What level Is Your "ISM"?

[chambezio]

Weird title, I agree. I have a good mate who like me was put out to pasture well before retirement age. He has Bi-polar. I have Major Depression. He is the one who invented the "ISM".
He finds it really difficult to muster enough enthusiasm to start a project and see it through in a reasonable amount of time. What usually happens is he starts, then as the project is gaining momentum he stops/slows, and maybe start another totally unrelated project that ends up about at the same unfinished level as the first project.

I do exactly the same thing!!

I am wondering what others may do to get the "ISM", go with it, and turn out a project in a good time with out any distractions.

About 4-5 years ago I wanted to make a wide drum sander similar to the Sand Flea. I started with the manufacture of the drum and was happy with the way that part went. I then moved onto the frame using 32 mm RHS, mounted the motor and drum, started on the platform the carry the timber being sanded....ran out of ISM and the thing sat idle for 2 or more years. By the time I got to that stage I had decided that I should add a pivoted platform with a conveyor belt to pull the timber past the drum there by making a "thickness sander". Well that took another couple of years to do so I got the revamped thing up and running not long before Christmas last year.

I did do a lot of other little things at the same time but was in a state of frustration with myself because I wasn't properly finishing them. We have a great nut and bolt/bearing shop in town. You can go in there, not knowing what you may need to get "A" to connect with "B", but come out with a plastic bag with what ever it is that you need. That plastic bag may get put on the bench and not even looked at for weeks because the ISM isn't there.

Who else does the same OR am I the only one?

[DavidG]

Snap....

[chambezio]

Here is another example of lack of ISM....2 Christmases ago my daughter and I laid a concrete garden edge around the fences of her house block in town. Wood chips were to be spread between the edge and the fence......not done yet (and I am ashamed). We had tea with her last night when she reminded me that she is still waiting

[Sawdust Maker]

don't let SWMBO see this thread

[BobL]

Same result but perhaps opposite reason i.e. too much enthusiasm too easily distracted.

When I start a project I get easily distracted, I'll start and then find I need X, look on line, "there's no way I'm paying that for X", so I look around to see how I can make, acquire X another way. While making or looking for X I discover I need Y, or Z turns up out of the blue (totally unrelated to X or Y) and I have to fiddle with Z. Before I know it I have forgotten about X or Y and I sometimes find myself 10 levels in and might never get back to Y let alone X.

This drives SWMBO barmy as she is very end product focussed.

For me, project success is determined as much as by how interesting voyage has been, as the production of any end products.

[chambezio]

If you have it then you wouldn't be on here you would be out there making shavings and only come inside when starvation takes hold.

I have tried to get a 44 gallon drum of from the hardware store but they keep telling me its on back order.

Bob, I do a lot of what you do. I'll get on to Ebay and troll and troll looking for ??? what was it....ah, but I need one of them....and so it goes on. Projects get stalled and even forgotten about.

[Kuffy]

I can start well enough most times and just cruise through the jobs start to finish. But if anything goes wrong and changes a simple task into a bloody repair job I get irritated pretty quick and come back inside and surf the net...3 minutes ago I just realised I have put some insert nuts in the exact location of an inlay butterfly dovetail key!!!!!!! :upset:

so i'm on break for the rest of the arvo :D

[KBs PensNmore]

You've the same gremlins I have, my complete metric set gone, never to be seen again.
I must be in the same boat, keep losing my motivation at certain stages of a project, then start another, part way through start another, find a part, go back 2 projects and do a bit more on it. Have about 8-9 on the go ATM, some waiting on parts, some waiting on the shed extension.:?
Kryn

[Chris Parks]

Isn't this ISM just normal behaviour? I do it all th time so it must be. :) I recently put a wheel that I bought twenty years ago on the wheel barrow and I am not kidding either.

[BobL]

On Saturday SWMBO showed me two short pieces of skirting board leaning up against the fireplace in the spare bedroom that I said I would attach back in 1994.

