Thread: Regaining motivation

I concur with what Derek says in that you feel a sense of loss when you finish a job that has made you really think and also try to improve your quality of work. Trying to come up with the next project seems to be my main problem so what I tend to do is start off by making something fairly simple like a toy or game which doesn't necessarily require high skills but at least has you using those tools again and I can produce something fairly quickly, but at the same time the mind is ticking over thinking about what I might do next that is of a higher level on the skill scale.
At the moment I want to make some more boxes as my stock rapidly declined over the last couple of months so I need to restock. Once I get into it I will be away and enjoying every moment I can get out there.

There are days when you think, its such a waste that I have tools doing nothing, I should just give it up and buy furniture, that’s as normal as sometimes wondering if you should quit your day job, don’t unless you feel this way consistently for 6 months or more, things change!

I tidy up, usually at night or when bub is sleeping and I can’t make machine noise. Tidy up means everything back where it is supposed to be and materials stacked and ready for the next task.

I limit work in progress to 2 projects, I will not design, start, take out materials or buy hardware for more than one project ahead of the one I’m working on (two is ok, but one is usually much smaller). If I need to work on something else, I will either finish or completely pack away other projects.

I don’t drink cups of tea or sit in the workshop, I do that in the lounge or the verandah, once the door of the workshop is open, I get stuck in and I usually have at most two hours to get as much done as possible. Hot or cold doesn’t matter because I’m motivated to achieve a certain thing in that time, despite the conditions.

This is a hobby, if I don’t feel like doing it, I do something else somewhere else instead and don’t worry about it, I mow the lawn or play with the kid or watch youtube or write forum posts, it doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. I only really get upset when I feel like getting something done and every weekend has been filled with “planned activities” for few weeks!

Team,

this is is what I am staring at and with this jumbo sized shamozzle it’s a wonder I get anything done. My father in-law will be here early March and he doesn’t mind helping me out on the odd occasion and as we get along better than I do my own parents it’s some good quality time we can spend having a beer and sorting through this crap.

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Here is my thinking, take out the stuff in the middle, repack the shelves, throw out the things you don’t need, March is a long way off and the weather is nice today.

Originally Posted by Austin_Turner

I limit work in progress to 2 projects, I will not design, start, take out materials or buy hardware for more than one project ahead of the one I’m working on (two is ok, but one is usually much smaller). If I need to work on something else, I will either finish or completely pack away other projects.

2 projects in progress is a HUGE "I wish" at my place. I have dozens of ongoing projects in the shed, half a dozen on my electronics workbench in my study, and I don't know how many partially finished projects around the house. A couple of projects at the mens shed, not to mention the ones in my head or in sketch books.

RE: packing them away is the second hurdle. It's all become somewhat paralysing as many of these projects are cluttering up work surfaces but I have no more space to put things away. I need to have an ginormous clear out and rationalisation of stuff to get things going again. But if I go too hard on a cleanup and create more space I fear I will just buy more gear!

And because of a broken ankle I can't do much on any of this.

Originally Posted by BobL

2 projects in progress is a HUGE "I wish" at my place. I have dozens of ongoing projects in the shed, half a dozen on my electronics workbench in my study, and I don't know how many partially finished projects around the house. A couple of projects at the mens shed, not to mention the ones in my head or in sketch books. ......

Rule #1: Do not start a new project until I finish an existing one (or two),

Rule #2: Refer to Rule #1,

Rule #3: Oh, hell. Just this once.......

At work we use Kanban boards to visualise what we are working on, once I introduced work in progress limits on each stage we found teams were more productive and engineers and customers were both happier etc (software development).

You and your FIL did get on. Wait till he sees that crap!
Nice big brick wall there with its bare face sticking out. A hanging board and a few shelves - you won't know yourself.

Wow, it's been refreshing tonight reading through this thread. I've been absent from the forum for 7 months now, waiting to get my own mojo back after the old radical prostatectomy in July last.

(started milling some stuff today, making piles of sawdust so far, dreaming of something cool and feeling like I'm half way out of that hole)

And the very night I finally get back on the forum, here is the coolest discussion thread I could have asked for - I'm not alone in this

Thanks for starting it Fumbler - and clean up that damn shed mate!

Glad you're getting back into the swing of things Bob! I've spent the last couple of weekends really cleaning my shop, found so much stuff I'd lost track of and can't wait to get back in there [emoji846]

I am in the same place as most have admitted. But on top of the "project mess" I have to get to the floor of the shed to remove the silt that came in about 50 mm high from water that came from the paddock next door. The shed has been up for 38 years and has never had any water in it until we got storms over January. The water has come from about 4 acres opposite us, picked up in a table drain channeled under the road in a 450 mm concrete pipe, into the neighbours paddock, collected in a depression and then into my shed through the lapped joints of the exterior cladding. The neighbour was less than sympathetic. I have dug down next to the cladding and fitted corro sheet horizontally and back filled the dirt. I have also dug under a netting fence to divert the water into the creek behind, diverting the water away from my place
One storm delivered 75 mm in about an hour. While it was happening my heart just sank!!! There was some hand tools on the floor but they will clean up alright. My stocks of MDF and Pyneboard will have to be gone through and culled. The pressure cleaner is really the only method to clean the concrete because the silt when dry is as fine as cement dust and very hard to sweep, as well as clogging up a vacuum. I am hesitant to start cleaning until we get another storm to try out my corro sheet method.

My DOB is telling me that physical work needed to do all this is only let out in 10 minute bursts. I think I am out of condition. The whole job of sealing out the water and clean up is like a mountain in front of me that I have to climb. My "mojo" is very thin.