Do The Next Thing

I've been known to start too many projects at once. And I get overwhelmed. I've been feeling massively overwhelmed the last couple of days because I've been handling some personal  matters which have completely derailed me from working to moving my businesses forward. I tend to get really frustrated when I can't work on my businesses. I absolutely know that my highest & best use of time is spending time moving my businesses forward, and therefore, when my weekly time slots get derailed, I get pissed off.

But that's life. Things come up and the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Urgent tasks that have a deadline attached will get the attention. I've worked diligently to set up systems in my life to eliminate against this. For example, I dedicate Tuesday & Thursday mornings to undistracted focus work.

And for the last 6 months, I've done a really good job of letting almost nothing intervene with that. From 6am - 12pm is my time to move my projects forward. I've told my wife, business partner, and my teammates that they can contact me anytime throughout the week for anything. But just let me put my head down and work on Tuesday & Thursday mornings and I'll make myself available anytime outside of those time blocks.

But on Tuesday of this week, the 2nd round of PPP was released. And distribution of the funds for the 1st round was based on the speed of application completion. The application process was a nightmare. Wells Fargo servers must have been bombarded because it kicked me off while completing my application seven times.

Finally, on the 8th try after trying all day long, I was able to get the app submitted around 7pm. This completely derailed any deep work for the day as I was back and forth with my accountant all day rounding up necessary documents for the application. This is the kind of work that drives me absolutely insane. I thrive when I'm able to put my head down & work creatively. But when I get into heavily reactive situations is when I get pissed off really quickly.

Side note: My CPA is a rockstar & she is a lifesaver. If I didn't have her help this exercise would have taken 2 or 3x the amount of time & I would have been in an even worse mood. So this has nothing to do with her, but has everything to do with my outlook on not getting to work creatively to move the businesses forward.

(If you are looking for someone to run your books & prepare your taxes, I would highly recommend her. Just reach out to me via email and I'm happy to connect you. It's the most delightful expense on my budget & I'm happy to pay her a monthly fee to take this kind of work off of Jayson & I's plate for the majority of the month. She's also uberly responsive & helpful in situations like this.)

I understand that this is an area that I need to grow in. But I'm just not a happy person when I don't get to do deep work. This is mainly self induced and I know that. But I have an expectation for myself. I always have and I probably always will. I truly believe good things come to those who put their heads down and work hard. This is the example I had growing up. My dad has a work ethic that I'd stack up against anyone. The dude knows how to use his mind in a way that tells his body that he can keep going. He just works. Puts his head down and works. At an early age, I began working for his concrete business. And he made me work. Being the oldest child, I felt a responsibility to do the same. Just follow his example & work. I applied this to sports & I truly believe this is how I earned a scholarship to play in college.

This work ethic is really the only way I've ever been successful at anything. When I'm not able to put my head down & work, I get pissed.

Fast forward to yesterday, and the same situation happened. My wife and I are exploring the option to purchase land in Winter Park. As mentioned in my post yesterday, the approval process for entrepreneurs who are paid out of LLC's that are owned, is easily 3-4x the amount of paperwork as opposed to if I were W-2'd working for another company.

Yesterday was completely shot due to the whole day of requesting & supplying necessary documents back of forth.

And we're under contract as of yesterday but have a deadline for the pre approval letter by noon today. So, this morning was somewhat shot & I'm  writing as a venting exercise this morning.

Because I'm still backed up on my work for the week. I haven't completed shit for moving the businesses forward. And quite honestly, I'm just pissed off right now.

The Framework For Conquering Overwhelm

As I was mediating this morning to get my mind right, the resurfacing thought was something one of my friends & mentors told me all throughout COVID.

"Just do the next thing."

I met with him weekly all throughout the COVID crisis & his persistent question was,

"What's the next thing you can do?"

Every time I'd bring him a big, overwhelming strategy, he'd ask me,

"What's the next thing that you can do to move this forward?"

So, i'm reminding myself this morning, "Just do the next thing."

I'm unbelievably backed up on my to-do list for the week. And I've come to the conclusion that I likely won't be able to finish by the end of the week. So I'm just going to do the next thing and chip away at it one by one.

Writing is therapy. I feel so much better now that I've written this down. Writing equals clear thinking. And it helps me get all of the racing thoughts out of my head. Now, I'm going to go back to my to-do list and focus on THE ONE THING I CAN DO TO MOVE THE PROJECTS FORWARD.

That's it. I'm relinquishing the self-induced stress from the fact that I'm behind on my weekly task list.

But I'm just gonna take the next step. Because that's all I can do.

On to taking the next step.