Once upon a time (before we headed into today’s digital world), the main distraction most of us had during a working day was a conversation about the best of last night’s television over tea break!
But now, with notifications informing us of the arrival of the latest email, text, WhatsApp or social media post/ story, our working days can sometimes feel like one long interruption, resulting in little progress on the ‘to do’ list.
There are, however, methods which can be used to get around this problem so, today, we’re going to look at an approach called ‘deep work’. Read on to find out how you can kill those distractions and get more done.
Back in the 19th Century, the Scottish writer and philosopher, Thomas Carlyle wrote these words of wisdom: “Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.”
It’s a quote that probably rings true with many a construction worker as where we would be without all the tools and equipment that help bring a construction project to life. But, whilst these important items are essential for our industry to work properly, they also raise a question: should we buy or hire?
Although it makes good sense to go down the buying route for some tools (particularly the small hand-held items that get used every day), this is not always the right decision. In this week’s blog, we’re exploring three reasons why, in some cases, hiring is a better option than buying outright.
After a couple of challenging years, many had big hopes that 2022 was going to offer the construction sector a slightly easier path. However, as we now know, the challenges have continued to rain upon our industry – not least of which have been issues around the availability and cost of materials plus labour supply.
More positively, the sector seems to have retained its ability to adapt and love of innovation and these are qualities that can be clearly seen in some of the current architectural design trends. From incorporating more natural lighting to introducing more efficient processes into projects, the design work that’s happening right now is surely leaving its mark on the homes of the future. Keep reading this week’s blog for some of the top trends we’ve come across…
A few weeks ago, we published a blog with some tips about managing and improving something that plays a huge part in every construction project – quality. We looked at how important it is to set out goals, carry out tons of forward planning, create work lists for each and every phase of a project, make inspection plans and to monitor, review and learn from every experience.
However, even with the very best intentions to keep on top of all of this, once a project is underway those intentions can be slipped up and brought to the ground by unexpected obstacles or even by a single mistake that compromises quality and/or safety. As a follow up to our previous blog, today we’re delving into four key factors than can cause such a fall – Systems and audits, Changes, Materials and suppliers, and Human error.