Learning is not always easy

I have always thought I was a careful person, with an ability to research and learn new things, whether a practical skill, or a concept.
I might not enjoy the learning, but with repetition, thought, a cup of tea, a pen, paper and enough time I can usually learn.

The planning of the renovation of my small bungalow initially seemed an easy thing, I thought I had done pretty well with my concepts, but as I heave reached the closing weeks, I realise even more, how key the planning was at the outset.

This isn’t only the architect’s drawing, created from our conversation, his own vision from our meeting and my detailed verbal description, but moving into every aspect of the build, almost working all the way back from the finish to the groundwork in reverse.

It reminds me of when I learnt to setup a Nominal Ledger for accounting software, it didn’t start with codes, it started with the end report of the Profit, Loss & Balance Sheet, then worked backwards. This project was not dissimilar, starting with the vision, the knowledge of the things that were important to me and working out how to incorporate them at the end which had an impact on the start and the process to reach the end.

Smallest elements, critical from the start

I learned that considering the smallest elements of the house and how I wanted to live in it were critical from the beginning.

The key points, the material, the themes, the locations of items being used in the end vision were crucial much earlier in the project than I had expected. When I was asked, “what lights are you having in this room?”, “where do you want your sockets?” – I was very proud of my diagram I was able to present to the electrician, I had thought it all through, so I believed. At the time of writing this blog, I was sleeping in my bedroom, the only room habitable, I didn’t really have sufficient lighting despite the planning. I thought I had the lights sussed, they look great in the room, but they were not entirely practical, so slight modifications were required to brighten the room sufficiently. Why hadn’t I thought of that, or listened harder to suggestions?

What relevance do the kitchen cabinets, or the bathroom fixtures have before even the floor is installed? The location of the underfloor heating circuits of course – then the planning of the zones, which rooms do you want heated and separated. That, I learned was essential to how efficient the heating runs – with the cold weather fast approaching I needed to work out what was efficient.  Needless to say, there have been several tweaks now.

The floor covering – (before the concrete was even poured), the question about the type of flooring to be used at the end was levied at me – why? Because of the millimetres difference it makes to the volume of concrete, even the height of the patio doors were affected.

Learning from experience

I learned that despite my avid learning, I could have planned more, thought through my options and taken note of more advice, or even asked for that advice from my trusted contractors right from the start.

Applying knowledge to all aspects of I.T.

This experience of course, can be applied to business, we undertake this level of planning for our clients with regards their IT systems, the consideration for the future, where you want to be with your business, how you want to operate and crucially, how your IT will fit into that future, both from a budgetary perspective and from an operational & efficiency perspective.

Plan & work it through

We like to ensure that you have a plan for your business IT systems, which you think through with us, as we carry out these operations day in and day out for all of our clients.  We have been learning from others’ mistakes during our business life (now we are so old and grey) can provide a rounded opinion taking account of your circumstances and the pitfalls experienced over time.

We can take the pain from the process, give a plan, consideration for budget and time with regards the future of your IT.  Keeping it simple and personal.

So, if you feel your IT provider is not listening, or planning for your future, you can speak to me about how we can help you, with our personal approach.

Give me a call – Jacqui Offen, IT Director & part time builder 01227 371375

Interested in more information about the life lesson I learned?  Read about my change of focus here