It’s that time of year, preparing for the school year. For me, this year, that has included printing work booklets. One work booklet per year group, and one work booklet per pupil – so over 100 of each work booklet. There is an awesome printer which creates and staples the booklets, so I thought it would be a simple task. I would be able to set it off on the task and go off and do something else… hmmmmmmmmmm

Last week there was no end of issues, including paper jams, running out of paper, overheating etc… each time there was an issue, if I wasn’t there at the time of the issue it would cancel the job so I would have to count how many booklets it had produced to know how many were left to do.

Today I had one more year groups booklets to do, so I decided to do small batches at a time. Just 20-30 at a time. There were no paper jams, and it didn’t overheat. Inevitably it ran out of paper, but because I was only doing a small amount at a time it didn’t really matter too much if it cancelled the job as there were only ever a few booklets to count.

So what did I learn from the printer today? Small manageable steps. This doesn’t mean there won’t be problems, but just that the problems are more manageable. As regular readers will know I have a tendency to set high standards for myself with ridiculous expectations. This could well result in jamming, burning up, or running out – all of which have happened before.

I know that I need to put in preventative measures before the return and I think this is definitely going to have to be one – and by seeing the work booklets on a daily basis it should be a good reminder! HOPEFULLY!