I’ve spent the last 6 months dabbling in some self-employed gardening work, with a dash of handyman duties here and there. Before that though, I’ve had around a decades worth of experience getting hands-on with problem solving and completing tasks.
I wanted to share some simple, condensed lessons I’m constantly being reminded of through the work I do & hobbies I enjoy. They don’t just apply to manual labour or DIY; you might very well find you’ll be thinking of them in all walks of everyday life!
#1 – You’ll reach for the same 20% of your tools for 80% of the time. So it not only pays to look after that 20%, but to (in time) invest decently into good quality versions of them. Also, organise them so that they’re easy to access & quick to grab.
#2 – Regular Cleaning and Maintenance go a long way to making your kit easier to use, longer lasting, and the job at hand more pleasurable to complete. Try cleanly slicing a tomato with a blunt knife and you’ll feel what I mean.
#3 – Measure twice, cut once – IE Double check your work before commiting to it. Sometimes you can patch it up and repair it, sometimes you get away with something, but often there’s no “undo”.
#4 – Slow. Down. Quality comes first. Speed, or rather Efficiency, comes with lots of practice over a large span of time. This point is equally as important at work as it is at the gym.
#5 – Start somewhere. Just make the first step and the ball starts rolling.You could spend hours and hours over-planning, proofreading, editing, redoing, and re-planning, or you can just begin a rough draft of the physical product. The necessary changes & modifications will naturally become apparent as you start to implement the work.
#6 – Someone else has likely done it before you. Save your energy for major revalations, and try to find a method where someone else has done all the hard work. The internet is a beautiful thing and holds almost the collective entirety of human knowledge, including the books and documentaries which preceeded it!
#7 – Ask for help. When the task starts to get slightly out of your circle of control, you must ask for help. The human race succeeded on ‘sharing the load’. Whether it is a little (“Check this for me please”) or a lot (“This is about to seriously maim me!”), get assistance in some way when it is clear you need a second pair of eyes/hands/death-defying assistance.
Hold yourself in high regard, and work to your best.
-Frankie
Comments