Efficiency

While getting ready to reknit the bottom half of my ginormous blue tunic (scroll down to skip the chitchat and see what’s happening with that), I was pondering the conundrum of work ethic, focus vs. procrastination, efficiency vs. slow cloth. I feel like I’m flogging a dead horse by now, but apparently I’m a slow learner in some areas.

I’m having fun with this project of investigating my own reactions and preferences, so bear with me! (or skip to the images) Just a bit of thinking out loud as an add on to Wednesday’s post.

You know how I want to do ALL the things. Or at the very least, I want to learn about all the things. Which, if you give in to it, leads to either hurry, long hours or crappy jobs. If I had not given myself a deadline I would have re-padded Mimi to try on the sweater more often, with more lifelines, and been able to trust the result (I can’t fit knitwear succesfully on myself, that much I know), I might have not ended up having to frog. If on the other hand I’d not introduced a deadline, it could have taken me 2 years to knit instead of a month, because I would have gotten sidetracked by all the things.

So it turns out, it’s not only about beating procrastination and getting the job done, the focus also has to be on the quality. Goes without saying you think, but while I obviously want to do good work, my battle so far has been centered on simply the doing, finding a structure and discipline to make it possible to do all the things. In my head all/most of my interests are linked, and I’d like to keep it that way, even though I know I’m waving a shotgun rather than shoot with bow and arrow. (which I’d love to learn btw but I’m trying to save it for another lifetime. Like weaving. Ahem.)

Time is not of great importance with sweater knitting of course, since it’s just an innocent hobby, but I think I can use any activity to improve my general workflow and mindset. While efficiency is great, I need to be mindful as well, we don’t want to get run over by the stress monster (again). I still think one of the keys is to work more serial rather than parallel, so I have to be even more careful and focused about choosing each project. A change which in itself is a serious workout for Patience. Perhaps I should be content to not only set up my physical projects in serial production, but also the work with my inner issues. I just wonder if the list will ever stop growing! 😉

(yes, Arlee, I did read what you wrote on the practice instead of the performance)

Can’t have a Fiber Friday without show and tell of course, so here’s a smallcompilation for those of you not so interested in my little dance with Resistance. There are comments about each if you click the thumbnails.

17 thoughts on “Efficiency

  1. Det spirale organisationsprincip – kender du det. Jeg prøver på at organisere mine aktiviteter efter det. I sommers hentede jeg supermarkedets forsyning af jordbærkasser. Udenpå hver kasse står navnet på det projekt der er i. Så tager jeg den relevante kasse af stakken og arbejder løs, indtil jeg enten er færdig eller går videre. Dette beskriver en idealtilstand:
    – der er for koldt i mit projektrum her om vinteren – jeg får ikke stillet kasserne på plads – en idé fylder flere kasser … tænk selv videre, men princippet i det er godt. Det er lidt en slags punktform i kasseform, hvis du forstår.

    1. Ja, det er vel i virkeligheden sådan det fungerer – også med projekterne, vi har jo snakket om spiralformet udvikling før (eller også var det på en andens blog vi snakkede om det).

      Jeg har faktisk fysiske kasser til mine projekter, men det er også en nødvendighed i så lille et hus. Men hvor spiralformet jeg end er i min tænkemåde, så kan jeg mærke at jeg skal lære at være en smule mere vedholdende og målfast, ikke bare skifte emne hver gang jeg keder mig. Eller jeg skal i hvert fald være uhyggeligt bevidst om, hvorfor jeg gør det alligevel.

      Fx. stresser jeg ikke over at jeg har en halvstrikket sommerbluse, jeg kan jo ikke bruge den nu alligevel, den vil være interessant at få gang i til marts eller april. Så det er helt ok. Andre ting bliver måske udskudt fordi de er svære – og tænker jeg lidt mere erhvervsrettet (det skinner ikke så meget igennem her på bloggen), så er det IKKE ok. Det kan være mere effektivt at få tømt kasserne, rent bord. Og samtidig mere ro-givende i knolden. Så jeg prøver at finde en balance mellem de to metoder.

      1. Jo det har vi – altså talt om det spirale organisationsprincip – min hukommelse er bare ikke altid lige god. For mig er det, ligesom notesbogen, en måde at sikre mig at jeg ikke helt glemmer noget projekt. For jeg vil jo allerhelst lave dem alle sammen på ne gang, når jeg har det godt. Min ægtemand siger altid om deadlines og kvalitet at hvis man ikke har ubegrænsede ressourcer, er de hinanden udelukkende størrelser. Man kan enten få kvalitet eller levering til tiden. Høj kvalitet til tiden er for dyrt, og rammes alligevel af uforudsete forhindringer. Så en deadline med indbygget elastik – og så lidt til – er vel noget af svaret, for os uden ubegrænsede ressourcer. Erhvervsrettet er ikke en måde, jeg tænker på særligt tit, men det sker da, især hvad sæbefabrikationen angår.

        1. Jeg synes jeg får en del ro på mit hovede ved at skrive alle ideer ned, så har jeg anerkendt dem og nogen af dem behøver måske ikke mere (det har vi også talt om før).

          Det er muligt at deadlines og kvalitet ikke kan sameksistere, det var formentlig derfor jeg fik stress bygget op over en lang årrække. Derfor er det så vigtigt for mig at få omprogrammeret mit mindset på det område, det er ren overlevelse.

          Og ja, så er der alle afbrydelserne når man ikke er på toppen, så føles det som om man har dobbelt travlt bagefter, det kan jeg så regne ud at du også kender til, den vekslen i energien.

  2. Shame you have to frog, but the sweater is looking great. I love the colours. Will we get a pic of you modelling it?!

    Serial, I’ve found, works best for me, when possible. Short sustained focus :0

    1. I don’t know, I find it hard to take pix of myself and even harder to instruct my family to do so, they can hardly figure how to press the button for some reason. Seems I’m destined to go unseen through life, LOL. Possibly it’s just a bad excuse to stay behind the camera where I’m most comfortable. 😉

      1. I would rather be unseen myself, really. I feel pressure to show my face now I sell online though. There’s a bit of me on Facebook now. Are you on FB Pia?

        1. I’m on FB personally (although I don’t use it much), not as “ColourCottage”.

          There are in fact two images of me on this blog! But I hesitate like you, if I were to make something arty in a professional way, how do I handle promotion without putting my face out there!?

        2. I just realized you may have been asking something completely different. No, I don’t post pictures of me on FB either and my profile is closed to the public. I also have not told them my phone #, I don’t do apps or click ads there etc.

          1. You were right first time 🙂

            I joined FB purely to promote my work. I do have a profile as well as a page, but that’s so I can promote the page, but in a pleasant way, not shoving it at people. i only do what I feel good about. it’s unfortunate, but I’m going to have to put my face out there I think!

          2. Well, I don’t really have any work to promote, maybe never, so I’ll be safe for a while, LOL.

    1. One of the reasons I was trying out the deadline thing was that we’ve had some long cold winters the last 3 years and that I regrettably could not fit into some of my newer clothes. 🙁 But, it seems we’re going to have mostly a green winter, so I suppose it’s not all that much of a rush to pile on the layers.

      Being able to keep a deadline and maintain quality is of course something that can be useful in other areas of life!

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