I recently spent most of a weekend assembling IKEA furniture. It had me reflecting on experiences with assembling, building, and creating physical things over the years. Here are seven lessons I’ve learned from building things.
1. To not get in your own way.
You have to think a few steps ahead with most builds. “Painting yourself into a corner” is a real and ordinary thing that can happen if you don’t plan out painting a room properly. Much of the art of assembly is keeping yourself from getting stuck. Install a part too soon and you might increase the chances of breaking or marring it during the rest of the job. Screw in the wrong widget too soon and now the piece won’t rest flat when you need to work on the other side. That kind of thing.
I’ve had to redo my own work enough that I’ve learned to focus on not getting in my own way.
2. To tolerate mess.
I love a clean shop and a clean kitchen, but sometimes while I’m working or cooking I just have to make a sensible mess and know I can clean it up after. This is especially hard for me with less tangible crafts like writing, and I try to bring this lesson to mind when I’m staring down a mishmash of notes, half-drafts, mindmaps, and so on. If I try to keep things clean and perfect the whole time I’ll never get the thing done.
3. To sort your parts.
You’ve probably seen pictures of knolling online. It’s popular with the maker and everyday carry crowds. Sorting your parts (or ingredients, or LEGO bricks, or whatever) takes a time at the beginning but makes the rest of the project go much, much, faster. Pace, energy, and motivation are big components of buliding. I find it easier to maintain them all when I don’t have to pause mid-job to compare the lengths of three slightly-different screws or hunt down the washer I need on step 23.
4. To read the instructions.
My dad jokes that “Kubies don’t read the instructions” so I fear I may be a grave disappointment to him in this regard. I always read the instructions for everything. Flipping through the instructions for my IKEA KALLAX console ahead of building changed my mind on where I was going to assemble it, as it became apparent after reading that I would have enough room in my carpeted bedroom for the assembly (less risk of chipping the finish on carpet). I’ve saved lots of headaches and money over the years from reading the instructions.
5. To be gentle.
I spent hundreds of hours in high school and a bit in college working on sets for the plays and musicals. As I got better at it and took on more of a leadership role, I found that a lot of what I had to coach younger builders on was going slow and being gentle. Stripped screws, overdriven screws, busted tools, marred wood, injuries, and so on were often the result of too much force.
6. To trust the plan.
With IKEA stuff in particular, I find that the assembly steps often occur in an order that isn’t obvious. I’ve learned to trust the plan — they’ve no doubt tested these instructions, and I often find that something clever/interesting/time-saving happens when I do things their way. The odds of me, on the spot, inventing a smarter way to assemble the thing are pretty nil, however clever I might think I am.
7. To not be rushed.
I’ve found that pace is one of the biggest morale factors on a build. Rushing can really sour the mood. You want a steady pace, yes. Show progress. Keep moving. Leaving too little time for the job means rushing. Better to end the day early than keeping people late. We rush to start things, and then the pace slows because we lack clarity on how to proceed, or we don’t have the parts we need, or we don’t have the people we need. We rush to finish things because our expectations are unrealistic, and people start to snap at each other, and people are hungry, and tired, and they make mistakes. Assembling a bunch of IKEA furniture may not be my favorite way to spend a weekend, but allowing myself enough time and not feeling rushed made it all pleasant enough.
*** Originally published as List No. 24 of the 7x77 newsletter project.