October 2007

As part of my goals project, I have established a list of things to do on a daily basis–every day. The vast majority (affirmations, pray, read mission statement) takes less than a minute or two to do–but has a profoundly positive impact on my life. I’ve completed the gist of them.

GTD has made it possible for me to “trust my list.”

So, the “Release Candidate 1″ of my daily list…is as follows:

Now–this is the CHECK OFF STUFF

• 4:45 wakeup.*** Thursdays: 4am wakeup.
• 12 OZ H20
• Vitamin.
• Get food for work into car.
• Let Dog Out/Feed Dog
• Affirmations
• Read Bible. (5-10 minutes)
• Prayer List (bang it out)
• Read Personal Mission Statement
• Read FAMILY mission statement
• Read Business Mission Statement
• Write Goals
• Write 10 Things I’m grateful For
• Meditate on Gratitudes
• Meditate on Goals
• Morning Pages (20 minutes)
• Read 30 pages (am) positive material.
• Write blog entry/pod cast (30 minutes)
• Execute DAILY MARKETING
• 10 Minutes of Home Cleaning/Organizing
• Get food for work.
• Eat something.
• Grab IPOD/with positive stuff.

LEAVE FOR GYM BY 6:30. (5:30 on Thursdays)

• 30 minutes of cardio EVERY DAY
• 40 minutes of weights on M-W-F.
• Shower/Shave
• Get to office by 8:15 am.
• Write Goals Again #2
• Review last day’s 4×4 chart
• Update all clients (10-15 minutes)
• Review Pipeline.
• Review Weekly numbers–check for gaps
• Review Projects in process
• Send out appreciation
• Read prospecting scripts (out loud).
• Return/log phone calls
• Columbus Mortgage News Blog Post
• Print Call List
• Complete contacts for day. (1-2 hours)
  
• Write goals #3
• Review Pipeline (before lunch)
• Process New Leads into system
• Return Morning’s calls.
• Check Pricing/Lock loans if needed
• Update numbers
• Write Goals #4.
• Make final contacts; last thing is to make 2 sphere and 2 business contacts each day.
• Do 4×4 sheet.

Home by 6:30 (T-TH-F)

• Walk Dog
• Dinner by 7p
• Do something fun with Jack/H.
• Devotional W/H (faith matters, kids)
• Jack to bed by 8:30.
• Check Bank balance.
• Prepare clothing and food for the next day
• Final check in for blog stuff.
• Write Goals#5.
• Read 40 pages
• DO and fold a load of laundry.
• clear dishes/ 15-30 minutes of house stuff

Set up next day:

• Look at household “to do” projects
• Put clothing out for the next day.
• Write down food for the next day.
• Pack up breakfast.
• Make a plan for any “unfinished” work from the day

I’ll probably add stuff to this in lieu of taking it out; it also works best with the dates on top; i’ve used the dates on the side for this stuff before.

Of course, this all works better with a database, but making this SHARABLE and DOABLE for the people around is a reasonable constraint to work from.

***This may be moved to 4:30 if I can swing it–I think that that would give me a good chance at the day. With another kid on the way, I don’t know what happens next.

Track Your Goals Online

[edit: 3/2/08: this is included in "best of" because it is the first time I wanted the radical accountability. Took many restarts.]

So–if not my muse, a clear purpose has presesnted itself to me today–and the technology allows me an elegant way of doing what I want to do. I guess the technology has always existed, but the super-simplle OXYGEN way it exists hasn’t.

I want to get to 73,611 by 12/6/07.

I want to shed 30 pounds by the end of the year.

And I want to open my life up–the numbers of my life–so people can see them wherever and whenever. I know about how many people check in on this blog, and I know about how many people are around. They’ll watch. I had 21 people check out my books read (work in process) list.

So people will check it, enough that will know when I’m screwing up. And that’s pretty exciting to me.

I’m going to open as much as I can up to people; I don’t want to get into a situation where I’m a slave to updating myself–but to handle a list of trackable things that I want to cover on an iterated basis. I can cruise through this stuff fairly quickly especially if I get the framework right the first time and re commit myself to breaking it down correctly.

I also don’t have to check in every DAY. I think I can get i so it takes less than 3 minutes a day to manage this; I can adapt it later to be more sophisticated.

It’s easy

Cumulative Type Goals:

• contacts made
• Minutes of cardio
• Calories Consumed
• Pages Read
• Applications Taken
• Apps Dropped out
• Net Applications
• Applications submitted
• Deals closed
• Hours Worked
• hours Prospected
• Fee income
• Net Wages

Check-in type goals:

• Checking balance
• 401k Balance
• Weight
• Pipeline Volume
• Pipeline units
• Pipeline Fee
• State of house?

