Extra Work Now = Less Headaches Later

Read time: 4 minutes

Welcome to The Ascend Archives Tuesday Tale, a weekly newsletter where I share a story about a transformation, revelation, or change in thinking that has helped improve an aspect of my life.

Yesterday, I published a LinkedIn post for one of my clients that got me thinking about how the amount of effort we put in today impacts our lives in the future.

The post listed 5-steps to onboard a virtual assistant (VA). However, the key insight was that spending extra time up front to effectively onboard the VA will lead to 10x fewer headaches in the long run.

I thought about how this concept was playing out in my life. There were 3 situations this past weekend where it applied.

1. Getting off the sofa when it hurts

Sunday night at 7 and I haven’t moved from the corner sofa spot since turning on The Masters at 3. My legs still tight as stretched rubber bands from swim and run workouts earlier in the day.

I make my way over to the fridge. My shelf is empty except for a half bag of kale and some Greek yogurt.

I check DoorDash for how fast I can get some Pad Thai.

$24 and 35 minutes to deliver? Will that have enough protein to fill me up?

I have to write 2 newsletters, 3 social media posts, a proposal and hop on a client meeting tomorrow. I can picture it now. Me eating a bowl of cereal with a side of almonds for lunch and scrambling for dinner again.

Not only is work busy, but the triathlon training schedule drains my time and energy. So having grab-and-go healthy food is a must.

I shake my head and grab my car keys.

3 hours later, my Tupperware is filled with a pound of Wild Alaskan Salmon, 3 pounds of shredded chicken, rice, asparagus, broccoli, and sweet potatoes.

My quads ache on every step up to my room and I crash within seconds of hitting the pillow…

The last thing I felt like doing was drive to Trader Joes and cook, but that’s what was needed to make my week run smoothly. My Monday self was thankful I did it while eating my chicken and veggies for lunch.

2. Climbing the right mountains

3 weeks into starting my business, I was pestering my business coach Patrick with dozens of questions and venting my insecurities.

I had been doing free work for 3 clients to improve my skillset and confirm the demand for ghostwriting. Now it was time to start charging for my work.

What is my value? How do I know what to charge? What if I can’t deliver?

Patrick calmed me down and helped me think through the next steps.

But then he said something more important than answering those questions,

I was moving so fast that I hadn’t stopped to appreciate the progress I had made.

This led to my Sunday ritual I’ve done for 5 weeks now:

• Sit with my phone on Do Not Disturb for 1-2 hours

• Read my 2027 vivid vision statement, my 2024 goals, and my core values

• Journal about whether my actions from the past week got me closer or further from my targets

• Adjust for the upcoming week by time blocking and setting priorities

This sometimes feels excessive and unproductive, but I found 2 major benefits:

1. Having a plan: My days go much smoother when I already know what needs to get done before I wake up. There’s less room to negotiate with myself because I already committed and wrote it down.

2. Alignment with my vision: When I’m going 100 MPH like in the example above, it’s tough to remember my vision, goals, and core values. By doing this weekly check, I’m confirming that I don’t make “progress” on goals that lead to outcomes I didn’t want. Climbing the right mountain saves a ton of time.

3. Not prepared to close the deal

Monday morning rolls around and I owe a potential client a proposal.

On Friday, I spoke to him about his business, his current struggles, and his interest in growing a personal brand. I shared an overview of my services, gave some advice and answered his questions.

He offers to send me more information on his vision and asks what the next steps are.

This was the perfect opportunity to pull up three different social media or newsletter packages and see which one he was interested in. Instead, I agreed to review his additional information and send a proposal by Monday.

Ok fine, I wasn’t ready to close him on the call. I need to improve my sales process. But I should have at least been able to turn around a proposal in a few hours for him to review over the weekend.

The problem was…I never did the upfront work.

I created proposals for previous clients, but they were ad hoc emails or texts. I never clearly documented my updated service offerings, pricing, and terms.

So there I was at 6 AM on Monday…organizing my thoughts, preparing a document, and recording a loom video to walk through my proposal. I hit send at 8:45 AM, just as he dives into a busy work week.

Not spending that extra time upfront might have cost me this sale. But now I have a proposal document ready to go for future sales calls and interactions with prospects.

Thank you for reading! As always please reply and let me know what resonated, what didn’t, or what you question. I love chatting about this stuff!

Cheers,

Andrew