Today I want to write about a previous post I did, The Trap. I originally wrote it on January 24th (posted February 28th). Today is February 25th.
A month after I wrote that post. A month ago I was feeling overwhelmed because I was trying to tackle the next phase in Minimalism, starting this Blog, and starting to figure out how to become more engaged in Philanthropy. I needed to slow down and breathe and eliminate some things. The outcome, I pre-wrote a bunch of Blog posts, so I was able to remove it from my plate for a month. I temporarily shelved Philanthropy. And then I put my entire focus on Minimalism.
By doing that, I felt refreshed and energized to tackle my main focus. It was awesome. I was able to close that out in a little over a week. I went through our hallway nook and cleared off a junk collecting desk. The desk itself went into the garage. Then I went through the living room. I emptied the bookshelf there and either got rid of the contents or moved them into our previously empty TV stand. The bookshelf replaced the hallway nook desk and filled with meaningful stuff. My bedroom and the kids' room was next. I cleared out a couple of boxes of old toys along with twice that many boxes of my old paperwork, junk, etc. Both of our closets are now half-empty. Unfortunately, our garage is packed with junk now, but once there is a shiny weekend, we’ll hold a garage sale and get rid of what we can. We'll donate or give away the rest.
Whew, I was dreading this project, but once I could focus on it, I was able to knock it out in record time. I’m sure I can trim down even more, but for now, I have an excellent minimalism foundation.
That’s one week, there are three more that passed between then and now. During that time, I read/skimmed The Singularity Is Near and read Factfulness. Two great books for feeling positive about the future again.
In addition to these books, I was also able to respond to an emotionally hard week at work while dealing with this long-running sickness. And I knocked out my taxes which I'll wrap up this week.
After a month, I feel accomplished even though I was working on my project only for a quarter of that time, which leads to this weekend.
I decided to start two projects. The Trap, I know. But this time it’s intentional. One is a financial independence project which will be slow and long-running. The other project will be more time-intensive, philanthropy project.
I currently participate monthly in One on One Outreach. I just went again last night, my third time going so far. Last month after my wife and I volunteered, we started talking about starting a program ourselves. She pitched a similar concept as One on One. One on One works towards providing local lower-income families with basic household goods and foods: things like detergent, bleach, and various food staples. It’s a great cause, but we’re both more passionate about helping out kids specifically. So our idea was to start putting together school care packages for local elementary schools in lower-income neighborhoods. We were thinking of incorporating it into her business' proceeds which would give us some consistent funding to start things. After a fun brainstorming session, we filed it away as a sweet dream, but neither of us was in the position to start a new project.
Well, last night as I was driving home from this month’s event, I reevaluated where I was at in terms of projects. I had just spent the weekend cleaning up my project list and rebuilding it. I was ready to start something new. As I was going to sleep, I pulled out my laptop in bed (heh… a terrible habit I try to avoid) and looked up some info. I searched local elementary schools ranked in order from best to worst. I researched most needed supplies for elementary schools, broken down to grade level. I laid out the contribution plan for what percentages of our business’ proceeds to apply towards purchasing supplies along with how we were going to carve that percentage out of our current budget. I detailed distribution quantities and frequency. I took rough notes for everything. It’s all very rough notes right now. Over the next week, I’ll put it into a more presentable format and then pitch it to my wife. But it’s a start.
A month ago I had the same moment at night and realized that I had fallen into the Trap. This time, because I correctly managed my projects and workload, that late night burst of energy will become a foundation for my family’s Philanthropy efforts for decades to come.
(Written 2019.02.25)
A month after I wrote that post. A month ago I was feeling overwhelmed because I was trying to tackle the next phase in Minimalism, starting this Blog, and starting to figure out how to become more engaged in Philanthropy. I needed to slow down and breathe and eliminate some things. The outcome, I pre-wrote a bunch of Blog posts, so I was able to remove it from my plate for a month. I temporarily shelved Philanthropy. And then I put my entire focus on Minimalism.
By doing that, I felt refreshed and energized to tackle my main focus. It was awesome. I was able to close that out in a little over a week. I went through our hallway nook and cleared off a junk collecting desk. The desk itself went into the garage. Then I went through the living room. I emptied the bookshelf there and either got rid of the contents or moved them into our previously empty TV stand. The bookshelf replaced the hallway nook desk and filled with meaningful stuff. My bedroom and the kids' room was next. I cleared out a couple of boxes of old toys along with twice that many boxes of my old paperwork, junk, etc. Both of our closets are now half-empty. Unfortunately, our garage is packed with junk now, but once there is a shiny weekend, we’ll hold a garage sale and get rid of what we can. We'll donate or give away the rest.
Whew, I was dreading this project, but once I could focus on it, I was able to knock it out in record time. I’m sure I can trim down even more, but for now, I have an excellent minimalism foundation.
That’s one week, there are three more that passed between then and now. During that time, I read/skimmed The Singularity Is Near and read Factfulness. Two great books for feeling positive about the future again.
In addition to these books, I was also able to respond to an emotionally hard week at work while dealing with this long-running sickness. And I knocked out my taxes which I'll wrap up this week.
After a month, I feel accomplished even though I was working on my project only for a quarter of that time, which leads to this weekend.
I decided to start two projects. The Trap, I know. But this time it’s intentional. One is a financial independence project which will be slow and long-running. The other project will be more time-intensive, philanthropy project.
I currently participate monthly in One on One Outreach. I just went again last night, my third time going so far. Last month after my wife and I volunteered, we started talking about starting a program ourselves. She pitched a similar concept as One on One. One on One works towards providing local lower-income families with basic household goods and foods: things like detergent, bleach, and various food staples. It’s a great cause, but we’re both more passionate about helping out kids specifically. So our idea was to start putting together school care packages for local elementary schools in lower-income neighborhoods. We were thinking of incorporating it into her business' proceeds which would give us some consistent funding to start things. After a fun brainstorming session, we filed it away as a sweet dream, but neither of us was in the position to start a new project.
Well, last night as I was driving home from this month’s event, I reevaluated where I was at in terms of projects. I had just spent the weekend cleaning up my project list and rebuilding it. I was ready to start something new. As I was going to sleep, I pulled out my laptop in bed (heh… a terrible habit I try to avoid) and looked up some info. I searched local elementary schools ranked in order from best to worst. I researched most needed supplies for elementary schools, broken down to grade level. I laid out the contribution plan for what percentages of our business’ proceeds to apply towards purchasing supplies along with how we were going to carve that percentage out of our current budget. I detailed distribution quantities and frequency. I took rough notes for everything. It’s all very rough notes right now. Over the next week, I’ll put it into a more presentable format and then pitch it to my wife. But it’s a start.
A month ago I had the same moment at night and realized that I had fallen into the Trap. This time, because I correctly managed my projects and workload, that late night burst of energy will become a foundation for my family’s Philanthropy efforts for decades to come.
(Written 2019.02.25)