One day I will surprise her and fix them!

[A Duke]

On Saturday SWMBO showed me two short pieces of skirting board leaning up against the fireplace in the spare bedroom that I said I would attach back in 1994.

One day I will surprise her and fix them!


When a husband says he will do some thing, he will do it, he does not need his wife to remind him every six months.
:D

[BobL]

Proof that procrastination is a winner.

About 6 months ago I lost the only remote locking key I had for my HiAce van.
The plastic loop on the key fob by which the key was attached to my key ring had broken so I was carrying my key around in my pocket.

I thought I might have lost it at the mens shed on the day I went there with SWMBO's car or at the Shopping centre I went to after that.
No luck.

Turned the house upside down - no luck.
I said it might still turn up so I won't rush out just yet to get another because I had a spare manual key so I could still drive and lock the vehicle.

Anyway a couple of months later no luck and I resigned myself to getting another key at great expense but I kept procrastinating and sure enough yesterday SWMBO found the key on the floor in a place where I should have seen it easily enough if I had looked carefully.

SWMBO accused me of a "little boy's look" and I blame the robot vacuum cleaner.

[chambezio]

Chris, the main reason I started this ISM thing was to see if it is "normal" or not. I don't see many people any more (we live a bit of a hermit's life) so I have very little to guage it on. I was working with a couple of upholsterers years ago. I got them to do a "foreigner" for me by making up some vinyl pads for a couple of stools. That took 20 plus years to attach them to the stool frames.

Bob, I lost 2 complete sets of keys to the Landcruiser, from gate pad lock, house key and a few more.....twice!!! with in 4 weeks. Still haven't found either of them!!

Another damned annying thing I do repeatedly is, I will be making something that needs to be welded then drilled then another operation.....between apparatus I will lose what I am working on. Just can not see it....in really bad cases I have gone to the house dragged out wifey to find the article that I can't find after I describe it to her she says "this thing?". It was right under my nose the whole time but I was blind to it.
Its interesting how we all seem to be doing pretty much the same thing without telling each other. So...it must be "normal behaviour".
Maybe I wish I wasn't normal so I don't have to go through the whole ISM thing

[Handyjack]

I must be a fast worker.
Last year we had the toilet replaced. Two tiles above the new cistern had holes in them from the old cistern. Not a problem I'll replace them. Got the spare tiles, prepared them, got the adhesive and the grout removal tool and put the lot out side the toilet under the sink so I could do the job. 13, that's thirteen months later I finally did the job in about an hour and a half including grouting. Sure I did a lot of jobs for other people in between (and got paid for them) but for myself it took a long time.

[artme]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.... I thought there was more than one graduate from this school.

Aren't confessions cathartic???:D:D:D

[BobL]

Another damned annying thing I do repeatedly is, I will be making something that needs to be welded then drilled then another operation.....between apparatus I will lose what I am working on. Just can not see it....in really bad cases I have gone to the house dragged out wifey to find the article that I can't find after I describe it to her she says "this thing?". It was right under my nose the whole time but I was blind to it.

That happens to me a lot. The best thing I find is to stop looking and switch to another project and 15-20-45-100 mins or days later I usually stumble across what I was looking for. Not always though, somewhere there's a green Bosch driver with a small Tek screw bit in it. Fortunately I have multiple spares of these bits as I have lost these many times and ended up buying and the of course finding them again. Not the Bosch driver though. DANG!

[bueller]

I'm probably pretty well qualified to talk about this as I'm bi-polar as well.

It's hard. When you're manic you can work for days on end with no sleep, no food and feel like a million bucks. Everything flows so well that it makes really hard to put things down and dedicate time to real life. I used to really feed off this routine when I was younger, I'd pick something that interested me and throw myself into it 100% to the point where eventually I'd burn out completely. Learned to play bass guitar, wound up doing 50+ gigs in my first year with a band and then quit 5 years later never to touch a bass again. After that I got into gig photography, shot 2-3 gigs a week until I burned out on that 2 years later and never touched it again.

