Robert Merry, an independent stone consultant and project manager who ran his own company for 17 years and now also runs training courses on project management, gives his personal slant on the stone industry this month.

I can juggle. Not vey well. In fact if I stood on the corner of your street juggling, you’d cross the road. If you were a kindly person you might call an ambulance. But you’d definitely cross the road first.

I don’t do it very often these days. Occasionally I get my juggling balls out and have a go , but I tend to drop them. I think its life. You have the thought in your head that its possible, that you can still pull it off, but physically you’re just not

co-ordinated enough.

It takes practice. Hours of it… until it becomes second nature. I just never had the patience or the desire to spend that much time on it. Plus getting your juggling balls out in public can be embarrassing, unless they’re very small, like mine.

Juggling is not restricted to balls. Success can bring an increased workload – more tasks, appointments, thoughts, actions that all need juggling.

Getting up early to clear the backlog works for some. I know one MD who regularly rises at 4am and starts work… “to catch up”. This also allows him the time to cycle with his children to school.

At the moment I receive emails from a site manager at around 8pm. As it happens with alarming regularity I assume this is the time he gets round to me on his list of things to do.

Another client has taken to calling me at 8.30pm to “see how the day went”. I stopped picking up the phone recently. “I’ll tell you tomorrow when I see you – in less than 12 hours!!”

Another texts me even later at night and often on a Sunday to ask if its OK to call for a discussion on the contract.

Unless I’m out, I foolishly text back “OK” and then take a call about something that could easily be discussed in the morning or on Monday.

The only exception is if I’m at the football on a Saturday. I will always answer and noisily apologise for the noise .

If I didn’t answer I’d feel compelled to ring back anyway. By answering the call I don’t have to ring back and the noise of the crowd acts as a barrier. It’s a wall of protest: “Stop calling me – its Saturday afternoon!” It used to be the working man and woman’s time off. That’s why football matches start in the afternoon. Work in the morning, down the pub for lunchtime and off to the footie in the afternoon. Back in the pub afterwards for the post match analysis and home in time for supper.

Due to current public awareness of the effects of alcohol and the likely influence on the younger generation I don’t do the drinking bit – well , not so you’d notice.

So what is this desire to be connected? To be “open all hours”, give ourselves permission to call someone after work and during the weekend. Or is it me? If I didn’t answer perhaps they wouldn’t do it again.

Whatever it is that creates the need to be connected, to have the answer now and not wait for tomorrow, it’s a modern curse that we all fall victim to.

I think I might have to take up juggling balls again.

Robert Merry, MCIOB, ran his own stone company for 17 years and is now an independent Stone Consultant and Project Manager. He also delivers training programmes on all aspects of Estimating and Project Management – details and dates are on his website. Tel: 0207 502 6353 / 07771 997621.