an important psychological boost when you start to feel that you are losing momentum.
Having written my last Monday Musing on crisis management I had to put my abilities into practice last week when one of the local foxes wandered into the house and then went berserk trying to get back out. Fortunately keeping calm and being patient Reynard was persuaded to leave, but in its blind panic it took a while for it to realise that it was rushing past an open door in its attempts to get out of a window. No damage was done in the house and the fox seems to have recovered as it has been several times since.
Such diversions are not always welcome, especially when, as happened here, I had just got everything ready to start a job when I was called shift our furry visitor. By the time that I had got rid of it, helped to restore order in the house and discussed with the Berkshire Belle (who had taken it all very calmly) how we could prevent further incursions I had largely gone off the idea of what I had gone out to do. Certainly it took me so long to get my head back into the game that I didn’t get the job finished.
With the Law of Sod in full swing it appears that my deck stain sill be delivered today or tomorrow. I will re-check the directions, but given that the weather has broken (after the thunder storm of last night it has already rained three times this morning in the two and a half hours that I have been up. Looking at the forecast my chances of getting the new decking fry enough to stain look bleak for the next ten days or so. Ho hum; Plan M I think I am up to now.
I cut my hair again this week, the fourth self-haircut of this Summer. My usual barber has apparently reopened, but I am a little twitchy about going there as we have a significant upsurge on the Covid-19 front here. So another sit in the back garden with the clippers and using my ‘phone camera as a substitute mirror has, at least, tidied me up again. In the process of using the ‘phone to check my work I inadvertently took a selfie; who is this old git I see before me? Small wonder that they want me to wear a mask when out; it must make me look less frightening. Age creeps up…
One of the biggest problems we face at the moment is that hope is being drained. I can only speak from a personal perspective, but the little things that we enjoy as a couple; going out to shop, to eat or to visit places is lost for the foreseeable future. An end to the pandemic is not in sight and we are trying to adapt, but many of the things that brought us joy are out of reach. Yes I know that there are millions worse off than we are and that we have many privileges that others crave, but that is where we have to try and get our mindset changed. We have become used to being free to do what we can afford to do and now we can’t much of that and, because we think that is is sensible, are choosing not to do other things.
This week we have learned that one of my nieces and her partner have bought Covid-19. Fortunately they seem to have been only mildly affected, but they are the first people that we know that have caught it and even though they live an hour’s drive away it somehow brings it closer.
At the end of the day we have each other and that matters enough to keep us fairly sane in these weird times. We hope that you are all staying safe too.
the lockdown log 19
Not a great week for us here in Swindon as we have rocketed into the Nation’s top ten, possibly even the top five if some reports are to be believed and are therefore under the threat of a lockdown. People locally are frightened a little more than they were.
Talk of a lockdown for the over fifties would impact on me. I am classified as a key worker, but that might not count if things change and my employer is a caring one and has already furloughed a pregnant colleague so even if I am exempt in a regulatory sense I might get bounced anyway. Wait and see. I shall not worry about it as it is out of my control, but I will have to think about how I deal with not being the hunter gatherer as I am now.
This worldwide plague is not going away and we obviously need a vaccine to counter it. We don’t have one yet, but seemingly we could be close. The problem with these things is that you only know in hindsight if you have got it right and that makes life very difficult. All we as individuals can do is to be responsible and try not to catch it or spread it.
WAs that a pig I just saw fly past the window? Probably not and the chances of everyone behaving responsibly are the same as me seeing a flying porker. Whilst I do not look to social media for intelligent debate I do read things there and the level of stupidity and ignorance is breathtaking even if you take out the politically motivated stuff. It is a shame that Covid-19 is not selective enough to take out these people.
Anyway, enough ranting for now. We are coping here well enough and remain healthy so I have little to complain about beyond the thoughts above. The world still turns and I get to see the sun and moon in turn. Our lives are different, but we still have them and I am grateful for that.
The weather is very erratic this year, again, and there can be no doubt that we are having to live with the effects of climate change. What the balance is between the natural world doing what it has done since the beginning and the efforts of certain portions of humankind I don’t know, but we try to do what we can to help. I understand that my efforts are puny in the wider scale, but every little helps and so my revamping of the garden includes plans to go from four water butts to five and space is being made for a second compost bin (although I am not sure we have enough waste to justify another one).
All of these little projects help to occupy my mind. I like solving puzzles anyway and the intellectual challenges of my assorted projects, no matter how small they are, does help to keep me amused, if at times frustrated. Anything is better that sitting around wasting my days; I know that I don’t have too many left now so I try to make them all good ones.
Stay safe out there, one and all.
on implementation
Almost anything that you change can be a project, so from simple things within the office to nationwide rollouts I have seen a lot. Some I have been on the receiving end for, in others I have been part of the roll out team and for some I have been the sponsor. Not all have gone well, so let us have a look at why. Read more…
on knowing where you are starting from
I have written before about how something that I was taught early in my life began to useful to me much later, and often in ways that I had not considered when first learning it. One of these was summed up in the words; “If you want to get somewhere, always know where you are starting from”. Read more…
Just do it
Things that need to be done can sometimes seem hard, complicated and daunting. Finding a place to start can often be hard and as for trying to get diverse groups of people around the table, let alone to agree to anything, looks impossible. There are all sorts of platitudes that can get trotted out at times like this; the journey of a thousand paces starts with a single step, or eating the elephant one bite at a time being two of my least favourites, especially when they are trotted out by people who don’t have to do the hard jobs. Making things happen takes all sorts of things, but there is one tool that works every time. Read more…
project lessons from the air
Something that they teach you when you are learning to fly are the three most useless things for a pilot; runway behind you, altitude above you and fuel left in the bowser. Read more…
is your scope creeping?
Scope creep has become an accepted term in project management and, sadly, it has become one you seem to hear more and more. It isn’t something that you can entirely eliminate, but that is no reason not to be trying. Scope creep will almost always cost more in terms of time and money so avoiding the worst Read more…
it’s not scope creep; it’s business as usual
My dislike of management speak is well documented here, but I still have to deal with its use on a daily basis and one such expression that has cropped up a lot over the last couple of weeks is Scope Creep. Read more…
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