At GillyMac I have projects I am doing for classes, I have the childrens’ class projects all here in baskets ready for their next lesson, I have projects on my design wall for new patchwork classes, I have projects on the mannequin for my next sewing class, I have cushions ready to be covered for next weeks class and I have Kaffe Fassett material cut for a project I said I would do for Vanessa at Lady Sew and Sew. I also have oodles of notes around the studio for the 3 childrens entries to the Festival of Quilts this year and yet more project ideas partly written up in my note book ready for .. whenever. ….. Is this too many projects.. ??
In my past life I ran project teams across Europe, the Middle East and Africa all of whom were at various stages of installing or commissioning optical networks in those locations. The pace of work was very fast and the workload was back breaking. At any point I was expected to be able to talk about the margin, deployment timescales and cash position of each project. It was difficult for me not to want to know the minutia of each project – which was impossible and an ever decreasing circle of stress.
Now my projects are different… I can list them and I can know every detail of them. I can control them without needing to trust employees or partners far removed from me… It is bliss ! My project secret these days is the invention of the Zip Lock bag, not about the lastest voice over Ethernet technology.
This afternoon, I have used my ‘free time’ to sort out my filing and prepare my projects. All the projects are now placed in zip lock bags of various sizes, with Post-It notes (another top invention) detailing my current thoughts on how the project should look and the timescales I am working to. I have scheduled all these projects in my on-line calander, and worked out the realistic chance of getting them all done in time, whilst looking after the girls, Brian, the cat and the PTA. The outlook is good ! ..
You can never have too many projects when you love what you do… just put them in zip lock bags, don’t hide them away in cupboards, stack them within sight all ready for the day they become ‘the’ current project and are written up ready to share with others !
