It was a little bit too quiet here lately—and that is because I moved in a new apartment. You know all that packing, carrying, unpacking, arranging… basically a lot of physical work nobody likes doing. Now that I am looking back at the process, I made a ton of mistakes. But, these mistakes are basically what we, people do all the time at our job. So here is what I learned putting my job in perspective.
When I first saw the apartment I formed an opinion about its size. I didn’t measure anything(who has time for that nonsense?). Went to Ikea and bought the things I needed: a bed, a table, a chair, a wardrobe—only basic stuff. To my surprise I had more room than I expected. Being afraid not to buy too large or too many things I lost perspective and my room looked really empty, echo!
We, web designers, do that very often: approximating things. Time, costs are always a matter of hunch and we often miss by a little, sometimes by a lot. So, from today on I’ll be keeping a strict timetable of what I do with my time: from working, eating to sleeping and showering. That will make me safer when I’ll approximate stuff—that plus an extra 20% margin.
I love delegating things—I am a born leader! Hilarious, right? Actually, my problem is that I hate micromanaging people and sometimes they don’t live up to my expectations. Specifically, I’ve let somebody else handle my connection to the internet. Two weeks and nothing done, I decided that I should take the matter in my own hands. Job done.
Nobody can do it all and we must delegate other people to do some stuff for us. We must only do what we are the best at. Delegate to other people tasks that aren’t in your skill spectrum, but be sure to set milestones and to check the progress. You will be far more happy.
Oh, and I screwed up several times in the past weeks. A notable moment was that I negotiated giving a room in the apartment(we had one free) without consulting with the other apartment mate. It was a mistake actually, as I planed talking to him about it, but never had the chance. Of course, he got upset.
In our job, there will always be projects that have bugs, there will always be communication problems. Clients will not understand this, even if you think that you are partners in the process—results are what they seek for. Make sure that you make it clear that we are not in the miracle business but in the web design one. In the end all you have to do is sincerely apologize, correct the mistake and move on.
I hope these conclusions will help you as much as they will help me. Oh, and if you are interested in a cup of tea, I’d love to show you my new place.
Comments on “Moving: my experience”
on April 5th, 2008 at 2:41 am