Great advice. Here’s another hint for first timers: you’re going to get it wrong. Spend half a day replacing a faucet, following all the instructions and the collective wisdom of YouTube. Turn the water back on and… drip, drip.
Patching drywall, fixing a drawer slide, replacing a loose electrical outlet… No matter how much you read or watch there is some finesse to each. Practice and experience will make it so you get it right the first time more often, and then when you’re an old person like me you reach a point where you can pretty much do it better than the fly-by-night contractor you’d hire.
One more piece of advice. Don’t mess with live electricity. Wall current can stop your heart instantly or start a fire in the middle of the night. Turn off breakers and be diligent about tightening connections and keeping things to code, but don’t be too afraid of it. A little bit of awareness is all it takes. And the first time you turn that breaker back on it may pop, then you’ll see what went wrong and never make that mistake again.
I know I said one more, but here is one more “one more”. Hit yard sales or estate sales for cheap tools. You’ll have to do this proactively and not when you actually need them. Usually you can pick up stuff for pennies on the dollar. An old caulk gun, adjustable wrench, half box of drywall screws… All good to pickup on the cheap.
I know DIY isn’t everyone’s favorite past time, but after the first few things you tackle you might find it actually enjoyable. I know the combination of saving money, securing my home’s integrity, and completing a job well done is something I look forward to.
Don’t know why I never thought of this before. Just sorted by sender and was able to crank through a ton of emails.
I’m absolutely guilty of what OP describes as being annoying. My coping mechanisms meant ratcheting down the frequency of monitoring those feeds. No email alerts, ever. Check and respond to email twice daily. Respond to IMs (Teams) hourly. Otherwise, pay attention to the meeting I’m in or the work I’m doing. So if I get sent an email I may not get to it for a while, sometimes not before the meeting I’m being called out on.
But in my role I spend 90% of my day in meetings or joint working sessions. Others with different working profiles would have different strategies and expectations, as does the OP, I suspect.