personaldevelopmentplanning

Earlier this year I found this document on creating your own career development plan. I thought this was one of the better documents and explanations of what needs to go into it, short of hiring a professional to work with you on it.

At the end of this week I’ll be posting pictures of the further progress on the house. For now it is safe to say that I have resumed progress on it. No welding, no playing, no BBQ getting in the way. Now I am sticking to the schedule I’ve created and I am looking forward to progress.

I do have to say I miss the hobbies. I love cooking and reading books about cooking and even planning about cooking. Then there’s welding. I must have 500lbs of metal in my garage just for me to experiment and practice welding and cutting and brazing on. Most of it came from the junk yard so I’m not that worried.

Then there’s just hanging out. Well that’s not so much a hobbie as something I try to force myself to do everyone once in a while. Sitting still is hard to do.

Here are some pictures of the progress so far.

Not bad for a guy who only used his mitre saw for chunking up logs for his smoker.

It’s been about three weeks since I started the house restoration project. So far it’s made significant progress. We pulled off the siding, replaced the trim and molding on the house, cleaned up the mess, and are putting together a plan to complete the job.

The toughest thing about this kind of a project or any project for that fact is to have an action plan. Getting started is the hardest part but finishing can be anguishing if you don’t have a schedule together to complete the job.

So in that light we’ve built a plan to complete the job. Necessary items have been purchased and the site is almost ready to begin weekly progress on it. Here are steps to finalize the plan.

Step 1. Identify
Identify what needs to be done and how long it will take to complete the job. Don’t anticipate it will go worry free so when going around looking at what you’ve got to do double the time you think it will take so you are prepared. That way if it takes less, you’re ahead.

Step 2. Schedule
Create a schedule for the tasks. During the week be modest, take on small tasks that aren’t going to be ruined by weather and other factors, like kids or work. Everything should be included in the schedule; i.e. purchasing supplies, setting up equipment, clean up, and of course the activities.

Step 3. Sign-Off
Get sign off by all involved parties. In a home project this means the wife and family. If you need help and have people coming down to help get them to buy in on the timings as well.

Step 4. Publish
Publish the plan in a place that everyone can see and that they can be reminded automatically by. Google calendars is a great place for something like this and it’s free.

Step 5. Execute
Work the plan. Once you have everything good to go, start the work. Make sure you keep track of what you’ve done so you’ll stay motivated. This will obviously be the plan, but it can also be a project journal or a blog site.

Good luck and check back soon to see where we’re at.