Blasting the Last Item Off the To-Do List
What items linger on the end of our to-do lists?
Duh! The hard ones.
What parallels the elation brought on by the checking off of the last item on a to-do list? Reaching a summit of a long hike? A new puppy?
We found ourselves at the end of a bitch of a to-do list. If you don’t believe me, pick up a copy of Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You to Be Rich and give it a whirl.
Ramit will kick your ass. He’s witty, brilliant, and takes great pleasure in grabbing you and shaking you silly until all of your illusions about money fall away, and then he guides your transformation. CJ and I were exhausted after completing his six week plan in two. Well, almost competing, that is.
Still one item loomed on our to-do list.
We wanted to reduce the monthly costs of our rental space. Our business could run smoothly in a smaller space, but some part of us wanted to avoid potential conflict. Why complain? Sit tight. Don’t rock the boat. Then I heard a little voice and looked around. I realized it was coming from the little man sitting on my shoulder – a mini Ramit, sitting cross-legged in his pink shirt and yelling, ARE YOU SHITTING ME?
Our cafe conversation that morning:
We have to call Chetski.
What good will that do? We sat in 90+ temps for two months before anything was done about the A/C.
True, and that lump had the balls to raise our rent. For what?!? The exercise we get trying to dodge the wasps that zoom out and try to sting our asses every time we walk a student out the door?
We decided to employ the approach of our new mentor. Instead of the Mr. and Mrs. Nice Guy approach that had effectively gotten us nowhere, we decided to wear our landlord down. Ramit did it to us. We’ll do it to Chet.
Hello, may I speak with Chet? He’s not available. We may need to move out of our space. Oh, wait. I think he just came in. Let me put you through. Hello, Chet. It’s me, Tammy, from the rental space on Memorial. We are looking to downsize, and since we really like the building, we wanted to see if you had anything available before we looked elsewhere. Oh, I’m sure we can come up with something. Can you meet me there tomorrow morning?
By 11am the next morning, we had been dragged through exactly two empty offices – one too large, one too small, and none fitting our Goldilocks expectations. We thanked him kindly and left – relegating ourselves to paying up. Knowing that if we moved we would lose too many clients to pay the bills, we did what we always do when faced with the seemingly impossible tasks of life – we headed out to lunch.
Slightly deflated, we continued to generate possible solutions which ranged from the practical to the ridiculous. Then, the seeming epiphany. A simple sketch on a napkin which will now save us over $200 per month.
Two days later, we met Chetski at the office, obtained the new key, and asked for just one more little thing. In our earlier conversations, he had mentioned office dividers in an abandoned office space downstairs. CJ asked if they were still available for our use.
We followed him downstairs and through the labyrinth of rooms with hanging ceiling tiles and upturned paint cans amidst piles of office furniture in various states of disrepair. Someone left it like this? I asked glancing around the office. ‘Fraid so.
In a dark back room, we found three office dividers – one with a missing leg, one with gaping holes in the fabric, and finally the Goldilocks just right office divider. I grabbed one end and CJ the other and headed out the door and up the concrete stairs on the outside of the building. The top wobbled and threatened to send us tumbling back down the stairs. The temperature rapidly approaching 90+ proved no deterrent. Sweat on my brow, I heard Chetski who was following closely behind remark to CJ, Are you guys ok with that? I am stronger, but you’re in better shape.
I bit my lip, refrained from scratching his face, and reminded myself that each month we would be saving just over $200.
Jolly reader, what is that one thing that needs your attention today? How can you put your fears to bed in their footie pajamas? Do share in Comments.
18 comments about "Blasting the Last Item Off the To-Do List"
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We are Tammy and CJ, and we are tickled pink you chose to spend time with us. Frolic about
a bit, poke around, and get
your snicker on. Now, get over here, so we can pet you and
feed you nuts.
Lovely story Tammy. I felt like I was right there on the staircase with you!
The thing that needs my attention most today is the PR course I’m studying but after the holidays I feel a bit flat. I need a walk and then some lunch ala your suggestion and then I’m hoping my head will be in a better space to tackle the course work.
Big love
Grace
Grace Pamer recently posted..Share Your Dreams Love Quote
So glad you stopped by, Grace. A walk and lunch sounds like a great plan. Best of luck on the studying!
So, ya left me hanging –
Just HOW did you guys make a sketch, a new key and an old office divider add up to a $200/month savings??
Finish the story, please ~
Hooray for the solution, anyway!
Karen J recently posted..Happy New Year!
