Brandwidth Blog

This weekend, like most, I decided to take on a project around the house that I rarely have time to do through the week. Yes folks, it was that time.. time to change the oil in my car. Being a control freak, I usually do it myself, mainly because almost every time I’ve had it done somewhere, something has gotten screwed up (that and I usually put in full synthetic and use special oil filters you can’t get from service centers).

Case in point, I had drained the oil pan and had moved on to the oil filter — which had been torqued on well past the “quarter turn hand tight” standard — and I didn’t have a oil filter wrench to get it off. I really never need one because the filters I use have a nut on the bottom for easy removal (another reason I do it myself). Since the filter that was on there was only one oil change old, I decided to leave it for now and mess with it next time.

So, moving on to the next stage of my project, I started swapping the spark plugs out. With some effort, I managed to get one changed, but wasn’t able to get the others out due to not having the proper tools. My issue this time was that I needed a longer extension for my socket — a part I had to borrow from a friend since my car was in pieces :).

The point to all of this is that something people seem to overlook is having the proper tools for a job. For a programming task, you need a project description, a goal, and time to execute. For a fully marketed website, you need proper keywords, content, and time for the engines to spider. Far too often I have seen both of these areas being neglected by clients who “just want it done in a week” or who aren’t willing to take the time to fully describe what they want. Sure, a site or special project might be able to be cobbled together in time, but that’s like changing your oil without changing the filter. Sure, it gets the job done, but it isn’t performing as well as it can or should when just a little bit more effort would complete the job.