Over a week since my last post! Time unfortunately has been a very precious commodity since getting back from Honduras. On the day we got back, we put an offer in on a new house. It was somewhat spontaneous, but that’s usually the way we do things.

We started discussing moving about 9 months ago. I had just started a new day job and the commute was a bear. 20 minute drive to the train station, 40 minute train ride, then a 15 minute shuttle. We started looking at houses near the train station that would keep our kids in the same school district. Our search area was very small, with few options that fit our criteria. As we looked over several weeks, we noticed that the few good properties that fit our criteria were gone in a day. The places that we did manage to see all had lots of problems. After about 7 months of looking, and only seeing 5 properties that fit, we decided to “give up” on the idea of moving. I also stopped all of the house projects that needed to be done to sell our existing house. 

This house came on the market the day before we got back from Honduras and had an open house scheduled that same day. We went to look, but I had no aspirations of it working out. When we got to the house, my wife had only looked at ½ of it before whispering to me that this was it and that all these other people needed to “get out of our house.” We wrote 1 of 5 offers for the house that day, and found out the next day that ours was accepted.

This was great and terrifying all at the same time. I’d get a big improvement in my commute, gaining about 40 minutes a day. This will also significantly reduce my wife’s commute, as well as lower the drive for the kids too. We’ll save time and money which will help in furthering my startup goals in the long run.

In the short run, it means that I have no extra time. Any spare minute is spent fixing something in my current house (it will go up for sale this Friday) or packing getting ready for the move. There has been no time to bug the daughter about drawings or work with the guys on the fitness app. I’ve had to bow out for a few weeks to make this move. Ultimately it will give me more time each day and that will be a benefit for years to come.

I’ll be locked up in this move for another 2 weeks, but after that will have that extra time each day that will go straight into the startups. I’ll also have different options for the future as overall my monthly costs will be lower. I’ve got plans with the guys to do more testing with video the weekend of the 9th, and will be back to spending any time possible into developing the startups. This has been a difficult time to remain focused, and experiences like this would have derailed my past attempts. This time I’ve kept my eye on the prize and have fought through the distractions and time delays instead of letting them consume me and be excuses for putting things off for a while.

In what ways are you improving your situation to meet your goals?