... about completing projects

Actually, I did help my father with some projects. 

I remember watching him work and bleed and sweat all over some project. Sounds gross, but I was fascinated as a little kid. He was a good and careful worker, but some tool would slip, or some board would get away and bang, Dad would have some minor injury. 

What fascinated me as a kid, was his reaction to that injury and the blood. As a kid, when I saw blood, especially mine, it was time for tears and run to Momma! But there was Dad, bleeding. Bleeding on the wood! Drops of blood on the floor, and he just went on building what we needed built. 

I couldn't get my mind around ignoring an injury! Wow! And the sweat. Like my Dad, when I grew up, I turned into a sweater. No not a knitted thing you wear, I produce more sweat than other people. 

So, I remember "helping" my Dad with these projects, watching the magic of something nice, useful, beautiful being created -- amongst drops of sweat and blood. 

And I did learn some things then, and much more later. I learned that you can do just about anything you set your mind to. You can build what you need, fix what needs fixing, and you can do it as well as a professional. But it takes something extra to do so.

• You need to have the right tools. This includes having a decent work space.
• You need to know how to use the tools.
• You need the right materials. You can't build something good out of junk.
• You need to pay attention to what you are doing. You've heard "measure twice, cut once" and that's true, but you also need to think. If you're not sure what you're going to do, what's supposed to happen, how this should go -- think. Think twice, build once.
• Don't be sloppy. That sounds obvious, but too many people are sloppy anyway. Don't just throw tools and materials around. When you need a tool or some material, you need to be able to find it right now. If your work area is a mess, you will spend half your time simply searching for things. That makes all projects take too long. Don't be sloppy.
• And sometimes, you need to tear it out and do it over. If it's just going wrong, find out why and solve that problem, even if it means tearing out something you thought was done. It is more efficient in the long run to take a bit more time to do it right, rather than waste more and more time constantly coping with the effects of an earlier goof.
• Sometimes you do need to call in a professional. Sometimes you don't have time to learn all the skills. Sometimes it's just too important or too big a job. Maybe you can do anything as well as a professional, but it doesn't mean you should.

When you are getting close to "being done", you are actually only about half done.

First, don't hurry the final steps, those are often the most critical and are where a goof can make the whole project look crappy. 

Second, when you have built what you were building or repaired what needed fixing, there is all the rest of the stuff you must do.

• Double check everything you've done. You'll probably remember a few things you thought of that needed to be done, which you put off for later. Well, now's the time to finish those.
• Test everything. Everything should work as intended and shouldn't have sharp bits or weak parts that will injure someone.
• Put the final touches to it: Cleaning, polishing, whatever.
• Put everything away. All the tools, all the materials, everything back where it won't get rusty, lost or stolen. Remember to put things back where you first looked for them, not necessarily where you found them.

All of that can take quite awhile, but those steps are part of the project. The project is not done until all those steps are completed. 

And that's what I learned about completing projects.