Checklist Type Goals:

• Rose at 4:30
• Planned food?
• Said affirmations
• Did morning Pages
• Got to Gym by 8
• Practiced Scripts
• Hung out with Jack
• Read bible

The above goalsets are just EXAMPLES–and not meant to be taken too seriously/literally. One CAN track darn near every activity over time, that doesn’t mean I should.
This isn’t perfect, but I can get this organized so it’s easy to see. I can break it down and have some easily disseminated percentages: (Chris Johnson’s contact goal is 21 per day, he is 3.39% off his current mark).

Now…No more projects till I think about this a minute, and nothing new till I get my taxes done. Kicking it like it’s 2003.

So an “AHA” moment hit me for accountability today, and it’s going to be a whale.  I will no longer have MUCH of an excuse to fail or to not do what I’m supposed to do.

I’ve been an OCCASIONAL user of Google Docs for a long time.  When I have something–like a policy manual–that needs to be worked on by another person as well as me, I’ve used it.  But, being in a semi-self employed state my entire career, my “collabarative” times have not been as frequent as I’d like.  That creates its own set of headaches, particularly, lack of accountability.

Since one of my goals is to live a transparent life–with all that it includes–I was thinking it would be clever to track a couple of sets of metrics on Google Spreadsheets.  A project that I’ve been dreaming of for my entire life is to have some sort of online-social-goal tracking collaborative tool.  I actually started working on something relatively earnestly in 2005–but then the wheels came off my life in a big way, and I went down a funky path.  I think it’s time to resume my plan in that area.

What if I tracked (or list #3: things to track):

My Weight

Contacts

Closings

Money given away

Checkbook balance. (ouch).

Loans Submitted

Miles Run

Pages Read

Writing Done

Calories Consumed

Other “toggle” or “discrete” position metrics (didja say your affirmations).

etc.

Daily, absolutely and against some particular goals?   What then would my life look like?  I think that it would create a stronger system, a more accountable Chris, and some more money I could earn.  I think doing it is the first step in really, really, getting to where I want to go, and even though I have (by implication on Stats) about 30-40 readers/subscribers, that’s enough to enhance this blog.

This idea started with me tracking my books on Google Docs.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pClJAY-891Ob-UP8zHTziDg  (work in early stages, just getting stuff in the right place is a chore) for all of you who haven’t seen it.   I thought about this, and thought, “Man, what a great start…let’s put some movies in here, too.”

Then….”what if i tracked all of my goals…”

Well, we’ll see what happens.

All eyes up here.  This is gonna rock…

To all y’all, I’m going live next week with this.

Anyone care to join me?

List #3 and list #4. 

Essential business and life books.   Of all the books we read, the “long tail” theory plays a big impact.  A few books are so information rich, dense, and so jammed with good stuff it’s impossible to squeeze all of the knowledge out of them in one read, or in one sitting.   Not every good book fits in this category–the purpose of the books can be intended differently.

Read Every Year:

1.  Capitalism and Freedom-  Milton Friedman.  Every nuanced argument of the collectivists is dispatched here, and with style and grace.
2. Think and Grow Rich- Napoleon Hill-  The original book on mindset and motivation.
3. (New Addition) Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen-  A primer on bottom up personal productivity.  If you meet the first set of needs you have, you’re free to solve more.
4. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People:  Stephen Covey.  Now…the problem with the seven habits is that it spends a lot of time with the “what” and less with the “how.”  But, after reading GTD, you should be in a good spot to read this.
5. The Screwtape Letters: C.S Lewis.  Whether or not you’re a Christian, this has a seeringly accurate portrait of what human beings do to one another, the games they play, and the ways they succumb to temptations and stupidities.

Are there any other books I should be reading every year?  Or every five?  I considered putting Blue Ocean Strategy, Unlimited Power, or Positioning up there, but it wasn’t uniform enough.   Have I missd something I need to be reading?

List 4:  My next Books:

1. The Artists Way- Julia Cameron.
2.  Your money or your life-
3. Through Gates of Splendor

Anything else I need to be reading?

…a mini goals update;  One goal was to fund 73,611 By 12/10/07.  And, I closed a few this week that’s going to make that possible.  With roughly 8 weeks to go, I am looking at a cash need of 47,000; 23,500 per month.

I have, in my pipeline, right now, about 15k of that.  My average loan is worth $3k right now, so this means $37,000 (only count 2/3 of your pipe), and 12 +/- loans are needed.  I can do this.  Easily.

