What I did today

Yesterday was another day of hard work.  And when I say hard work, I mean hard work.

My fiancee and I had an interesting conversation yesterday. We heard about a marine and his buddies who were laughing at another individual. This individual had posted on Instagram about how they were so proud to have worked hard to complete a  particular task.

However, that particular task is actually extremely, extremely easy to complete. Especially when compared to what a Marine has done and what a Marine considers hard work.

Which got me thinking: there is no universal definition for hard work.

But, everyone uses that phrase all the time. “I worked  really had today.”

It makes me wonder. Rather than saying  “I worked hard today”, maybe we should ask ourselves: “Would a successful person consider what I did  today as hard work?”

My guess is, most of the time, the answer would be no.

But,  it would b a really useful exercise to recalibrate how we think about hard work. The harder we work, the more successful we become. But, if your “hard work” is less hard than someone else’s, then it’s more likely they’ll become more successful than you.

Are you working harder than someone else who is  also “working hard?”

Wake up & sleep:

Now we’re seeing the not great sleep night that I  talked about yesterday! I fell asleep at 12:27 and woke up at 7:57 for a total of 6 hours and 56 minutes worth of sleep.

Exercise

Lots of walking around the apartment to stay loose since we can’t go outside. I’ve done the math and realized that if I do 400 laps around the apartment (takes roughly 20 minutes), that’s a mile. So, I’ve been trying to do that at least a few times a day to stay loose.

Diet

Nothing unhealthy. Dinner was chicken and rice. I’m doing my best to avoid heavily processed food that will slow me down.

My Day Job

A couple more meetings. I think layoffs are coming soon.

I’m mixed on the layoffs. I’m a likely candidate in that I’ve been there less than a year and I’m highly paid compared to the rest of the company.

Obviously, I’d prefer not to be laid off! But, I feel relatively indifferent about it because,  as long as the consulting income continues, I should be in a great spot.

Investment real estate

Just standard scrolls here today; no purchases or action.

One thing I haven’t talked about in the past is that I always end my real estate scrolls by looking at two properties that I want to buy. It’s a good reminder for me each day about what I’m working for and what I want to do, where I want to live, etc.

The first is a really nice condo in South Beach in Miami. Yes, I know it’s a silly investment because of rising water levels. But, I’d still love to own a place on South Beach.

The other is a really nice house in Chicago that I’d love to live in with my family.

All in, the combined price of both is $43M. You can see the financials below….I’m a long way from being able to afford that!

But, I love ending my real estate scroll with those because they serve as reminders of where I’d like to be.

There’s also a $36M, 63 unit rental apartment for sale in downtown Chicago that’s incredible. I’d love to buy that one too!

It’s only $7.2M on the downpayment!

Kindle

No action here today, although I have plenty of work to do on this side of things!

Amazon Affiliate Websites

I published ~3,000 words today. I need more!

I also downloaded another ~20,000  words I ordered from writing services online. It made me realize it’s  better to pay a higher price for content because I  just press  “Publish.”  The lower quality stuff, I have to spend a fair amount of time on it to make it higher quality.

Consulting

I had a pitch call get scheduled quickly that quickly led to a project! I’m doing the project today, so yesterday was just the selling. It’s $750 for the day.

Family

Lots of time with my beautiful, amazing fiancee.

I’m trying to balance getting work done with spending time with here. I’d love to just spend time with her and it’s always a bummer when I can’t do more of that!

What I made today

Job: $170

Rental Income: $33

UpWork: $0

KDP: $0

Consulting: $0

Medium: $1

Amazon Affiliate sites (2 sites): $0

Youtube: $0

Total: $204

Today’s pro-rated amount of monthly expenses

Expenses: $250

Once I pay off my debt, I’ll break out expenses into a line by line as well.

Today’s Income

Lost $46

My plan for tomorrow

Tomorrow is:

• The quick consulting  project I sold
• Publishing content
• Updating ebook categories
• Beefing up an eBook I ordered

I’d be happy if I got ~70% of  this done!  I’ll be back tomorrow with an update on what was accomplished.

About the Author & The $0-$10K/Day Case Study

Dean’s goal is to create $10,000/day in passive income through entrepreneurship. Too many people write “success porn” that skates over the struggles many face in entrepreneurship

The hope is that this series of posts will inspire someone else out there to make their entrepreneurship dreams happen.

Dean Woods is currently an executive by day and a bootstrapped micro-startup CEO by night. Prior to working in startups, Dean was a management consultant. Dean graduated with honors from The Wharton School.