When undertaking a mammoth endeavour such as Zee it would be great to be able to decide in the first few weeks where everything would fit, what the floorplan would be, what services are required and where and then being able to make the necessary budget and project plan with a definitive flow and end date. That would be 'amazeballs' as the youth of today are wont to utter.

However, as I have had a few other distractions recently it has enabled me to work on the plan in my subconscious and make tweaks to my internal plan. Procrastination can be the killer of productivity but can allow yourself time to engage in divergent thinking and hence be a driver of creativity. In 1927 the Russian psychologist Bluma Ziegarnik demonstrated that people have a better memory for incomplete tasks than for completed ones. Once a task is complete we mentally tick it off and we stop working on it, but if it is interrupted or left undone it stays active in our mind.

The Gettysburg Address given by Lincoln managed in just 272 words to totally reframe the Civil War as a quest for freedom and equality as described in the Declaration of Independence. What is less well known is that the request for the speech was received by Lincoln 2 weeks prior and that 24 hours before he had managed only to flesh out roughly half of the address. Martin Luther King revisited the "I have a dream" speech multiple times and in the end winged it, adding so much to the original planned text that he doubled the the length of the speech.

Studies have found that CEOs who were rated poorly in terms of efficiency and promptness were the ones whose companies had the highest financial returns. Not deciding early and doggedly sticking to a structure and strategy allowed them to more effectively change their startegies to capitalise on new opportunities or fend off new threats.

Far be it for me to compare myself to Abraham Lincoln or Dr King, but I have certainly found that building flexibility into the plan has allowed me to make minor changes here and there which I believe will add to the functionality, performance, safety or 'livability' (liveableness?) of the design. As I learned fairly quickly in the military, the plan never lasts first contact with the enemy, but the process of planning is invaluable.

I recently had a question about the welded points for the floor struts (which were originally going to be wood but then I decided against it and opted for steel - easier to construct, rot proof, smaller for a given strength) in that did I know where the floor level would be when the barge was fully loaded? In short, no. Not a freaking clue. But I had used the rough line of the previous floor, a horizontal plumb line with spirit level and, most importantly, sufficient steel in place so that I could significantly alter the floor line should the floor require it. Building in some 'wiggle room' can pay dividends for sure. You may not need it and have to remove the excess steel, but at least it is there should it be required.

I have also been thinking of the suitability of using the fo'csle as the 'plant room' for the electric distribution board, batteries etc. Primarily, if the electrics flick off, I do not want to traipse to the front of the barge in my dressing gown at 3am to descend into the foc'sle to reset circuit breakers, so I have decided to move the some of the plant to what will be the stairwell running from the wheelhouse. Apart from lowering the chance of me being found floating face down in the marina in my dressing gown, the distribution board be in a more temperature/humidity controlled environment and batteries and power control systems more readily accessible. My only concern is the additional weight near the rear of the barge adding potentially more to the 'nose up' attitude of Zee. However, since the anchor chain is due to be doubled in size this should easily compensate.

Further alterations from the original plan have been to totally remove the seacock from the main cargo hold (mostly for safety in case of failure), the total revamp of the internal floorplan after revisiting it (mentally I was unhappy with the original design and loss of floor space to corridors), the use of underfloor water tanks as ballast instead of concrete or bags of sand (as used currently), adapting standard double glazed skylights to be removable instead of gas strut units (at a saving of about £3000 per unit)... There are plenty of other minor elements which have been revisited and others in the pipeline but suffice to say keeping on open mind and adapting to new knowledge or new bits of technology is much easier when you haven't set everything in metaphorical concrete.

We are getting closer to D-Day for the dry dock. They are in touch with the other 2 barges who will hopefully be ready to share the dry dock with me at the same time and thereby reduce the cost, allowing me to put more of the money towards getting work done rather than the chocking and pumping out of the water. Which would be nice...