Organized Lists
Good For Everyone

Another organized success story.

Organized lists help this carpenter get the job done.

Usually you think of office workers as the ones who need to have some sort of list. What with all the paperwork, filing, reports, writing, meetings, plans, phone calls, computer work and emailing.

I did not realize how tradesmen and contractors also need to have organized lists to do to do their kind of work.

My brother makes his living as a carpenter. He is what is known as a finish carpenter. He installs the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, countertops, interior doors, bathroom things like towel bars, interior trim around the doors, windows, rooms, mantels, staircases and closet shelving.

He also can create customized cabinets, shelving and decorative things. Pretty much anything with wood that you want to end up being functional and beautiful. He can do any type of framing, roofing, dry walling, decks and other big things on buildings but prefers to concentrate on finish work that he can do alone.

He is an independent contractor who works mostly by himself. Sometimes he will have our dad help him to lift the large kitchen countertops in huge kitchens into place. Occasionally he will work with a few other independent contractors on large projects such as new apartment buildings or assisted living facilities.

I never talked to him about organizing but it turns out that he uses organized lists to work as efficiently and well as he does.

We were at Thanksgiving at my parent's house and were discussing the value of lists. My sister was talking about how she makes organized lists in her job and for her personal life. My mom was saying that she does hardly any, preferring to use her memory. I pointed out that preparing a huge holiday meal with multiple food items is the perfect time to use lists in order to make sure you don't forget anything. My mom gets worried at these types of things that she will forget something or that the food will be undercooked or overcooked. It sounds like she has always been worried about that at every big meal all these years. It seems that a list would help her to be calmer.

My brother joined the conversation and said that he makes organized lists for all his projects. Fairly detailed lists.

I know from prior discussions with him that completing the finish carpentry in a house takes at least a few weeks depending on the size of the house and how much woodwork is involved. The multi-million dollar homes he works on may take a month or more. Small homes can be done in a week.

I never knew how he kept track of the work. I assumed he did it all in his head.

He said no, for example he will have a list for installing the trim around the windows. The heading on the list will be living room windows and then he will just write however many windows there are in that room. That when he finishes a window he crosses it off the list.

He doesn't just have one word windows; he has the word windows written eight times if there are eight windows. He wants to know how much progress he has made, how much is left to do and he gets the satisfaction of seeing his list be completed. It is motivation.

He uses the list to know where he is at in the process. He does not leave it to his memory to say how many windows he has left to do.

He doesn't list out all the steps for installing the trim because he knows exactly what to do based on the type of window and trim that is going in. He has been doing it for years and is really good at it. He doesn't want to spend a lot of time making lists; he needs the time to do the actual work.

He makes the organized lists so that he knows the status of the project at any given time. He might not be able to just stay at the same project.

The projects are not all at the same place, he may need to drive to multiple other projects that day.

There may not be enough time or enough supplies available to complete the work at that time.

He may be just starting the project, or other work may take priority or he may have personal things to take care of with his family.

He may not get back to that project the next day. It might be days, weeks or even months for many reasons.

Plus since he is his own boss he can do his work to suit his needs as well as the customers. He doesn't have to punch a clock or be at work at any particular time. He gets paid for the completed work not by the hour.

He can come and go as he pleases as long as he completes the work within the time that he and the developer or owner agreed upon.

He wants to keep his mind clear of the number of items to do and install so that he can concentrate on the actual installation to make sure it goes in a perfectly as possible.

He needs to concentrate on the measuring, all his multiple tools, not damaging anything in the building and his safety. Those things need his utmost attention and would not be appropriate to the listing process.

I have visited his construction sites and I would call it organized chaos.

He has all the tools and materials right there close to whatever he is working on. It is not productive at all to have the tools, equipment and materials in the garage or basement. That would be too much walking back and forth. Carpenters want all their stuff as close as possible. They want to be working, not walking.

It is extremely physical enough without extra steps.

Kneeling, bending, stretching, measuring, cutting, carrying, hammering, gluing, fastening, redoing. If he can minimize the walking he will do it to help get the job done faster, easier and better. He doesn't do this type of work to get into shape; he does it to make a living. A side benefit to that type of work is that he is in great shape.

And it takes a lot of stuff. The back of his small pickup truck is packed neatly and in an organized way with tools and fasteners. He carries in almost everything into the house to do the work.

There will be a table saw and benches, miter saw and benches, drills, portable saws, hammers, fasteners, an air compressor, air powered tools, ladders, containers filled with fasteners and assorted tool boxes filled with hand tools. Electric cords and air cords running everywhere. Plus all the wood will be piled up in the house by the supplier.

Trying to work around all that equipment, wood and then remember how many things are left to do without organized lists would be impossible.

Do what he does and concentrate on the work and make organized lists as much as you can.

He keeps the list as simple as he can. He may add a little detail to the list such as complexity of the window, size and if it is very high in the room needing a long ladder.

His list would look something like this:

Location - 123 Main Street, Anytown, USA

Project: Window Trim

Living Room (6)

1. Window, bay

2. Window, 14 feet high

3. Window

4. Window

5. Window

6. Window

Dining Room (3)

1. Window, box

2. Window

3. Window

Kitchen (2)

1. Window, over sink

2. Window

He has the entire house listed out like that. When he completes each window, he crosses it off. When the developer of the house calls him and asks how much is left to do, my brother can just pull out his organized lists and see at a glance how many he has done and how many are left. He can tell him precisely what is left. Since he knows about how long it takes to install a window he can formulate a plan as provide a time frame for completion. He can also tell the developer if there are missing materials.

He would have similar organized lists for the rest of the project. You can use whatever type of planner book, or paper you want. In this case just regular paper on a clipboard would work fine.

If you do any type of work at all you will realize that it is normal to not complete everything you set out to do that day. Organized lists will keep you on track for picking up the work when you get back to it.

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