It’s been a while since I emailed you guys a blog. 11 days to be exact.

While I’m sure some of you are delighted by this, it’s left me feeling guilty. When you subscribe to something, you do so because you expect value from it.

Some of you support the blog financially. Some of you neglect your children and careers just to read what I write. I’m so grateful.

The truth is, I put too much creative work on my plate at once. Here’s my to-do list from the last 30 days:

• finish rough draft of Do The Thing!
• restructure my community’s website
• write 2-3 blogs per week
• edit YouTube videos, podcasts, and TikToks for YGG
• manage new clients in my coaching business
• go on three vacations with my friends and family

Too much.

But now that I’ve crossed off a few of these items, I’m ready to clean up, reflect, and make sure this doesn’t happen again. I thought today’s post would be a good time to do an exercise I found on Instagram.

It’s called the AAR Method (after-action review) and it’s used by the Navy Seals. It’s a four-question framework. In sharing the model with you all, I’ll give my answers for each step.

1. What did I intend to accomplish?

I tried to move in the direction of what I want my work life to look like.

It’s threefold:

1. writing blogs and books
2. running a podcast/YouTube channel
3. having my one-on-one coaching business

To me, it’s a fulfilling cocktail of conversations and deep work.

2. What happened?

I started sprinting in this direction with no real plan and with little help. My schedule and timelines were up in the air. I got to things when I could get to them.

Problem was, I often felt creatively empty after spending hours of bandwidth on one or two things. I also felt the effects of task-switching. After hours of writing in the morning, coaching in the afternoon, and editing in the early evening, I’d be absolutely drained by 5pm.

3. Why did it happen that way?

I didn’t create any organized systems for keeping everything on track. With everything left to chance, my days were cluttered and sporadic.

I also just expected myself to be able to handle all this. There are these sexy Instagram-worthy archetypes of entrepreneurs doing a thousand things and working 12-hour days.

In reality, most of us have about four to five hours of deep, undistracted work in us each day. So putting eight hours of writing and editing on the calendar was destined to fail.

In summary: unrealistic expectations and a lack of organization.

4. What will I do next time for a better outcome?

Give each day of the week a theme. On these days, I write. On those days, I edit.

Some sort of digital system would also be useful for deadlines. I’m working on that with services like Evernote and Trello.

Finally, next time new projects present themselves, I’ll ask myself: “How much harder will this make things for me?”

I usually go to great lengths to keep from being busy or overloaded. I’d like to never get there again.

I think these questions will help.

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