Power Tools—5 ways Using Power Tools Helps Us Think Better
Is anyone feeling the need to escape? The need to block out all the voices from social media, the news, and the neighborhood? And maybe gain a little peace of mind? I’ve got just the thing for you.
If you need to be alone with your thoughts and figure something out, grab a power tool.
I know, I know, you thought I was going to tell you to take a hike. That’s my usual go-to. And that’s always best if I need a mindset re-fresh.
But this week, I was reminded how much a wood project helps me think things through.
Sometimes I need to be alone with my thoughts for a while so I can get past the first layer, and sometimes I just need to build something I can touch with my hands. Working with my hands somehow frees my brain.
I’m refinishing an oak vanity for our master bathroom remodel. (Don’t be surprised if I write more about that.)
I’m quite sure that if someone created a list of the 10 Most Popular Self-help Tools, they’d list things like meditation, exercise, goal setting, journaling, productive routines, and habits, etc. All great things of course.
I can guarantee no one would list power tools.
But sometimes working with power tools gives us just what we need to get down to the nitty-gritty without having to remember all the current psychological buzzwords.
Here are a few insights I gained this week when I grabbed my new sander and started stripping the glossy varnish from the vanity.
They apply to woodworking, but you can apply them elsewhere with the same result.
Building things takes time—even with power tools. So does thinking.
Do you know what’s so deceptive on the Internet these days? (Okay, maybe there’s more than one right answer, here.) I’m talking about those instructional Youtube videos demonstrating how to refinish a dresser, remodel a bathroom, or whatever.
Yeah, of course, I know they’re speeding it up, because showing someone sanding the varnish off an oak vanity for hours on hours would not be entertaining. But isn’t that false advertising?
And have you seen those portable houses that unfold from the back of a truck in 10 minutes? Don’t even get me started.
When you sit down, get silent, and start working, you’ll realize time is what it takes to think and re-think and get deeper than a Google search—take off the varnish, and get down to the raw grain.
Yeah. It's not fast. It’s not easy. But it is important if you’re going to do it right, and create something new from something that has been around for a long time, and seems all worn out.
The structure is there. The materials are there. Grab a power tool and be ready to put in some time.
2. Just because you’re using a power tool doesn’t mean you won’t have to put in some effort.
Time, definitely. Effort? That, too.
Have you ever drilled a hole with an old-fashioned bit and brace? (Or was that brace and bit?) My dad showed me how to do that when I was a kid. (Thanks, Dad!) It took a long time. I was barely strong enough to make it work, and I was worn out when I finished.
It’s so much easier to use my small Snap-on drill. It takes a fraction of the time and effort, but it still has to get energy from somewhere. If I don’t charge the battery, my power tool is useless. If I don’t remember to charge my own battery, I’m not good for much either.
The very definition of work reminds us that it’s going to take energy, and if you want to create something, or fix something, or get rid of an old finish and make it look new again, it’s going to take some effort on your part. Power tools can’t do it without you.
But one thing’s for sure—if we aren’t willing to put in the effort, we’ll never get the job done.
3. Power tools remind us to pay attention to our own business.
I’m addicted to audiobooks. I listen to them all the time. The problem is that when I spend all my time listening to other people’s stories, I’m not working on my own. It’s often easier to focus on everything else than it is to face my own thoughts.
Sometimes, I have to shut out the world, with all of its different stories and songs, and pay attention to what I’m supposed to be working on.
With a power tool, if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing, you can ruin whatever it is you’re trying to build or, in my case, refinish. One careless swipe and you’ve changed the shape of the thing altogether. Or hurt yourself.
4. There’s a certain order to follow when you use power tools.
Specific things have to be done first, followed by subsequent steps in a logical progression from the initial stages to the finish.
Skipping steps will not help you get done faster. Skipping steps will only result in having to undo the things you did out of order, because each step builds upon the work you did in the previous ones.
When you’re sanding off old varnish, for instance, you can skip the courser grit sandpaper and go straight to the fine-grained sandpaper meant for finish work, but you’ll end up wasting time and effort, and the sandpaper, because it will end up taking twice as long.
The process is just that. A process. Doing it right, and following the process, will produce the best results. And for me, immersing myself in the process is often just as important as the finished product.
5. The right tool makes all the difference.
Knowing what tool to use to accomplish a certain task means less frustration, more efficiency, and often, a better result. It’s helpful for me to remain informed about the new tools available so that I can accomplish what I want to more efficiently.
That old bit and brace my dad showed me how to use is no longer the right tool. It’s not that it didn’t do the job well—it’s just that innovative, creative minds have developed a faster, easier way to drill a hole. Since it doesn’t take us all day to drill a hole, we can accomplish a lot more than we used to be able to.
Maybe that isn’t always the best goal.
I wonder if humans spent more time thinking things through when they had to spend more time doing things by hand. Hoeing the weeds in the garden, hanging the laundry on a clothesline, kneading their own bread dough, chopping the wood for the fireplace.
Were they able to work out their frustrations, define their own opinions, focus on solving their own problems because they spent more time working with their hands and freeing their brains? I wonder.
Maybe that’s why my husband really needs to go fishing for a few days. Maybe some days the best tool to use doesn’t involve power.
Sometimes, accomplishing more is the goal. I have a lot of things I want to do. But sometimes the goal is just to lose myself in the feel of the wood, the beauty of the grain, and the satisfaction of holding a power tool in my hands and feeling it rev to life.
So I can think.
How about you? What do you do to work through things in your head?
Want to share your ideas with the rest of us?
