Steps for Doing Anything

[rebeccmeister]

I think one of the projects I'm going to tackle soon is updating various notebooks and lists. Hopefully scrottie and I will be able to spend at least one of our days/afternoons in Seattle in a coffeeshop somewhere, drinking tasty beverages and eating tasty snacks while I work on this project and he works on his own various miscellanea. Doing so often brings me a needed sense of quiet, which I have been feeling like I've been missing recently. It's usually my own fault when that happens, as I let myself get caught up in too much stuff and doing things (let's see - erging, lots of work, cooking dinner).

I've been feeling a bit scatterbrained about lists and projects. In being in a relationship and making plans that involve someone else, it becomes necessary to articulate one's desires for how to spend time, together and apart. How do those desires and and how do projects intersect? When is it important or nice or good to work on projects together, when should projects be an individual effort, and when should they be a joint or group effort? When projects are a joint effort, who takes the lead, or is it necessary for someone to take the lead?*

These thoughts and questions reminded me of a gift from my father, called "How to do anything in 6 steps." Here's a copy of it that he typed out on a blog entry I posted about building a worm bin four years ago: http://rebeccmeister.livejournal.com/508937.html?thread=1074185#t1074185

But it's worth re-typing the list here and thinking about it in conjunction with the above questions:

1. I listen (i.e., find out what the project is to be)
2. I think about it (make plans)
3. I get ready (gather tools and materials)
4. I do it!
5. I clean up
6. I celebrate

I love the concluding step, and I also love the idea of progressing through these steps consciously.


*If you have ideas about how to approach these questions, or stories related to them, I would love to hear about it.

Comments

[trifold-flame.livejournal.com]

Chris & I do a lot of projects together. We only have a leader if the project is unpleasant (the person who cares more keeps us accountable) or requires significantly more of one of our particular skill sets. We break down unpleasant projects into chunks and negotiate how we will distribute the work. If the project relies on skills the skilled person leads & explains as they work so the other can figure out how the project was done & be more capable of reconstruction/repair.

Otherwise we just do stuff when we feel like it or have time. Especially nowadays with the little one we rarely have time to work on things at the same time- we do a lot of chunking. We both like doing things at our own paces and then seeing how parts come together.