A Little Every Day

People have given me a lot of advise over the years. “Do what you love.” Ha ha. “Measure twice, cut once.” Well, that would depend, wouldn’t it.

In the end there are only a couple of phrases which stick with me. One was “Always run to something, not from something.” Run to a new job, not from an old one. Run to safety, not from a fire. Maybe I’ll write about why that helps sometime.

Another piece of advice which I still apply is “Do a bit every day.” Let me explain.

This was given to me by a friend of my parents when I had a young family and I was renovating our home. The size of the task ahead was daunting and time was in short supply because nappies needed changing, bread needed winning and the basic necessities of life needed attending to. It was overwhelming.

I tried planning the work and sticking to the plan but I always slipped behind which was stressful in itself, just adding to the problem. I suffered and the family suffered.

Then I tried to “do one job every day” and it changed everything. The “one job”, Joe told me, needn’t be big, in fact it could be as simple as placing a single tile or laying a single floorboard. Sometimes the job was just 5 minutes when everyone else was in bed. No pressure to finish, no schedule to keep to.

The amazing thing was that as the days passed, stuff got done. As if by magic walls were tiled and floors were laid. And the stress was gone.

I put the success of this “technique” down to two things. First, sometimes just getting started is the hardest part. After that the job becomes easier than you thought and it’s done before you know it. The other factor is that as the days pass you maintain some momentum. A couple of times I stopped doing a job everyday and it became harder to get that momentum back. Each and every day something gets done and you move closer to your goal.

When the house was finally complete it turned out to be an immensely rewarding experience.