I'm Finding that Time Away Can Bring Clarity
Last week was slightly less entrepreneurial.
I took a little time off last week. Some friends were headed to the Great Sand Dunes here in Colorado, so I used that as an opportunity to try out my “truck camping” setup and go sleep in the cold stillness of the mountains. I can’t say it was a time of reflection though, I was hiking up sand dunes, or just spending time with friends. But oddly, I still came away with some perspective shift.
New Scenery, New Thoughts
While I wasn’t ruminating on business at all, I did find myself trying to explain what I’m doing these days to the other campers. This is a topic I still struggle with.
The notion of being a “content creator” or a “creative” is the kind of thing everyone likes to discourage with wisdom like “oh there are so many people already doing that” or “you can’t expect to become famous.” The limiting beliefs are there taunting me every time I turn around.
When feeling confident, I did talk about the potential to help people, to have a voice or to diversify my income. It doesn’t help that I was talking to engineers with salaries well into the 6 figure range. I feel like a fraud because I don’t have 8 year degree. But they all remain supportive, encouraging even. It’s like it’s all in MY head or something.
Productivity Bankruptcy
There are things I ‘need’ to do for my business. There are responsibilities and there are tasks. There are plans that are constantly appearing, sometimes languishing in a browser or on my desk. I could have had the mentality that I needed to get all of that done, not drive 4 hours and hang out in nature, but I didn’t. I’m really good at prioritizing my mental health when the option exists, and thats what I did this past week. But now… those things are still there waiting to be done.
All I can realistically do for my ADHD brain is let them go. I tried to find purpose in some of these browser tabs when I got home. As I struggled to connect with my intent from last week, I recognized that rebuilding won’t be that painful and maybe I’ll come back to these tasks from a new point of view. Yesterday I declared Productivity Bankruptcy and I started closing tabs. I removed all of the ‘pending’ activities and responses that I were there weighing on my mind. Today I get to start anew.
Playing Catch-Up, Socially
A 60 hour absence mid-week will always wreak havoc on progress, though I tried to set myself up in advance, I really couldn’t prepare for the world that continued while I was away. Part of “my job” these days is to engage with the people who are curious enough to read what I write, or with these new and emerging peers that are trying to make a start as an entrepreneur or a writer. Realistically, we don’t know each other, not really, not yet. So a day or two away is an eternity. Not because they miss me, but because they have no reason to know or care that I exist or that I left.
I couldn’t quite declare bankruptcy with this aspect of my work, so there was some doubling down to respond to comments. It’s interesting to see a decrease in general traffic to my existing content and the growth of my followers while I was away, so it’ll be interesting to see if it climbs right back up. The community that exists right now is a new thing for me to try to comprehend, but just like everything else it’s making sense incrementally.
May Marketing Madness
I spent my first month focusing on writing on Medium and getting a consistent routine there while finding my voice and learning the platform. I tried to make my second month be about Substack and newsletters, but that didn’t start on time, so I’m still learning, but I think I’ve found a groove. I will continue to focus on those two platforms, but now I’m also bringing in more ‘marketing’ by posting excerpts or quotes on Twitter and Threads while being a bit more active on LinkedIn. I’m also trying to create some consistent branding across all of the places I’m interacting. This will be another month of growth, both in my audience and with my knowledge.
Thanks for Reading
I’ve created a second newsletter, Channeling Chaos which is in the “atomic style”, so less than a 3 minute read. I had considered just changing this newsletter, but decided that one aligns with the community I want to build. A place to learn about productivity and self improvement with a bent towards folks with ADHD, or people that have ADHD like symptoms even if they’re not diagnosed. I hope it’s appealing to people reading this newsletter, so I’ll share it as well.
Thanks for taking the time to slog through this lengthy newsletter. Please take a moment to comment or like and let me know you read it.