Smashing DIY Without A Hammer: Productivity Tips For Any DIY Project
Embarking on DIY projects at home can be daunting. The benefits are, of course, obvious. When you do things yourself, you get to both save money and enjoy a home you’ve helped to build. In this article we take a look at what you need to consider before you even pick up a tool.
Embarking on DIY projects at home can be daunting. The benefits are, of course, obvious. When you do things yourself, you get to both save money and enjoy a home you’ve helped to build. At few other times will you have the chance to get the space precisely the way you want it. Once you get the DIY bug, you may even find that you seek projects for fun. But, that doesn’t change the fact that starting something new comes with a lot of pressure.
This is your home, after all. Whether you have a family or live alone, this is the space you come to feel safe and relaxed. If DIY goes wrong, you put that comfort at risk. In extreme cases, you may leave the space unliveable until someone else fixes your mistakes. That’s stressful to consider, and it prevents many of us from trying to do anything ourselves.
If you’re dying to do some DIY, though, it’s past time you let fear hold you back. As Susan Jeffers would say, it’s crucial that you feel the fear and do it anyway. One of the best ways to overcome that DIY phobia is to get stuck in. Of course, that can backfire if things go wrong after you give this your best shot. One failed project could see you never attempting DIY again. Which is why you need to do what you can to get this right the first time.
Productivity can help us in every area of life. You probably know that already. What you might not realise is that it could also be the answer to ensuring you get DIY right. All you need to do is keep on reading to find out the productivity steps any DIYer should take into account.
Tackle one thing at a time
There’s always something else to do in the house. Most of us have lists as long our arms about all the things we need to get around to. As such, there’s a real temptation to forever have a few DIY jobs on the go at one time. When that’s the case, the chances of things going wrong increase no end.
You can be a far more productive DIYer by keeping that list in order and tackling one thing at a time. This way, you can dedicate your full attention to each individual task. This ensures that every project you tackle has a higher chance of being a success. You may also find, in a roundabout way, that this needn’t take any longer if you go about it right. Only giving jobs half your attention does, after all, mean taking more time over each task. If something goes wrong, that time could be more than doubled. By comparison, tackling things on a job-to-job basis means that you can get your head down and finish the majority of them in a weekend or less. It also removes the room for silly errors along the way. Get into the habit of this one-at-a-time mentality, and you may find that your fear of DIY starts to fade with every job you complete to a decent standard.
Research before you get started
The majority of DIYers don’t bother to research a job before they start it, but this is terrible news. It can also disrupt your DIY productivity no end. If you have to keep stopping and starting along the way to do research, that job is going to stretch far longer than it needs to. To make sure that doesn’t happen, you should do all your research ahead of time. This may seem like a pain in your backside, but it’s a step you just can’t afford to skip. Whether you hit up YouTube or take time reading manuals and DIY blogs, you need to know as much as possible. That way, you can tackle a task and complete it without pause.
This level of prep also ensures that you can avoid mistakes well before they become a possibility. That, too, could see you steam-rollering through any project without mishap. If you want to stand any chance at being a productive DIYer, you’ll dedicate yourself to as much research as necessary. Even if that means watching videos for an entire day, you can bet it’ll save you plenty of time in the long-run.
Order everything you need ahead of time
Along the same vein, it’s also worth ordering everything you need ahead of time. Once you’ve done your research, you should know precisely which tools and supplies you need to get going. Much like with research, failing to order these ahead of time could slow your progress no end. That’s no way to DIY productivity. Instead, you should order everything from the hammers for those nails in the walls, to the roof lights which could complete your attic conversion. Only once all your supplies have arrived should you even consider getting to work. With everything to hand, you’ll be able to power through at whatever speed suits. You won’t need to stop and start. You certainly won’t need to improvise and sabotage your project along the way.
Buying everything ahead of time can also help you to lay your project out in front of you. When you can see your tools, you can understand exactly what you need to do to achieve what you’re aiming towards. And, once you start to build up some idea of that, you’ll be in a much better position for success. If it helps, you could even develop an organisation system for those supplies. That would see you not having to take so much as a minute out. That’s what we call productivity 101, and it could see you as the hottest DIYer in town.
Accept the jobs you can’t do yourself
Once you know what you need to do, you should also be in a position to work out when you should let professionals take the helm. Attempting to tackle things which require a professional touch is one of the leading reasons for DIY failure. The fact is that, no matter how determined you are to do things yourself, it just isn’t possible to DIY ever task going.
If you’re renovating your bathroom, for instance, you would need still need to find a plumber to tackle near enough anything related to your waterworks. Equally, attic or room renovations need electricians to take care of things like rewiring. That’s common knowledge. Try to tackle these things yourself, and the chances are that you’ll get them wrong. That’s because these are issues people study for years to tackle. You can’t come along after watching a YouTube video and assume you know best. Trying to do so could set your project and confidence back no end. Where electricity is concerned, you could even do yourself a nasty injury if you aren’t careful. Instead, accept that letting someone else take the helm at times is your best chance at productivity. This needn’t even mean letting go of your creative vision. For the most part, professionals like these will take care of the task at hand, and make no surface difference to your project.
Set yourself a time frame
Many of us take a long time with DIY projects because we don’t work towards any time frame. Instead, we dedicate a few hours here or there and hope to finish what we’ve started eventually. That can be disheartening when it means living in a building site for an indeterminate time. It can also lead you to lose faith in the projects at hand. Most importantly, it’s no way to a productive mindset. Instead, you should treat this the same way you would treat a project at work. AKA; you should develop clear and decent timelines. Of course, that doesn’t mean pushing yourself to insane standards. That would only lead to rushed tasks and poor quality. More, you should set realistic times which you can be sure to stick to. If you’re renovating a bathroom, for instance, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to hope for completion in a month. That’s especially doable if you take care of things like research and ordering before that month starts.
Having that loose deadline makes it far more likely that you’ll spend whole Saturdays on this, rather than a few hours. It also increases the chances of your putting some work in during your evenings. That push alone can be all the productivity boost you need to get this right. You may even find that this forward momentum sees you completing everything to a better quality. We all work best when we don’t stop and start, after all. Your timeline could also increase your feelings of achievement, as you can refer to it to check that you’re still on track. Keep on top of everything the way you planned to, and you could then tick every item off your DIY list in no time. All without ever needing to compromise the quality of the tasks you complete.
Great tips, I will definitely use! I have many upcoming DIY projects and your tips are definitely useful.