ben13•1mo ago

A chat with an old timer at the supply house made me change how I set up my drawings

I was picking up some vellum in Denver last Tuesday and got talking to this guy who must have been drafting since the 70s. He asked what I was working on, and I said a big set of commercial shop drawings. He just nodded and said, 'You know, the best tip I ever got was to draw everything you can see from one spot first, before you move your chair.' I was confused, so he explained he meant to fully detail one view or one plan sheet before jumping to the next section. I've always hopped around fixing little things on different sheets. I tried his way on a current project, a 12 sheet set for a medical office, and it cut my total time by like 15% because I wasn't constantly re loading files and changing my mental focus. It sounds simple, but it really works. Has anyone else tried a workflow trick this basic that actually paid off big?

3 comments

3 Comments

davidh881mo ago

Oh man, that's a solid tip. I read something similar about "batching" tasks in a book on work habits. It said to group all your similar jobs, like doing all your dimensioning at once, instead of jumping between different kinds of thinking. It really does save that mental gear-shifting time.

taylorm8923d ago

So we're basically arguing over which flavor of productivity kool-aid tastes better. Beth's old school "finish the whole drawing" method versus the new age "batch your little tasks" thing. Honestly both sound better than my usual system of just staring at the screen until panic sets in. Maybe the real trick is just picking one and sticking with it instead of overthinking it on a forum.

beth_martinez521mo ago

That batching idea is close, but it's not exactly the same. The old timer's trick is more about finishing a whole view, not just one type of task. You detail, dimension, and note everything on that sheet until it's done. Batching dimensions across all sheets would still have you jumping around.