Alright, time to come clean. There has been quite a bit of tomfoolery around here and it’s time to set the record straight. Once again optimism has gotten the best of me (as it’s prone to do) and it’s time to confront the reality of my own poor decisions.
Let’s review:
- In “Don’t Call It A Comeback” I said I was going to sit down and beat these keys for at least 15 minutes a day Monday-Friday. Admittedly that happened for a while but eventually it shifted more and more into mostly writing on Saturdays and Sundays.
- In “Confessions Of A Financial Putz” I said I was going to test a bunch of personal finance apps. That didn’t happen. I started digging in, realized how time consuming it was going to be, and then abandoned the project altogether.
- In “Sequential Tasking” I said I was going to delete social media off my phone and use the Cold Turkey app to block social media from my work computer. I deleted the apps off my phone, but after a swing and a miss on getting Cold Turkey installed, I said that I’d wait until after the election was over, then I said I’d wait until the election was certified, and now here we are over a month later and it still hasn’t been set up yet.
Inch by Inch, Task by Task, and Small Win by Small Win
Despite these failures I’ve still managed to post weekly, regularly review my finances*, and stop checking social media on my phone. It’s nowhere near as good as it could have been, but it’s still important to call a spade a spade: those are all steps in the right direction.
Pacing
Pacing is your ability to accurately assess what you can get done and how much time it will take to be completed. This will eventually need its own post (if not several) but many of the terms and concepts we’ve already covered (AMR, PMR, recipes, etc.) help to remove or reduce pacing’s impact on the equation, among other things.
Let’s be clear: Pacing is an acquired skill that has a learning curve. Don’t worry about messing it up, it’s going to happen. Once you realize you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, take a step back, make a note (***in a journal***), and then course correct as needed.
(In. A. Journal! Both how you got into the problem and the proposed solution).
What Now?
Well, I’m not going to try to stuff 10 lbs. of shit into a 2 lb. bag.
Testing a million financial apps is definitely not happening. Looking back on that idea I honestly have no idea what I was thinking. Sometimes you lick the wrong window and all sense of reality goes right out the door.
I still want to get a system going to better track my finances, write daily, and reduce my social media usage. I’ll let those desires marinade in the old noodle for a while and act when the moment feels right. Until then I’m going to focus on doing less and keep enjoying the little wins whenever they arise.
Prioritize bringing on another writer. The first major conclusion I’ve drawn while focusing on doing less is that I need to skip next week’s post and instead focus on finding a second writer. This was originally something I was planning on doing way, way down the line. But, after sleeping on it for the last few days, I’ve decided that this timeline needs to be drastically accelerated. Here’s why:
- There needs to be, at minimum, a weekly post. Whenever the readership of this blog starts to pick up everyone needs to be assured there will be at least one post a week.
- The new writer will focus on weightlifting posts. Weightlifting, eventually, will make up most of the content posted to this site. It doesn’t make sense to wait years to start mixing some of those posts into the lineup.
- It will give me a chance to work on other parts of the blog. SEO, content calendars, email lists, and all sorts of other things need to happen in order to make this project work. These things take time, having one week a month to focus on something other than that week’s post will give me the time to move those other things forward.
- Most importantly, it’s in line with the ethos of this blog. I’ve tried hyper optimizing and prioritizing things over friends and family, and, for me, it doesn’t work out. It always leaves me with feelings of wanting more. Part of growing up is learning what works for you, and right here and right now that means bringing on another writer to free up some blog time for tasks other than writing.
See y’all on the 21st,
Tag
*Pro tip: once you’re done reading this article check the digital orders of your Amazon account (which do not show up in the regular orders area) and ensure you don’t have an active subscription HBO Max or any other services that you aren’t using.