Feel like I'm losing my mind. Seasoned, organized investors. HELP

[Brian H.]

Hey everyone,

I am just completely unorganized. My situation is stressful but I realize I am creating that stress mainly. I work 65+ hour weeks running a kitchen, so that is already stressful. I realized that I am looking at REI as my "out" from the food industry and this incredibly stressful job managing kitchens. Maybe that isn't healthy but I don't know how to reroute that thought process now.

I started with $20k on 11/2017 and as of 12/20/18 had accomplished one flip and obtained five rental properties (1 Quadplex, 3 Duplexes, 1 SFH). Much further along than I planned to be at this point already, but I have this voice just saying "we need to find more asap. We need to grow as quickly as possible." On top of that, I am just, as already stated, completely unorganized. I have an ok organization system as far as filing goes... but that's it. I have no decent method for tracking my communications with agents, the multiple analyses I may perform on different properties. It will be a sort of "Shoot... did I need to get back in touch with any of these people?" "Did I ever finish that analysis of that property? What conclusion did I come to?" Just incredibly scattered and that is causing a lot of stress.

Do any of you have some really successful, useful methods you use to organize communications, communication streams, thoughts, analyses, etc. to get everything straight and help keep your head MUCH less cluttered and unmanageable?  Anymore, when I sit down at my desk and computer before I even do anything, I am so overwhelmed because I have no idea where I even left off. Maybe I am looking in too many places for deals right now too.  But also when an agent presents me with a deal that could have some potential, I just feel overwhelmed even by that and kind of fall off the radar, whereas this time last year I was GO GO GO and chomping at the bit. Now I am chomping but then when the door opens I cower away from it.  Don't know.  Just wasn't sure if anyone else had run into any of this themselves.  I'm clearly overwhelming myself... just trying to figure out how best to organize my thoughts and such so my head can be more clear I guess.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this. Just trying to get my thoughts out so maybe I can grab some advice, especially on the organization piece.  

Thank you!

[Frank Wong]

65hrs is not that much on work. It is hard work running a kitchen that I would agree.  You need to do a self-evaluation of your time logged and available hours each week.  From there you can break down areas to achieve more time.  Then you want to see what areas you can cut out.

For me.  

I cut out TV. No TV Shows( Don't even care about Game of Thrones), No sports.  Man, you have no idea how productive and how much time you will get just by cutting this thing out of your life. Why? It was simple. I wanted to achieve more and get more time. Real life success is more entertaining than TV. The TV does not pay the bills but the action in real life does. 

This may not solve your organization skills but will free up time.