Ah, Karen! My goodness, thank you for asking for clarification. The office space next door was empty. While it is much smaller, it is not big enough for both offices. There is a little door that connects my office (which is really a closet!) to the one next door. We asked the landlord if we could combine my closet with the space next door to create our Goldilocks “just right” office. Fewer square feet led to reduced rent. Thank you for asking. I think my word count scared me into wrapping up an incomplete story!
Thanks for clearing that up! So CJ moved into the smaller office next door, and you stayed in the same space, but connected to the “other room”, right?
… and FIE upon “word count”!!
All those guidelines are based on “average browsers”, not enthusiastic followers, who’d follow you to Timbuktu, if that’s where your Muse wanted to go!
Karen J recently posted..Happy New Year!
Thank you, Karen. I so appreciate your feedback. I hope everyone else reads your comments because A) they are brilliant and B) so they know I can finish a story! Have a great evening.
I agree with Karen J. Just write your story and we will follow!
Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass) recently posted..Beaches vs Rivers
Chiming in as support here! I agree with Mark and Karen because they’re exactly right. You’ve got something to say, so say it. We want to hear. Pfft on people who mandate absolutist word count nonsense!
What word count number makes you feel like you’re getting too high? My internal alarm starts buzzing at 1500 words.
Lori Stalter recently posted..What They Forget to Tell You About Life After Cancer
Oh good, than I can up mine, Lori! I start shaking around 500. I think it all depends on the content, but it seems like our shorter posts are tighter. Then again, Karen J made a great point that I did not finish my story.
Of course, we’re newbies, so we’re testing the waters. (Translation: forgive us if a post sucks.) But we’re so glad we did it. We have met super people like you!
I don’t think I have ever counted the words in my posts… And I don’t think I want to start. Sometimes I am short and sweet, sometimes I keep writing and writing and writing and… you get the point
Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass) recently posted..Beaches vs Rivers
I guess that just proves you can never know unless you ask or someone tells you. Your posts are so concise. CJ noticed it right away when I pointed him in your direction. When we read them, we say, Yes! Oh! So true! Did you see what Mark said about beaches vs. rivers? What do you think?
So, I’m going to throw the number thing out the window and tell the story. I love so many long posts and will invest my time to read them, but I admire the ability of writers to use the economy of words.
It seems like the SEO writing crowd sticks below 500 words. We’re not SEO writers. We’re bloggers, so yes, it’s “just tell the story dammit.” But I do keep in mind that attention span is fragmented and short online. And I know I have trouble sticking with an article if it keeps going like the Energizer Bunny. So that’s how I arrived at 1500 words. Sometimes, I’ll go to 1800, but after that, I know I can probably do a lot of editing. Or I need to take it to an ebook.
Lori Stalter recently posted..What They Forget to Tell You About Life After Cancer
Lori, you are an amazing resource. I love it! Thank you!
Hello Tammy and CJ
As always, I enjoyed your writing. Great use of tension, storytelling and humor.
I love that your taking action on a program described in a book, rather than just consuming the details and not doing anything about it. The book looks like a goody, and I will consider it at some point in the future.
I love that you moved through the conflict avoidance.
I love that you solved the problem on the back of a napkin. So much great problem solving in the world has occurred that way.
I love that you refrained, focusing instead on the benefits of your reduced monthly costs.
All the best with the new space. I hope business flourishes, and you enjoy the financial freedom afforded to you by the reduced rent.
Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass) recently posted..Beaches vs Rivers
Thank you so much for your feedback and reflections, Mark. Now we have the freedom to invest in resources without fretting over every penny (though, at times, we still do that!). When we actually took a close look, we realized that we had so much more space than we needed.
Oh, the power of napkins! We finally had to start carrying little notebooks to hold our ideas, so they weren’t discarded.
Congrats on getting that item off your to-do list, and saving over $200 a month! That’s huge! And I loved your story. I could just picture that little pink-shirted man yelling on your shoulder.
Ye old to-do list in my life in gradually getting beat down. It’s the items that I’m apprehensive about which take the longest to mark off (rather like contacting your landlord – always a fun experience, right?), but in the end, having those things completed and out of my life is just plain wonderful.
Megan Joel Peterson recently posted..The Pre-Announcement Announcement
So glad to hear that, Megan. It is a mixture of fear and procrastination that allows me to push those types of items lower and lower. Of course, I know that in doing so I can create even more fear – the whole mountain out of a molehill.
Yes, Ramit was fun and practical. I needed the straightforward and the sometimes kick-your-buttisms that he strategically places throughout his chapters.
And thank you also for the support in your other comment. We’ll all just keep writing our stories!