Projects I think I could finish my projects in half the time if....

Funny as

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I have left glasses (reading) on top of the car and drove off, looked up and down the road where I live and never found them.

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Anyone else have those days when you really don't feel like working on the project, but still just want to sit in the shop and look at it while you drink your favorite beverage and listen to the music in the shop? I've been getting a lot of those lately, I'm at a point where I have a couple of parts of the project need to proceed in just the right order. Little things like needing some special screws or clips, or that one small part you keep forgetting to pick up at your local hardware store that can stop the project cold.

I've reached a point where those days I really don't feel like working, I sit down and make a step by step process of what is next, and as I do that, I write down the little stuff (and the big stuff) I'm going to need to get it done. I've also learned I need to date those process lists. I keep a running list of the stuff I will need in my checkbook, I pay for all my parts through my checkbook, online purchases are paid for with a credit card that gets paid for by check. When I'm at the store, just before I go to the checkout line, I've trained myself to look at the list, that way I can get those little things we always forget. I find that that often keeps the stuff I need on hand. The bag with the parts are taped to the project, and the boxed parts sit on a flat surface on the project. The latest version of the "to do" list is also taped to the project, and at the end of every working day, anything that gets finished gets crossed off the list, but it has to be finished. Its amazing how excited one gets when he gets to scratch something finished off a "to do" list. It raises the level of you're ambition.

Then those days when I really feel like working, I know where I am on the list, and I know I have the parts on hand and where they are at. The hard part is still keeping track of stuff while I'm working on it though. Gene

 

I can lay a tool or part next to me and spent hours finding it back , go home angry and find it next day in a total different place......... my shop is haunted or I am getting crazy ( I'm betting on the last one )

 

Been there, done that! I've lost tools in the garage and never found them, spent a lot of time wondering around the garage trying to find something I just had.

 

It's seems today the one tool I needed to do the job is missing, I'm convinced I have gremlins. HRP

 

Last fall I Was putting yard stuff away for the winter.
Mid winter went to grab my screw gun.
Gone. Backtracked it’s last usage couldn’t find it.
Everyone including my kids, neighbors, cat, wife and robbers stole it.
This past spring , 6 months later, I went to return a garden tool storage box with a lid back on the wash house.
Opened the lid to attach it.....,
Thank god the screw gun was laying inside that box or I’d had to screw it on by hand.

 

I don't recall what it was I was looking for but, a few weeks back I spent some time everyday for at least a week trying to find the damn thing. Turned out it was on the stairs in the house. I stepped over it multiple times a day. It was in a box but still....
Really have no idea what it even was now.

 

I'm glad I am not alone with this problem of not finding tools and wasting half the day looking for them.

I took It a step further. I bought a house that has 2 garages that are hundred feet apart. The house garage is on hill. Now the problem is, is it in the house garage or the other garage? I do a lot of walking back and forth. Old Age can really suck sometimes

 

I'm glad I am not alone in this...

 

Me too! My wife, who is a nurse, says I have undiagnosed ADD.

 

My wife calls is AADD. Automotive Attention Deficit Disorder.

 

Ah, the wake up in the middle of the night garage search, know it well.

 

Well I lost my train of thought...
I'll be back...

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So I was thinking I could write a book about this, but one day I’d forget where I put my pencil, then after I found it, I’d spend another day looking for the note book. Vicious cycle.

 

...It's on the way...

​

 

I was seriously contemplating getting tested.... It's getting ridiculous.

 

I live in a very small house and own very little, but I still manage to lose things. I did find a quarter today, though.

 

Sounds like we're all getting to the age where we start thinking about the "hereafter"...

You go to the tool box and then spend the next 10 minutes wondering what the hell am I here after?

 

I rely heavily on my whiteboard, to make sure that I don't forget to do stuff on my builds.

 

.............I had a real shop and time (no regular job). Retirement 4.5 yrs away (hopefully), then moving to a slower paced place with a real shop on the property (the location still up in the air). I've been collecting parts, collecting cars and collecting shop supplies (hardware, containers, racks).....hopefully equipment in the future. I have old metal office type cabinets, a few nut and bolt organizer shelves and a one track mind . The only thing that can stop me is if my body craps out too soon.

 

Dad and I spent half an evening trying to find a shift indicator we had set asside for later installation. I hung it on a hook above the window so we could find it easily when we needed it. Usualy small parts seem to vanish to Narnia, but sometime tools join in the disapeering act.

 

I wish we lived closer to each other @Roothawg
More fun working together.
We'd get stuff done.
I'd always be moaning and groaning cuz of my aches and pains... and you'd forget who I am and why I'm there...
But we'd get stuff done. LOL

I live in a HUGE house. You should see me running back and forth and up and down the stairs sometimes cuz I've forgotten something or can't find something. Multiple times a day! No wonder I get worn out. And you're right... it gets ridiculous sometimes. Pretty annoying. After walking a quarter mile looking for something, once I finally find it, I need a break!

As far as losing things when you had it just a minute ago... I finally had to stop setting things down without really paying attention. Now I try to take mental note of where I set things. I even talk to myself... "You set the screwdriver on the desk." If I'm lucky, I might remember what I said to myself LOL. If it's really important I might sing a song about it LOL... Oh, the screwdriver is on the desk oh, the screwdriver's on the desk... Lalalalala...
And I've had to make extra efforts to keep my work area organized. I clean up periodically real good. I do like things neat and clean and organized. I work much better and I enjoy it more. I like it when I can go right to where something is. But I'm like anybody else... I mess it up again real good, too. But I can't let it get too bad now... or I'll never find anything.

 

All this proves my theory that ‘ a place for everything and everything in its place’ is of no value.
My chaos methodology ends up with the same results.

 

One guy I talk to sometimes is quite a bit older than I am. When I ask how he's doing, he invariably says...
Well... still able to do things.

Some of us older guys work twice as hard now and get half as much done as we used to.
But I'm glad we can still "do things."

 

I hear ya Roothawg. It's why I have multiple 1/2 and 9/16 wrenches and sockets all laying around my work area. Forget where I put one, so go to toolbox and get another. Repeat a few times. By the end of the job I have multiples of each since I can't find one, might as well have several.

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The thing is when ever I used to work for other shops ,every night at quiting time I would wipe all my tools down ,put them in the tool box exactly where they belonged and locked the tool boxes. Now all my tools are in my home shop and I have more tools and tool boxes than any 5 guys need. I must have 2 or 3 dozen 9/16 combination wrench's of every style you can think of and I will spend an hour looking for just one! At least I usually find the 1/2 inch or 3/8 I was looking for in one project or another. And don't get me started about the glass's that are almost always on my forehead! lol Larry

 

I only take what I need, everything gets cleaned and put away at the end of each job. It takes longer to tool up and tool down each time. It is quicker than going on a hunt or giving up and buying a new one.

If I didn’t keep getting interrupted I could knock stuff out. Finding a solid hour or two is near impossible.

 

Here's the thing, what you need to do is..
Wait ..... what ?