Hi Reader,
The smartest client I ever had was the one who decided not to start.
He came to me early in the summer and wanted his renovation finished in time for Canadian Thanksgiving in early October.
Plenty of time, he thought.
So we sat down, and I started walking him through everything that had to be decided before a single tool came out.
But by the time we'd talked it through, he'd decided to wait until February. And it turned out to be the best decision he made on the whole project.
Most people in that moment push ahead anyway. They tell themselves it'll be fine.
He didn't. He took the deadline off the table and gave himself the winter to plan. And that decision was ultimately what made his project a success.
Instead of asking "how do we get this done by October," he and his wife asked the better question: if we're going to live through a renovation at all, what do we actually want, so we can stay in this house as long as we possibly can?
The answer was a whole lot bigger than they had originally thought. What started as a simple cabinet swap became new windows, new trim, new floors, the works.
But because he'd taken the time, he did it right the first time and got only one disruption instead of three.
They set up a little kitchen in the laundry room, camped out in the basement for a few months, and came out the other side with a home they didn't have to touch again.
Forcing a project into a timeline you’ve invented is how you end up making expensive decisions in a hurry. And expensive decisions made in a hurry tend to come back to haunt you.
If there’s room in your timeline, take it! The season you "lose" to planning, you get back the moment the work starts going smoothly.
Is there a deadline pushing your project faster than it wants to go? Hit reply and tell me what you're up against. I might be able to help you see it more clearly.
Till next time,
Gerald