I spent most of the day yesterday troubleshooting and then wiping my hard drive clean and reinstalling about a zillion pieces of software and resetting preferences on my MacBook. As most of you know, my Mac is on its third hard drive, third power cord and third battery in four years. Thank God for Apple Care or I could have paid the equivilent cost of five new computers by now. Apple, for future reference, does not replace its lemons. It replaces the parts in them. So factor in the time you’ll spend driving to and from Apple Stores and waiting at Genius bars, or online if you like to do-it-yourself, if you’re considering buying anything Apple. They’re a dream when they work, hell when they don’t. But they look good failing.

Anyway, I was actually on schedule with the work I had to do up until then. Now I’m behind a day. As a friend told me, “Factor in 20% for your time as well as expenses. Assume SOMETHING is going to go wrong - because if you don’t, it will.”

He was right.

So today I started factoring in an extra percentage of time on new jobs. I was surprised to find I felt a little better about it. I could use that extra time to polish something if nothing goes wrong, and if something does go wrong, I can still do a good job. I had been “guesstimating” my time, but now I’m deliberately adding on an extra day or more to every job. It doesn’t cost the client anymore. I just tell them I need 8 days instead of five or six, or three days instead of two. If I finish with no problems, they get it sooner than expected - and I’ll let them know that upfront. Standard Project Management stuff.

It seems obvious now, but I hadn’t really thought about how I really approach the unexpected in other areas of my life. I just tried not to worry and to deal with it when it happened….like yesterday. Most of us worry about the unexpected happening, but never plan for it. But planning for it makes more sense. I recently bought a copy of a home improvement magazine - The Family Handyman - (May 2010 issue) not because I have a home, but I like to see what’s happening with how-do improvements. I like wood working and all that goes with dreaming of home ownership. Anyway, I was surprised to see a HUGE and very well-done section on disaster preparedness and the tools and information you’d need to be prepared. In a home improvement magazine. It was brilliant, well-written and I’ve cut it out and saved it so I’ll have it. The point being - why not plan for a disaster if you have a home? With tornado season on the way, floods, quakes - it made sense.

This weekend I’m going to start writing down what I would do “IF” - and make a plan and then forget about it. Do you worry about the unexpected? How do you plan for it - or do you?