Greetings, All:
I’ve noticed something curious about to-do lists. They seem to have a personality of their own. You start the day with eight things to accomplish. You finish four of them, feel pretty good about yourself…and somehow the list has grown to eleven. I don’t know exactly how that happens, but I’m convinced there’s a secret meeting where unfinished tasks invite their friends.
In real estate, the list seems to have an unlimited data plan. On any given day, we’re juggling multiple buyers and sellers at different stages of the process, yet our goal is for every client to feel like they’re our only client. Behind the scenes, we’re balancing prospecting for new business, taking care of current transactions, and making sure we’re always available to the wonderful people who’ve trusted us in the past. Then there’s keeping up with the market, neighborhood trends, changing regulations, new technology, AI, apps that promise to save us time (and sometimes actually do), plus staying connected with lenders, escrow officers, inspectors, contractors, colleagues, and all the other people it takes to help a transaction come together. It’s a wonderful career—but it’s definitely not one where you run out of things to do.
We spend so much energy looking at everything left to do that we rarely stop to appreciate what we’ve already done. I joke that in between every sale, I’m unemployed. If I don’t have something in escrow, there’s no paycheck on its way to my bank. My real estate career has been a long series of periodically being unemployed. Yet, at the end of each year, I look back and miraculously I’ve done really well. How did that happen?
I’ve learned that feeling overwhelmed usually has less to do with the number of things on the list than with believing they all need to be done right now. They don’t. Pick one thing. Do it well. Then pick another. Amazing things happen when we stop staring at the entire mountain and simply take the next step.
There’s another trick I’ve discovered. Every few weeks, I look at my list and ask, “If I hadn’t already written this down, would I add it today?” Surprisingly often, the answer is no. Some tasks have been hanging around so long they’ve become part of the furniture. Crossing those off isn’t cheating—it’s simply making room for the things that matter most.
The older I get, the more I realize that a meaningful life isn’t measured by an empty to-do list. If that were the goal, retirement would solve everything—and we all know retirees somehow become the busiest people on earth. A good day isn’t one where everything gets done. It’s one where the right things get done, the people we care about know we care, and we leave a little room to enjoy the life we’re working so hard to organize.
So if your list feels overwhelming this month, don’t worry. You’re in good company. Whether you’re managing a business, raising a family, caring for loved ones, or just trying to keep up with everyday life, the list never really disappears. That’s okay. Take a breath, choose one thing, and get started. The list will still be there tomorrow—although, if it’s anything like mine, it will probably have added a few new suggestions overnight.
Comedian Tom Papa on his Netflix Special: “You’re Doing Great” – “You spend a week and a half standing in the bathroom, stomping and squeezing the tube from the inside out. You’re just trying to get one last tiny strand of paste onto your toothbrush. You do this desperately so you don’t feel like an absolute monster when you show up at the office. On your way home you finally stop by a CVS, go home, slide that fresh tube out of its cardboard box, and you feel like a total WINNER who actually ACHIEVED something.”
Till next month,
Derek, Emily, Natalie, Mo & Arwin
