My two cents is to work on it some every day. Maybe some days are
better for design and paper work and research, other days are better for
firing up the power tools. Think about logging your time spent on your
projects every day, something like "1.5 hours designing drive system",
or "45 minutes on trial assembly and fitting". It may be that you are
not putting in enough hours, or spending more time planning than doing.

I suggest that having four projects going on at the same time is
probably too many, if you have a full time job. Focus on one or two of them.

A lot of people also have unrealistic views on how long a project would
take. There may be a human being somewhere who could do the project in
two weeks of steady work. However, that human being may not be you, you
may not have the skills or experience or discipline to do the project in
the most efficient way.

I used to do quite a bit of project management in my engineering job,
but even in a professional environment with very skilled people, we
usually ended up behind schedule, for one reason or another, sometimes
conflicting priorities, sometimes unexpected problems.

A standard project management tool is to have a set of milestones.
Example: End of October, drive system assembled and tested. End of
November, control system wiring complete. End of December, trial run.
Milestones are suspposed to be specific deliverables, not vague things
like "design 50% finished". This way you can tell if you are behind
schedule, etc. But stuff happens, and projects do fall behind schedule,
the trick is to get back on track and not beat yourself up too much
about being behind.

I don't know you, but one of my inlaws is infamous for starting huge
projects and not finishing them. He was refurbishing a house to move
into, and moved into it a year or two later, unfinished. He ran out of
money to buy cabinets, etc. One day I called to talk to his spouse, and
he suddenly went into a speach about how he was only at the old house to
take a short break, etc. But I had not said anything or expressed
surprise that he was at the old house, I did not even care how he spent
his time. Obviously in his mind he should have been at the new house
working on it, so he had to justify to me why he was not doing it,
whether I cared or not. This guy is a loser, and I sure hope that you
don't have as many problems as he does, but sometimes you can learn by
studying the more extreme case, and see little bits of yourself in that
reflection. People do get into patterns of behavior, and you are right
to look for a way to break a pattern of behavior.

I think that many people suffer from project paralysis. The project
looks so large that they don't know where to start, and they worry more
than they work. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Good luck. Maybe this gives you something to think about.

Richard



Tom Gardner wrote:

I think I hit a new record of being a full year late on a project....a YEAR!
I've decided that most of the delay is due to poor time management.
Basically, it's a production machine with many sub-projects, all this stuff
needs to be envisioned, sketched, drawn, built, tested, revised and
installed. A lot is bull work drilling and taping and simple machining.
Some is more involved. No big deal, that's what I do, in addition to
everything else, mostly boring office work. I could probably finish-up in a
week or two if I was on my game and undisturbed. (People tell me I'm
disturbed) Two months ago, I could probably have finished-up in a week or
two if I was on my game and undisturbed. I find it harder and harder to
switch hats and utilize my shop time most productively.

Are there any secrets to managing projects that you will share? I need a
new road map. It was suggested to do the hardest sub-assemblies first and
fill in short times with bull work. I've been told to do the easiest stuff
first, the shortest time stuff first, the longest time stuff first, the most
exciting stuff first....etc. etc. etc.

I have four more major projects on the book and I want to manage them
better...they will make me some serious money! I'm always amazed at some of
the things that you guys do...tell me the secret!