Parameters:

1. Everyone benefits.
2. no more than 30% refinances.
3. time to amp up the marketing…
4. Must close 30k/fee by 11/20/07 to have a real chance.

Anyway…away we go!

So, you gotta be mentally ready to work in the business that I work in.  For YEARS, I’ve been advocating affirmations, quiet times, writing goals, thinking about stuff like that, and doing stuff like that.  YEARS.  Literally.

But inertia is a bitch.

And inertia is a trick of the devil.   And it’s easier to hit snooze–on any given morning–than it is to go out and do the life that you’ve picked out.   It’s not the way to go, believe me.

Life is easier if you start with a daily checklist.  You know that your bases are covered.  Mine runs from Monday to Saturday.  Sunday, i’ll have one.

Tomorrow, I’m changing, significantly, my checklist to incorporate more of the GTD stuff I’ve recently learned.  (Daily sweeps, and processing stuff).  Today, I’ll go over the first third (there are 70+ things I wanna do every day), and annotate where appropriate.  This list is in the approximate order I want to do things.

Beginning of day:

1. Wake at 4:45 (this will be changed to 0430).
2. Let dog out/feed dog.
3. Take Vitamins/12 OZ water.
4.  Affirmations:  I swear by ‘em.  What other way to gradually become a worldbeater than to reprogram yourself?
5. Read the bible. (Get grounded, baby)
6. Write Goals (5x day, minimum.  I’ve had some difficulty doing this, and I’ve rebuilt a trick in my man purse to make this more likely).  I almost invariably do the first one.  By goals I don’t mean every nuanced portion of everything I wanna do before I croak.  I’m talking about general stuff to do…
7. Read Personal Mission Statement.
8. Write blog post. (I’m about 9 days ahead).
9. Other 2-3 minute tasks…
10. Leave for Gym by 6:am.
11. Get to work by 7:30.
12. ROCK THE DAY.

One tennant of GTD is the weekly review.

Basically–you put everything out of your mind and onto a device of either high tech (voice recorders) or low tech (jotter) design. You then have one inbox, and process everything in order that you get to it. You do stuff that takes less than 2 minutes, you drop/delete what you can, you delegate what’s not yours, and you defer the longer-than-two minute stuff that you need to do–just not right now.

So, for list number 2/2, I’m going to give you my buckets….all of this stuff gets processed at least once a week, most of it more often.

1. Google Notebook: Being able to hit ALT + N to get to my notebook has been the single biggest reason that I switched to Firefox. I have: Stuff to buy, Books to read, ops manual, chris todo, someday/maybe blog/webcast home…stuff for mike (shared, naturally), message log (to record messages I get), music & mobird to get (when someone plays a cool song)
2. A little notebook. Staples sells em 4.5 by 3.25. (not on catelog at staples, oddly). Carry it with you at all times–even in the shower.
3. A bigger notebook. I carry a big old “man purse” with me everywhere I go. This has more of my “stuff” in it, and more of the things I am “to do” in it.
4. A (too) cheap voice recorder: compared to the current one
5. jott.com/email: I use google to put stuff on my todo list; it’s a filter that I can use to make this work.
6. Single sheets of paper- I have them throughout my office, I stuck notes on them for stuff to do.
7. ACT! to dos. (This is the worst system I have; I ignore way too much of this).

This is where I put stuff right now–then I do a sunday sweeep–every sunday night from 7p-10p, and I blast through what I can do.  I think that I need to make my review–as the Author suggested on Friday, AND on sunday, so I’m mentally ready.

I’ll tell you this:  I don’t have nearly as much stress.

Now, I’m not yet fully immersed in GTD. I’m about 40% of the way there–yet it has already probably created a 3 fold increase in the work that I do. I think that when fully implemented, I’ll see a (literally) 10 fold increase in the work that I’m capbable of getting done. I am reclaiming a lot of my turf via GTD and I am eager to see what more I can do.

Scott Ginsberg re -awakened my precociousness, the sense of expanding possibility that was once intrinsic. Was a huge kick in the ass about 4 months ago. GTD reawakened my command over my environment–the notion that I’m the captain of everything.

Probably the two most important finds this year.

List mania continues tomorrow!

Right now, I’m in the midst of my first full blown GTD crisis.

Edit:  somehow got put into my sock drawer.  By me.  

I lost my jotter. It’s part of the GTD ethos to collect everything somewhere and trust it. I had about 40 notes; somedays/maybes, etc, in there, and I can’t find the thing anywhere. HOWEVER, I don’t feel that horrible about it because, chances are, I would have been no closer to doing any of the things in there anyway, so there’s that.

