I blame Bob the Builder …

There can’t be anything too difficult about using a shovel, surely?

They’re great tools, handy for so many tasks and a nailed on essential in my man-cave.

But I’ve never yet seen one that comes with a user manual.

What is there to know?

There’s a handle, a shaft and the business end of the beast.

And that’s it.

Why should I need someone to tell me how to use it?

But maybe the manufacturers should think again.

Taking advantage of the holiday break and … a rare day when it wasn’t raining, I ventured out to do some cleaning up outside.

The task in hand was a once-a-year back-breaker of a task cleaning all the mud and dead leaves up off the road outside the house.

It’s not exactly a 5-minute job so I was delighted to enlist a willing helper.

How little did he know what fate awaited him!

Off we trotted after breakfast and set to work with my helper proudly in charge of his shovel.

But within minutes he was on his knees with exhaustion.

You see, there’s a real knack to using the humble shovel.

A smooth, well-practised arm movement using the implement’s weight and momentum to slide in under the debris before deftly hoicking it into the waiting barrow.

And that’s it.

But I quickly realised that my (by now) less than willing helper had probably never done a job like this before. Ever.

Carry on like that for another half hour, I thought, and he’ll be shuffling off this mortal coil.

The moral of the story is that there’s nearly always an easy way to do something and one where you wish you’d never even started.

Life can be a struggle but there’s no need to make it harder than it already is.

If you’re wrestling with a print or graphic design project we’re here to help. It’s what we do.

Have a great week.

Alec