ROI or Let It Go
A question I’ve been asked a lot in my life is “How do you get all of that done?”
It usually follows a conversation about my books, and the process I practice every day. Sometimes it comes up after I mention my morning routine—all that journaling, on top of writing? Or it comes up when I say I do all of that while also handling marketing for Draft2Digital.
And now, when I mention that I’m currently doing a YouTube video every day, on top of all of that, people want to know If I sleep.
I do, actually. Eight hours every night, and a ~30-minute nap every afternoon. I also take a walk every day at 5PM, if that puts anything into perspective.
I know it’s a lot. But I still occasionally feel like I’m “slacking off.” No idea why. Quirk of personality, maybe.
The truth is, getting a lot of routine things done every day is a self-discipline thing, but you shouldn’t ding yourself if you fail at adding a laundry list of To-Dos to your life. If you start feeling overwhelmed about “getting it all done,” it may mean that you need to step back and figure out which parts you actually want and need to do, and which you can let slide.
Sometimes you let the wobbly plates drop so you can keep the rest spinning.
I didn’t add all these things to my routine at one time. They all sort of crept in. And as some came in, other things went out. There are routines I abandoned at some point, because they didn’t meet one very vital criteria: They weren’t adding anything to my life.
They weren’t necessarily taking anything away, either. But they weren’t enriching me or helping me grow. They weren’t giving me any advantages. They had no ROI (return on investment), or the ROI was so low it made the task pointless.
For sure, there are tasks in our lives that we don’t like to do, don’t want to do, or simply don’t feel good about doing. I don’t like doing taxes every year. It feels like being voluntarily robbed. I also don’t like going to my cardiologist, because I kind of resent the necessity brought on by having a birth defect in my heart. But these are necessities in my life, if I want to A) avoid going to prison for tax evasion and B) avoid dying. I’ll do a lot of things I don’t like to avoid those two outcomes.
But the rest of my life is a little different. I’m starting to come around to the idea that I should be focused on doing the things that I find joyful and fulfilling. And… well… only doing those things.
Yes, there are things I have to do that suck. And avoiding them would cost me more than I’m willing to pay. So. yes, I do those. But otherwise, everything else… I’m skipping the stuff that I don’t like. I’m going to let it slide. If the cost of that is something I can tolerate, then I’m gonna make like Elsa and let it go.
Here’s the real key, though: Focus on the things that bring you the greatest ROI.
Whatever you’re putting your energy into, make sure it’s paying you dividends that more than compensate for the work, effort, and energy you’re putting into them.
I journal every morning—and I mean, I actually put energy into five different types of journals each morning—because I’ve learned that the work and effort I’m putting into that helps me in dozens of ways. It’s a bit of self-discipline I practice daily; it allows me to center myself and be in a healthy meditative state; it allows me to tap into my innate inner wisdom (I actually think this comes from the Holy Spirit, but that’s a me thing); it allows me to explore and express new ideas; it allows me to have a daily record of my life; it’s a tangible way for me to show progress in my own personal development. And frankly, it helps to make me a better writer—because “the first million words are practice,'“ and all that.
And recently, I’ve added writing a daily blog post and doing a daily YouTube video to the mix. Why? Because I have a theory that doing both will increase my reach with new readers, whom I can invite to join me on my mailing list, and to buy my books. The books are the whole point for me. That’s my life’s work.
All of it is, actually.
If I do the daily post and video for awhile and start noticing that I’m not getting any return for it, then the answer will be to stop. Try something else.
But what I have discovered, over the years, is that sometimes the ROI is different than and often more than you were expecting. Sometimes your efforts pay dividends you weren’t aware were even a possibility.
I may be aiming for more readers, and find that doing this daily gives me some other benefit that’s equally as desirable. Maybe it allows me to express and explore ideas I don’t typically get to share with anyone. Maybe it becomes a secondary source of revenue. Maybe it allows me to meet a new friend who adds value to my life, as I add value to theirs.
You never know. And you never will know, until you try it, and do it consistently, and give a chance.
But if you find that what you’re doing is costing you more in time, effort, energy, or even money than you are getting in return—if you find that all that input isn’t getting you any decent output—then it’s time to cut the line and let it sink. It will probably cost you less to let something slide than to keep trying to make it work when it just doesn’t.
If you like this post, there’s a blog full of this kind of stuff. And Side Notes is basically an extension of my Note at the End, which you’ll find in all of my novels. And you can find those by clicking here. Share this post with your friends, if you found it helpful. And buy my books if you’d like to support me and my work!