Its all about balance for me, I'm much better at finishing projects when I come back to them for an hour or so every few days instead of spending all weekend on something. I find the best way to manage it these days is trying to think about everything and have a list of tasks on my phone that lets me break everything down into small chunks. This helps me get over the initial hurdle of feeling like the task is insurmountable or running into issues where I need something I don't have.

I try not to beat myself up over things that don't get done too, I've been working on a bandsaw project for the last 4 months but large swathes of that were periods of no activity where I'd just sit around staring at the parts. There were times as recently as a week ago when I thought it would never get finished but I kept chipping away at it and got it all reassembled yesterday.

Edit: Basically Google Keep is my life, here's the bandsaw card.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160718/9f70620004d10a5977e3a8cffc27852d.jpg

[chambezio]

Thanks Bueller for your frank details about your Bipolar.
I can empthise with your words. In my case I cycle every 6 weeks, roughly, I fall into a heap and cannot do anything but sit for hours in front of the TV and be bored! Then I slowly can get going but its all tentative.

I make a lot of lists too. I try to put all of what's in my head whirling around in a list to try and make some order of things. Some things on the list will appear a lot of times on subsequent lists.

I am always amased just how many Forumites have varying degrees of Depression but it does give some comfort to know I am not alone

[BobL]

That happens to me a lot. The best thing I find is to stop looking and switch to another project and 15-20-45-100 mins or days later I usually stumble across what I was looking for. Not always though, somewhere there's a green Bosch driver with a small Tek screw bit in it. Fortunately I have multiple spares of these bits as I have lost these many times and ended up buying and the of course finding them again. Not the Bosch driver though. DANG!

YAY! found the Bosch Driver. It was in the study under a pile of paper. It didn't have the Tek Screw bit in it though, it had my long Phillips bit in it - I wonder where that had got to.

[chambezio]

Your story about your Bosch Driver reminded me that this "can't find anything" type of syndrome started with me a long time ago.

My 21 st birthday was in June. (No not this year). At my parents house there was a porch open to the heavens. Dad borrowed a truck tarp to close it in for the party. I worked off a step ladder to attach the tarp to the house. It worked a treat for the night.

Years later Dad was painting the house. He was painting the gutter above the porch and found my 2 ft pinch bar sitting in the gutter. It had been there for probably 10 years. And you know what, I really didn't miss the pinch bar in that time. Since then I now have a certain affinity with the pinch bar.

[artme]

Just how many isms are there and need they be confined to what has so far been discussed about
and confessed to here?

My personal most prominent ism is CYNICISM. I confess to an excess of this, especially around election times.:rolleyes:

[fletty]

I have very few self imposed rules but these few do include NOT discussing other people's religion, politics, how they bring/brought up their children nor their placement, if any, on THE SPECTRUM. However, due to Mrs Fletty's chosen career and my work history that has required quick and accurate assessments of people's abilities, strengths and weaknesses, I have had a lot of informed exposure to people who are on the spectrum or different in other ways and how to help those people to use the strengths that come with their ability.
In this thread, some of my favourite people on the whole forum are baring their souls and I feel the need to add my tuppence. Firstly it also seems to me that our hobby attracts a disproportionate number of people with bi-polar, Aspergers and depression? I have previously reasoned that this is because it is an activity that is done on our own, values quality, is not time driven and therefore can be left and taken up again usually without an impact on anyone other than US? IF we turn that hobby into anything more then we do impose time pressures and do have an impact on others if we take a break. However, if it is a hobby then I personally don't see any problem with stopping for a while nor not even starting? I am quite sure that our relevant families know us better than we know ourselves and really aren't surprised if jobs take a long time or if we can't find anything after a 'boy look'? They just seem happy with us if we are happy with ourselves.
I am not aware of my own ISMs but I do know that I drive my nearest to distraction with my absolute need to complete projects to a self-imposed deadline or even to create a situation that imposes such a deadline such as this year's sharpening gtg that was my way of creating an otherwise unnecessary deadline to get my shed finished!
My asthma meds , especially the steroids, result in my case in poor sleep, an inability to shut down and doing every complex job in my head many times before I actually do it? I even make mistakes in these 'dreams' and, when I actually do the job and make a real mistake, I have already solved it in a previous dream that is completely and immediately recalled!
I have conversed with many of you on the forum and have also met a surprisingly large proportion. I value ALL of those relationships and have never found any of the issues that worry YOU to be issues that in any way demean you, your skill, nature nor value to this World of ours.
If I have stepped over any lines I apologise. We are all amazing creations of Nature who naturally and statistically fall into a spectrum and thank Heavens for that, BUT someone, probably in the late 19th Century, decreed that some part of this fabulous spectrum is 'normal' and therefore all other parts are not normal? I say "phooey" to that and use this forum as an example that it takes all "ISMs" to make this World go round and, like this forum, it goes around pretty bloody well!

