Hit my 500th boiler tube repair yesterday without even realizing it

Was going back through my logbook and counted up 506 repairs since I started keeping records back in 2018. How many of you guys track your personal numbers or just let the foreman keep the count?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena5826d ago

...and that's when I realized my logbook from 2019 was completely different from the one I thought I was using. Turns out I'd been writing in my wife's recipe book for six months. She was real mad about the grease stains on her chocolate chip cookie recipe. But honestly, tracking numbers like that is its own kind of obsession. I keep a running tally on my phone notes app for everything - how many times I've tripped over the same loose board in my garage, how many times my neighbor's dog has barked at exactly 3am, stuff like that. It sounds crazy but there's something satisfying about watching those little counts climb up over time.

colethomas6d ago

But do you ever feel like keeping count changes how you act in the moment? I mean if you know you're tracking every time you trip on that board, does it make you more or less careful walking through the garage? I've tried counting things before and I always end up either avoiding the thing altogether or just getting annoyed at myself for the number getting too high. That loose board sounds like a project waiting to happen anyway. Have you ever fixed it or are you just committed to seeing how high that number can go?

leewood6d ago

Oh man I used to think that kind of counting was just pointless busywork but you actually make a really good point here. I always figured tracking stuff like that would make me obsess over the wrong things but now I'm wondering if it's more about the weird satisfaction of just watching numbers go up no matter what they are. Like you said it changes how you act but maybe that's the whole point - makes you notice the small stuff you'd normally ignore. I might have to try this with something dumb like how many times I open the fridge for no reason just to see if it feels as weirdly rewarding as you make it sound.