But…GTD is having a geometric impact on my own life, for a lot of reasons–I’ll list them:

1. Enlightened…It thinks like I (and others) naturally think. Enlightened common sense.
2. BIAS TOWARDS ACTION: It frees you to DO the lower level stuff…so you can focus on higher level thinking.
3. ELEVATION As you get more lower level stuff knocked out, you can elevate your goals.
4. Low Stress You don’t have nagging things in the back of your mind.
5. Energy–you can rev yourself up by doing little stuff.
6. FREEDOM I don’t have to remember anything anymore–I just trust the system.
7. Someday/Maybe. Wow. If ever a category fit, it was someday/maybe. Permission to drop stuff is implied in the “maybe”….but you keep it around just to think about it.
8. Lists. It encourages list based thinking, and keeping lists.
9. Preparedness: You will be prepared and “ready for anything” when you apply this system.
10. Coherent and comprehensive: since it’s fully custom, it’s both coherent and comprehensive.

Now, this kicks off a commitment to you, my 25-26 readers: List mania. I am gonna make at least 10 lists every week; stuff like, the mundane (how to organize a garage) to the esoteric (books I probably should but probably won’t read).

Minimum of 10 lists a week. Minimum of 100 list items.

Lists rock.

For whatever reason–(oh, probably being advertised to since I was an infant) I’ve equated “success” with “stuff.”   Having a good suit, a nice house, a nice car, all were the visible signs of being successful.  Even getting involved with the community of self improvement people didn’t help–there is an acute “stuff orientation” there  (Get a mercedes, get a new house, etc).

When I made a “goals board,” it was full of stuff.

But stuff doesn’t make you happy–it increase your stress.

I’ve always earned a six figure income (with the exception of last year, where I took a dive by changing jobs something like 5 times).  My net worth is probably still negative (added to google notebook: get financial software up and cranking).

“Stuff maintanance” is expensive.  Eating out–going to restaurants and getting mediocre food for too much money is expensive.

Living in a highly consumerist society is expensive,  demoralizing, hollow, sad, and it puts more stress and apprehension on people than they should bear.   It’s not necessary to have ‘the trappings’ of success.

It’s not necesary to own a house.

It’s not necessary to own a car.

It’s not necessary to get coffee at Starbucks, lunch at Panera, or anything like it.

I found “the simple dollar” about a month ago, when I started with Google reader. It gives smart, thoughtful, successful people PERMISSION to divorce thrift from failure.  I used to think that the reason someone would drive a Geo Prizm was that they were failing at life.  No, not really.  People can
That’s not necessarily the case–it’s rare, but not impossible to be in this category.  The Millionaire Next Door had the notion that the most common vehicle of net worth 1-5 millionaires was  a Ford F-150.

Buying and maintaining and having “stuff,” and being “stuff” oriented is for suckers.  I am going to eschew consumerism whenever possible, and not do it with a lick of concern for what people think of me.  I’m doing it to keep my stress down.

Before making a financial decision think:

• Will this make it EASIER or HARDER to give money to my church & my  special causes.
• Will this save time.
• Will this make it easier or harder to save for retirement.
• Can I put this off and enjoy the same lifestyle.
• Will this make it easier or harder to do my job.

There are other questions to develop along these lines.

Take stuff personally.

In the book “Catch-22,” the lead character (Yosarian) gets more and more offended by the Germans.  He is at war, and he takes it very personally that they are shooting at him.  An exchange:

“They’re shooting at EVERYBODY, Sir,”

“Yes, but they are shooting at ME!”

Companies don’t give a rip about you, they want your money, no matter what it costs you.  No matter if it costs you sanity, overdraft fees, whatever, they want your cash.   This is something YOU need to be offended by, not just accept.  If you responded to even a TENTH of the marketing…you’d be absolutely stressed and broke.

Financial Freedom is:

• Living a lifestyle that doesn’t require a lot of money.
• Being viciously frugal.
• Getting out of debt.
• Saving money ALL THE TIME, no matter what it hurts.
• Giving money away because it no longer has a hold on you.
• connecting gross income required with monthly budget.

It isn’t:

• Having a $600/month car payment.
• Having a budget so fragile that you can’t miss a a day of work without feeling it.
• Avoiding reality (often by spending).
• Avoiding preparation
• Spending future money before it’s earned.  (Generally, if you’re older than 26, you should stop going into debt for unsecured items, and REALLY think about what benefit a car payment will do for you.)

Anyway, Go Read “The Simple Dollar,” and go synthesize this information for yourself.  Being thrifty doesn’t mean you’ve failed.