fletty

[chambezio]

Alan... thank you for your overview of this thread. From what you have said high lighting the fact that IT DOESN'T MATTER that we have times where we can't be as efficient as we would like!! We are taught at an early age to work but we are not taught to retire. I for one will be trying to get a better mind set on activities that I do.

The frankness of people's personal matters has always been a comfort to me. To know that others are going through similar stuff is a real comfort and a reassurance that it is "normal"

[artme]

Well spoken Fletty!!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

I think most of us have lived long enough and had enough experiences in life to basically accept wht happens
or comes our way.I find it best to accept things and people for what they are, look for the positives and try
not to dwell on the negatives. Life has been so much better since I came to this way of thinking.

[BobL]

We are all amazing creations of Nature who naturally and statistically fall into a spectrum and thank Heavens for that, BUT someone, probably in the late 19th Century, decreed that some part of this fabulous spectrum is 'normal' and therefore all other parts are not normal? I say "phooey" to that and use this forum as an example that it takes all "ISMs" to make this World go round and, like this forum, it goes around pretty bloody well!

Excellent sentiments but this "rejection of outside normal" happened well before the 19th century,
Persecution or ostracism of individuals with different beliefs, ways of living or outlook etc, happened in prehistoric times.
Witch burnings, institutionalisation or banishment of mentally ill family members, and current/ongoing racist and cult behaviour are all examples of the same thing.
It is after all (after sex) directly related to humans favourite pastime ie to tell others what/how/why to do what they do?
Politics and religion are often used as covers for shoehorning every one into the same box sometimes with disastrous outcomes.
Provided it's not harming anyone else I don't see any difference between accepting the strange (to us) eating behaviour of an Inuit, the cross dressing behaviour of the next door neighbour, or the expressions emitted by someone with Tourettes.
Think of how boring life would be if every one was "normal".
As one of my mates puts it about one of his extremely self centred BP mates, "All part of life's rich tapestry" .


We are taught at an early age to work but we are not taught to retire. I for one will be trying to get a better mind set on activities that I do.


I like the bit about "not taught to retire". For the first year or so of retirement I ran around like a headless chook and it took me some time to realise I could 9 out of 10 times put off what I was doing until another time.

[doug3030]

Reading this thread is somewhat like looking in a mirror, but not quite an exact reflection.

I have a way of completing the project "in my mind" at some point along the progress. Once I can see the completed item in my mind it is often very difficult to then get the motivation to complete it in real life.

If the project is essential, well the motivation is there, but if it is something I was doing just to see if it could be done or to test out a theory, as soon as that is done in my mind, I lose the incentive to do the last little bits, regardless if it is only half an hour's work to finish off what could be a useful item.

