So since I met the current Mrs
BerryLogs (she’ll love that) my life seems to have been driven by MS Excel
spreadsheets for one reason or another. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not her fault
at all – we just seem to have stumbled upon organising a shed load of events
that require the sort of OCD structure we both revel in having in our lives.
I thought I was pretty well
organised beforehand anyway, what with knowing exactly what weeks off I want
from work for years and years in advance etc, but largely those plans were
driven by my children anyway (a scenario most parents will surely recognise!)
But since meeting my wife, it’s
fair to say that we’ve mastered event planning to such an intricate level, that
OCD probably doesn’t even begin to do it justice.
The level of details and
timings involved for the following events has meant no possible stone has been
left unturned – what could possibly go wrong?
- Going on Holiday (various times)
- Having a Baby
- Buying a Car (twice)
- Parents 40th wedding anniversary
- Hag Night (combined Stag & Hen nights)
- Our Wedding
- Moving House
- Shopping Lists
- Meal Planners
- Joint 40th Birthday
You name it, there’s the likelihood
that we could knock up a spreadsheet for it.
Some of these reasons sound
simple enough, but it’s not always straightforward. The house sale alone fell
through 6 times, and the hours spent restructuring the various budgets on that
spreadsheet was mind numbing (though ultimately we somehow ended £2000 up on
our original expected profit, so it wasn’t all bad!)
What it’s all done is given us
such a good structure for any future projects though.
Our latest one is for our
upcoming joint 40th birthday party. Would a simple handwritten 'to do' list
and invite suffice? Maybe for some, but we've actually got to the stage of some kind of warped enjoyment in pulling all the considerations together.
So, as an example, what do the
project fields for this look like?
Ø
Venue
o
What’s the capacity?
o
What hours do they stay open
to?
o
Car parking available?
o
House DJ etc?
Ø
Food (or not to food)
o
Self Supply?
o
Provided by venue?
§
Price Per head?
§
Flat rate?
Ø
Invites
o
Postal Addresses / Social
Network invites / Hand Delivered
o
Friends / Family / Work ... or
all?
Ø
Music playlist
o
Theme / Genre?
o
Tempo
o
Variety
I love that last one - sorting music playlists - as I could
(and do) literally spend hours and days and weeks trying to perfect a playlist
that suits. Of course it’s nigh on impossible to have a perfect playlist, as music
tastes vary, and I’m partial to chucking in the odd random song here and there
to indulge myself.
Some will say (and have said)
that we've clearly got too much time on our hands. Frankly that’s making a
simple issue sound complex. The truth is we've got so good at this event
planning lark, we actually get it together in no time at all. It’s rapid, with
the processes being the polar opposite of procrastinating.
OCD isn’t always a bad thing…
