waiting...

So we found about 3 weeks ago that we may have a buyer for our investment property in Baltimore, and were able to contract the house. But it's taking for-ev-er to get a closing date because the buyer's bank is just slow because they can be. They're one of the only banks in the area that will loan to investors, first off, and one of the few who will hold notes on city properties. (B-more's RE market has been bad for awhile, but the economic downturn is making it feel like nothing short of a miracle that anyone even wants to look at it!) It's so nerve wracking! So many loose ends will be tied up when this house finally sells. Not only will we no longer be paying outrageous interest-only payments on it, but it will just free us up to worry about other stuff (namely, the marketing thing.) I hate to even talk about it for fear that it will jinx the process and it will somehow fall through, although I guess at this point no news is good news, as they say.

On a much brighter note, I have managed to begin breaking my day into far more manageable pieces; getting up earlier is helping. I still get my Huffington Post and Dear Abby in first thing in the morning, though, and have my CNN for breakfast! I can't help it, I need to know what's going on in the world, and I think that working from home intensifies that. It's sometimes hard to feel connected when you don't leave your house all day! At any rate, making a schedule that is realistic is having a positive effect (so far!) and I'm not feeling so overwhelmed by all my tasks when I only have specific things set out to focus on. I will even have the first batch of shirts on eBay tonight! So that's exciting.

So, back to work, and I just read that the Phillies won't be playing tonight after all, so I won't have that distraction. But the Rays checked out of their hotel in Philly yesterday before the game, and had no place to go back to when it was suspended...they ended up in my hometown of Wilmington, DE. I wonder if we'll see them around town if we go out to dinner...and hopefully, when I'm in Philadelphia tomorrow, if I stay late enough I'll get to see the victory parade down Broad St! :)

ack.

I just found out that Project Mogul is what the Air Force was calling some late 40s top secret project involving hot air balloons and Soviets. Ha!

priorities

So as I spend yet another day glued to CNN and Huffington Post blogs, I think about all the dozens of other things I could and should be doing. I sometimes find it completely overwhelming to prioritize my day, especially when I get up so late. I think I should start making appointments early (like before 10 am) with real people so I am obligated to get moving. The new tshirt business should be helpful with that, as I have to physically leave the house to do almost everything shirt-related. But that doesn't help the affiliate marketing stuff, and our mounting frustrations with the lead generator that we've purchased. It is still not operational after almost 10 days. I know it takes time, it just gets tedious when it takes so long, not to mention the aggravation and frustration of going down so many paths that don't seem to lead anywhere. It's difficult to determine a time limit: how long do we pursue one path (an ad campaign, an affiliate program, any of it) and have it generate no revenue before we move on? We are trying to set up multiple streams simultaneously so as to mitigate some of that loss of time. But it can get expensive, and sometimes it's hard not to feel like you're beating your head against the wall. Not to mention the nagging feeling that you're devoting too much time to a losing proposition and 'if I just gave a little more to this other thing, maybe it will flourish...'

I think I need to take a deep breath here. I sound a little frazzled, and I'm not, yet. I just need to focus. I like having lots going on, but I am also easily overwhelmed by it. It's just difficult for me to see the big picture right now, to have a clear idea of what my priorities should be to make this successful. I need to clear out the background noise during the day (namely, the politics that dominate my whole entire day because I'm so stressed out about the election and addicted to any and all election coverage, and facebook. I love facebook.) I need to be more disciplined. Easy for me to say. Time management tips, anyone? Tricks for compartmentalizing and prioritizing my tasks for the day?

In the meantime, it's back to work. After Rick Sanchez.

the joys of having no schedule at all

We've changed course about 57 times over the last several months, which has been awesome in that we get to explore all manner of money-making ventures but also kind of terrible because it's made us both have job ADD. (Which is not so great for me with the real ADD. It's like double ADD!) We have arrived solidly (for now...) in the world of online marketing, which has plenty in it to keep you entertained, waste all of the time in the world (literally) and have you lose everything in your savings account in one afternoon's time. It's a good time so far, I have lots of fun new projects to keep me occupied, from affiliate marketing (kind of complicated and boring) to design work for shirts and other wearable stuff (the highlight of my day). So I cannot complain about that.
I'm just happy to have arrived in a place now where I feel like we've moved beyond the total ripoffs to maybe a territory where more people want to be helpful. There are so many scams out there, it's nearly impossible to know who to trust. The anonymity of the internet almost incentivizes bad behavior. It's like all the seedy used car salesmen just moved to web addresses (and trust me, I know lots of them...)
But I digress. I need to get back to work, my favorite way to spend a Friday night. Woo!