My journaling habit never really took off, but it has produced some indecisive and random strings of thought that found their way to the Cloud. Having chanced upon them this morning I found myself craving to go back to journaling again. Whether I would is a question for tomorrow’s dawn to answer. Until then, enjoy this sneak peek to my Monkey Mind that follows.
This is uncensored me (save for some confidential business information I’ve taken the liberty to redact,) purely for comic relief. Give yourself a good chuckle.
July 8
Today I noticed that the Day One Mac app is free.
So I downloaded it because I find it much easier to type here than on the phone. The catch is, to enable sync across devices you have to get the premium subscription, which I will not sign up for yet.
In any case, yesterday was a disaster. I wasted way too much time. I will make sure that it doesn’t happen from today onwards.
I don’t have to go to Pavithra’s place today. So I will spend the morning doing accounts. The evening will be dedicated to selling. We’re still at 114 tees and we desperately need money.
In the good news, our socks will arrive on Monday. We don’t have to go to [redacted] to collect them. Then we take some product shots and put them up on the website.
Yesterday I also decided I should take a jab at the flip challenge. I definitely cannot earn $20,170, but I will earn something. Right now, the guitar and the Philips shaver are up for sale. Next up I’m thinking of listing the fancy electric fan and the coffee maker.
July 9
Day 2 of journaling on the Mac app.
I still haven’t got around to starting my workouts again. I do still get up at 5 but it’s so difficult for some reason together myself to go out of the house.
There are so many things moving in the business right now, and I will need more time to invest in it.
[a lot of gibberish that’s a bit too personal to share]
July 13
Since I didn’t write in the mornings since the 9th, here goes.
The days have been crazy. Not because I’ve been working, although I would’ve like to say so. I was sick for 2 days, probably due to an allergy I developed because of some shit I ate. Those were basically 2 days off work.
Since I’m not getting those back now I have to make the most out of whatever is coming up. The past 2 days have been productive so far. I need to keep riding this wave.
The socks are here and we’re putting them up on the website today, but the underwear are nowhere near the beginning yet. We haven’t found a good supplier who can do the full garment at a reasonable price.
We’re also in the process of making some design changes to the website.
So I don’t want to make this a long post since I honestly can’t think of anything more to write.
July 15
Late wakeup today.
And my body feels strangely beat up. When I went to sleep yesterday I was a little uncomfortable, with a neck pain for the most part. Perhaps this is it manifesting.
Yesterday we made some design changes to the website and launched socks. One person has bought socks so far.
One of the interesting things about the business is how slow it is. This is because we still haven’t broken through that friends circle. Almost all the people who’ve bought stuff from us are friends, or friends of friends. This surely won’t sustain the business.
Facebook ads will be a good way for people who don’t know us yet to discover us. But I have this stubborn rule against using advertising until we’ve grown organically up to the point we no longer can. And we surely can grow a little more.
July 19
Another log after a 4-day break.
Things are moving fast now. We signed up with a new supplier whose t-shirts seemed really good in quality.
The only thing we don’t have yet is the underwear. Very few people here seem to develop it. And the ones who do only do it in large quantities. There is another option: without making the underwear here we bring them down from China when Pavithra comes back.
Here it comes again, I can’t think of anything to write. I guess the only way to get over this is to keep on writing every day.
July 24
Alright. Yesterday was bad but I think today will turn out to be ok.
We were supposed to go an meet a potential underwear supplier today, but that will not happen. I need to call him and see if it’s actually possible to develop an underwear from scratch for us, and what it would cost. If the cost is unbearable for us at this point, there’s no point going and meeting him.
Since we made a lot of sales yesterday, today there’s a lot of fulfillment to do. In the morning I will go to [redacted], print [redacted]’s birthday card, and then return to Pavithra’s place. There I will need to pack [redacted]’s, [redacted]’s, [redacted]’s and [redacted]’s orders. Then I need to go to the post office and send through [redacted]’s order and [redacted]’s and [redacted]’s birthday cards. After this I will visit [redacted] to deliver [redacted]’s order.
Tomorrow in the morning we will go to [redacted], depending on what answer we get from [redacted] today about the cost. After that we will have to deliver [redacted]’s order and then go and collect the new v-necks from [redacted].
I also strongly feel the urge to go back to my writing routine but I haven’t been able to do that yet. The topic I thought of writing last week, doing things you can’t scale as a business, now has a lot of relevance, a bit of substance that I can back up with and even great articles from good blogs that I can link back to. But the wiring just isn’t happening. I will see today if I can finally make it happen.
August 6
Missed two days again, but here we are.
Last Friday I received a call from [redacted] and she said they’re willing to do the underwear for us for [redacted]. Better still, we only have to buy [redacted] pieces. Next week we’re meeting to see a sample and then we will proceed.
Apart from that things are going on normally. We are making a little more sales and it seems like the word has been spread. There were several people whome we don’t know who bought from us dung the past week. I think it’s important to commit disproportionately to serve these people in the best way we can.
August 7
Things are still a little chaotic.
I’ve made some progress in returning to the old routine, but things are still not where I want them to be.
I have a lot of catching up to do in reading, and writing too. I haven’t gone for a walk/run in several days. I guess I’m just too lazy. I find myself switching off the alarm in the morning and not getting up from bed. All these are bad conditions to be in.
I think I’ve regained a couple of kilograms and I don’t feel that good either.
All these things have a clearly identifiable fix, but I just haven’t got around to doing it yet.
September 30 (Today)
Coming back to the journal after more than one-and-a-half-months, I hardly have anything to say.
A lot of things have happened and I’ve completely redone my calendar now. I plan to start sticking to it fully from tomorrow morning (yup.) Until then, in typical irresponsible procrastinator fashion I’m going to cut myself some slack.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to write my startup story on Medium. The idea was to write one post a week or so, each time discussing a different aspect of the business: setting up, customers, suppliers, etc. I did that for exactly two weeks until the procrastination gene overpowered me.
The excuse was always the same, “I don’t have time to write this, I’d rather be working on something else,” after which I’d always go back to doing something horrifyingly unproductive.
Tomorrow, things will change.
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