I also get some "circular logic" problems involving such things as - to complete Task A, I need to get Items B, C and D. I want to make Item B for myself but making Item B will be a lot easier after I have completed Task E. But I can't start Task E until I have completed Task A, and around we go.

I do not believe I am bipolar, but I think I have been suffering PTSD since part way through my time in the Army and had this condition exacerbated about 18 months ago due to a serious incident.

In recent times my back pain has been a lot worse, as a direct result of the incident I referred to in then paragraph above. The pain and mental health challenges do make it difficult to attain and maintain motivation, not just in woodwork but all aspects of life.

Cheers

Doug

[artme]

Just realized that I suffer from oughtism. I ought to...., I ought to......:D

Also suffer from schism.. the gap between oughtism and achievement.

[Ed..]

You know that old saying..."It won't happen overnight but it will happen" at least that is what I say to my missus when she keeps reminding me that is a pallet load of paving bricks in the front yard that we bought several years ago to do garden edge borders that still have to be laid. But in my defence I did have some medical issues that developed but I still just don't quite have the enthusiasm to get stuck into them yet. Or the pile of planks in the shed for the patio she wants me to build. They are still drying I keep telling her.

Trouble is there are too many jobs/projects that keep coming up that get in the way, and if you do get stuck doing something, a solution usually pops up when you are in a totally different project. So my theory is that the universe is telling me do something else until that moment presents itself and extra time is required for completion! That is the story I tell the missus and I'm sticking to it. :U

[chambezio]

When I get swamped with the "guilts" about list of jobs that doesn't seem to be deminishing, I make a list. I then go through the list and prioritse the jobs as best I can then try to knock them over. Sometimes it works some times it doesn't.

After reading Fletty's take on the whole ISM issue with him saying "it doesn't matter" (not doing a full om assault) I feel a lot better about my own list.

On Saturday I made up my mind to make a steering wheel for my brother's 1928 Chev Truck. It would have to be at least 3 years ago that he asked me to do it for him. I have made it many times in my head in that 3 years but it got to the point that it was beginning to "haunt" me (guilt I think). Ant way I hooked in Saturday and cut the mitres and used epoxy to glue the segments together. On Monday I set the timber ring on the bench and used the router to cut the circle then round it over and finished off the round over inside and out side on the router table. The timber was a very hard Eucalypt which was hard to sand smooth. By late Monday arv the whole thing was done. It made me quite happy too. I will add a photo

[BobL]

Trouble is there are too many jobs/projects that keep coming up that get in the way, and if you do get stuck doing something, a solution usually pops up when you are in a totally different project. So my theory is that the universe is telling me do something else until that moment presents itself and extra time is required for completion! That is the story I tell the missus and I'm sticking to it. :U

Sounds like a good one.

[fletty]

Fence Furniture once orchestrated a woodwork forum version of Amish barn standing where we turned up to help a fellow woodie finish a job that had got too big?
I reckon the answer to ISMism is group action? Wouldn't it be a great example of what this forum stands for to turn up to a mates place in rotation and get the jobs done?
Fletty

[Bushmiller]

Thanks Rod for starting a very interesting thread. It is potentially a serious issue, but the reaction here and the awareness from contributors in mostly a very humourous and self-deprecating vein is so indicative of the nature of the Woodwork Forums and the people who typically participate.

I think it is clear that the facility to speak in this way and to some extent bare our souls is therapeutic in itself.

I guess we all have issues and some of them are more serious than others and in some instances more debilitating than others. Indeed there are clearly levels even within an "Ism." Bi-Polar I now know has two distinct levels.

A friend of mine sends me emails and he normally has some little ditty associated with them. For a while one of them was "Don't take life so seriously. None of us are going to get out alive."

Speaking personally, I suggest that we all need to relax a little and to use a modern term "chill."

If we don't get something done, does it really matter? Only to SWMBO!!

I certainly can relate to the lost property issue. I built a house back in NSW and it took a little over four years. When people express the view that it was a long time I point out that two years of that was spent looking for my tools.

