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The secret to happiness!

M

mark in tx

New Member
I can't believe it took me this long to figure out.
I started this about a month ago.

Never promise anything will be done on a Friday.

It's so simple. It's too simple. But it works.

It took me about 2 weeks to get out of the habit of taking an order, (especially on a Thursday) and promising it for Friday.

I have had the least stressful month in recent memory.

No more worrying and rushing to finish something before the weekend, no more stress about coming in to finish work over the weekend, no more late Thursday nights.
No more stressing over a customer coming in late on a Friday to pick something up.

I can make Friday night date plans with my wife.
I can make Saturday morning fishing plans with my kids.
I can make Friday lunch plans with friends, customers, sales reps.
I can keep those plans.

I know, there are probably 50 good reasons, and 50 bad reasons not to do what I have decided to do.

Just try it if you haven't already.
:peace!:
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
I guess I kinda make everyday my Friday.

I try not to promise anything out with tight deadlines. Haven't done that in 25 years. However, I'll probably be coming in tomorrow to finish some signs so they can go out Monday morning first thing.

I rarely come in on a Saturday or Sunday, but times have been pretty good and we're caught up for the most part and this weekend is gonna be cold and my wife has plans for tomorrow and we're going to the Casino on Sunday, so I'll just keep busy throwing blanks on the flatbed for a few hours to finish up a sizable job.

Your approach is a good one. You need to make or take time for yourself... or you'll go bonkers and then tension, arguments and lack of cash-flow seem to happen constantly. You need down-time and anyway you can get it to re-charge the old batteries is a plus. Believe it or not.... that's exactly what this place [s101] has become for me.
 
njshorts

njshorts

New Member
I never considered this, but have had Friday deadlines bite me more often than not... I'll give your approach a try. :goodpost:
 
J

john1

Guest
Even though i'm not crazy busy as most of you, I always like to take the majority of Fridays and weekends off anymore. Screw stress, you could die tomorrow so why stress out anymore ya know. I'm picking up 2 kayaks Monday for me and my fiance, it's gonna be great!
 
round man

round man

New Member
I had a buddy back when ya had to be able to hand letter to get a sign done who would always promise to have it ready to pick up "Friday",...seems he ended up payin' me a ton of money over the years to help him catch up on Thursdays,....you have no idea how many times over that decade I bit my tongue wanting to ask him why he did it just to keep the money he always paid me extra to work late on Thursday nites,....
 
skyhigh

skyhigh

New Member
The secret to happiness!

Never promise anything will be done on a Friday.
Click to expand...

I set my "happiness" bar a little higher than that.

The reason your plan wouldn't do much for me, is because I'm rarely stressed doing sign work. Its a rare occasion that I have a "rush" job. It happens, but I try to make sure it dosen't happen too often. When it does, I'll bring in help... sub out some of the job... or pass on it entirely. I'm too old to be stressed by others poor planning. I don't let too much interfere with my "family time".

A couple years ago I was chatting with a friend in the business. His method to happiness was "SET" hours. If it can't be done between 8-5, then it just isn't going to get done.
 
M

mark in tx

New Member
Skyhigh,

I too have "Set" hours, 9-5 Mon-Fri, and lunch from 12:15 to 1:15.
Most Fridays I'm actually shutting the door by 3:30.

Maybe I overdid the whole "Secret to Happiness" a little bit.
But this one little thing has made a serious, measurable difference in just one month.
I still work on Fridays, I just don't stress because it is Friday.
 
Craig Sjoquist

Craig Sjoquist

New Member
A typical job is one week finished for me even though I can get it done in the next 2 days working 8 to 16 hrs., I know the minute I say it will get done sooner every friend & customer will call and need something.

Yes some jobs I do right away & some I promise by a date because of reasons, but as general 1 week turn around. I am happy & stress free & a few days sometimes a week I am n a hot tub during the day or enjoying life in other ways oh I ride a bicycle & do business.
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
No more rush jobs for me in maybe 2 or 3 years. Have you ever noticed how things are always f******** up when you do rush? Vinyl doesnt come in on time as it would normally, prints are jacked up, art wrong size, its always something. The only way i will do a rush is if i got all materials from scrap and i can do it right then. 99% of time its an absolute no.

good post!
 
heyskull

heyskull

New Member
I learnt this secret about 8 years regarding Fridays, it may not be the secret to happiness but certainly keeps you at peace.

We used to hold a huge festival in our local town one weekend in the year and in those days we vinyl graphiced bought in banners.
Now all the local businesses being tight wads literally rushed my shop on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the last minute ordering banners left, right and centre!!
This was to get a little last minute publicity from the amount of holiday and out of town people would be around for the festival.
I ordered the banners for them to be delivered on the Friday morning.
Their were in excess of 150 banners ranging from 6'x2' up to over 30' long!
To cut this story very short no banners turned up Friday and none turned up on Saturday and in anticipation, and to get ahead I had cut all the vinyl for these ready for Friday, employing more people to apply and worked into the night to get it all ready!!
This was not an issue with the banner company as they had sent all of these late Thursday on a next day before 10am delivery.
The courier company had lost them somewhere between the 125 miles of the banner company and me!
Let me just say my company had the worst name for the next 2-3 months and we were foul mouthed for a lot longer.
In essence it was my fault and expecting things to run smooth on a Friday is impossible.

I probably was out of pocket by nearly £3,000 for wasted material and time.

Needless to say when the courier delivery arrived at 11am on Monday I sent everything back with him.

So Friday is the one day of the week that if it even has a 99% chance of being perfect, it will fail big time.

SC
 
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