In the profession there is always the pressure of deadlines with an endless list of tasks that need to get done. Understanding time management to get through a list of tasks by a particular day can be hard enough to learn but if you are able to take these skills to the next level can benefit your career.
What I am talking about is taking the time you need to learn from the projects you work on and grow as a professional. Many young professionals are just in a rush to get things done as fast as they can to meet a deadline that mistakes are made along that way or not enough research is done for a component. It is this type of time management that can be crucial come construction. Even taking the time to ask question about what you are tasked with is sometimes skipped. Design and ideas that are more thoroughly thought out in the design phase will save you not only on the number of RFIs from the contractor, change orders, and ultimately a save you from the headaches later.
During the design phase, it is about figuring out how all the systems and components of your building will work together. How a piece of equipment is going to be attached, anchored, and used is a simple piece of this puzzle. More particularly on the detail portion of your construction documents is figuring out how different systems will work together. A simple example is wall cladding. There are a multitude of different types of cladding that can be chosen for a building. Metal panel attachments are completely different based on the manufacturer you are using even though the concept may be the same. In this application, it is important to understand the overall concept and the particular cladding system you are implementing, and the attachments needed to meet your design concept requirements. This is also relevant for when you have to come up with 3 acceptable equivalents for your specifications for public projects. Take the time to look at the manufactures of the alternates to make sure you understand how the three systems compare. If you have that understanding ahead of time you can save standard manufacturer details for later use in your drawings. If the contractor were to present using one of the alternates rather than the system in the basis of design then you have an understanding if anything else needs to be modified with it. Ie back up structure, type of faceting, penetration details, & head and sill conditions.
Another part of this is taking the time to redline a set for yourself as well as someone else in your office that has not been involved with the project. What I have started to like in my workflow is have a live pdf that I can mark up while someone else can see my mark ups in real time. (Bluebeam) This way everyone on a project can see a progress set, mark ups, and what has been picked up in a more seamless way than printing out a hard set. I also feel that this is a time saver from a project team perspective which gives more opportunities to take the time to figure out the more difficult parts of the construction documents. It is also a check point to go over your own work. Since I have started working, one of the biggest goals I strive to implement in every project or task is taking the time to review everything before it goes out the door. Double checking things has really helped me to make sure everything is complete. Being able to take this step back has helped to catch little mistakes as well as made me more particular that a sheet or sketch is well organized and thoroughly though out.
Lastly, take the time to go over your lessons learned from a project, and do this at different stages of the project. It is always hindsight that you wish you caught something earlier, but being able to learn from past projects and not make similar mistakes is how you grow. If you take some time to review over the RFIs, alternatives, and change orders that could have been prevented can help your team on your next project. Also, if you take the time to document these lessons then you have an opportunity to teach others what you have learned. Lessons should not be something that an individual learns but that the whole office learns. Growing a firm’s knowledge based on your experience can help someone else from making the same mistakes or errors.
As you grow in the profession and work through a multitude of projects you gain experience and it is about always trying to better yourself after each experience. Understanding the true deadlines and being able to accommodate for some of the items discussed above can hopefully not only help you grow but the others around you. It is about striving to have a mentor, learn from yourself, and be a mentor in return.
Written by Katelyn Rossier