Maybe we are all normal: Just different normal. :rolleyes:

Regards
Paul

[doug3030]

I built a house back in NSW and it took a little over four years. When people express the view that it was a long time I point out that two years of that was spent looking for my tools.

Did you have teenagers or adult children living at home at the time?

That is why I cannot always find my tools and sometimes when I can see where they are I cannot get to them... :((

Now lets see - 21 inch bandsaw needed for a resaw job and only about a tonne of boxes and old car parts to move so that I can get to it... Not today thanks, my back is too sore.

Cheers

Doug

[A Duke]

Hi,
Maybe we are all normal: Just different normal. http://d1r5wj36adg1sk.cloudfront.net/images/smilies/standard/rolleyes.gif

:?:?
How can anyone be normal when no two people are alike?
Regards

[Bushmiller]

Hugh

Many years ago I heard a comment about the weather and the theme was when would we return to regular climate patterns. It was pointed out that irregular climatic occurrences were the norm and regular patterns were abnormal. Perhaps people are the same: All over the place, but is it that which makes us diverse and interesting?

Regards
Paul

[Poppa]

Great thread! As part of dealing with my particular part of the "spectrum" I've had to learn how to relax. And I mean really relax. I've become quite good at it. Which drives SWMBO completely insane because she thinks I'm just being lazy. Which of course I am - but I'm being deliberately lazy, to relax and empty my mind. I get heaps of stuff done, just not necessarily the things that I should be doing right now...

[AdamAnt]

I lost my ISM on the internet years ago, been looking for it ever since. Pretty sure that's where my jism went too. Seriously tho, great thread. I am most excited when I am starting a job/project without any time line pressure and that is new and interesting. I am most content/happy when I have overcome an obstacle/completed a long overdue job or just generally done a good job on something (to my standard). For me happiness is doing both what I feel I should do and what I feel I want to do (my version of balance?). I like the saying "it takes all types to run a world". Two pet hates: working in the dirt in front of the shed (cause the shed's a mess) and having to spend my time looking for tools or parts I shouldn't have to look for (cause I didn't put them away). I am my own worst enemy. My feelings follow my thoughts and then my thoughts follow my feelings.

[Bushmiller]

Did you have teenagers or adult children living at home at the time?

That is why I cannot always find my tools and sometimes when I can see where they are I cannot get to them... :((


Doug

Yes there were teenage children around at the time, but alas I cannot blame them. No such squemishness with wives as I can blame them (well one actually) without remorse as things are always being "tidied up"

In fact when I first met SWMBO I shared a flat with three other messy blokes. You know real blokes. Anyhow, they reckoned that if you stood still in the kitchen for long enough when she was around you'd get washed up. It's not an easy life :)

Regards
Paul

[chambezio]

Here are a couple of pics of the Steering wheel under construction. I was surprised just how good I felt knocking this one over. Hopefully it will give me a boost to get a couple more jobs finished from my never ending list.

[Bushmiller]

Rod

That's looks good, but remember it is not finished until we see a pic of it on the Chevy :D .

Regards
Paul

[chambezio]

I have to say I am not the world's most tidy worker. My excuse is that the artist in me doesn't have time to be mucking about putting stuff away. I am actually impatient (and its getting worse he older I get)

My Brother rang this morning about another matter, he also said it could be another year before he is in need of the wheel. For him it is a ground up restoration! He paid $500 for it. It was a rusting hulk on a farm rubbish tip. It has wooden spoked road wheels. The chassis is 6 metres long!!! He will put a timber framed tray on the back. I think its a 2½ Ton truck. He has gotten it to a rolling chassis and is working on the motor. He is a stickler to the authentic so there will be no lumpy hot rod V8 in it. I am expecting him to eventually employ my services to help him with the all wooden C cab. He also restored a 1933 Dodge Sedan which he has driven around NSW a lot as well as a trip to Tassie some years ago.