October 22, 2024

Digging Through Yesterday to Plan for Tomorrow

First, a disclaimer: bear with me on this one. Even though I start off with descriptions of the various offices I’ve inhabited since 2021 and my struggles furnishing them, the tale does lead to some lessons that are worth thinking about as we prepare for the inevitable onslaught of articles and emails about how to plan for 2025. 

Like many people with desk jobs, I worked from home during the pandemic. It wasn’t a big deal, as I was used to meetings on Zoom and my bookkeeper, assistant, and paralegal had always been remote. 

In the fall of 2021, as COVID was starting to ease, New York City decided to install a new water main outside my bedroom/office. This ensuing construction cacophony was the end of my working from home.

I moved into a private office within a small shared space that was pretty great in many ways. It had a big window, a lovely view of the Manhattan skyline and one of my neighbors was a floral designer, which meant I frequently had fresh flowers in my office. However, there were rarely any other people around, so it still felt like I was stuck in my bedroom. After that, I moved to another space with the hopes that I would have a regular officemate. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out as planned and I found myself still mostly alone every day. 

About a year ago, I moved once again to my current office, which is in downtown Brooklyn. Third time is indeed the charm. There’s a nice mix of having other people around, but a door I can close when I’m on the phone or need to concentrate.

Even with this upgrade though, my actual office was pretty bleak. My furniture amounted to a junky old filing cabinet, a hand-me-down bookshelf, and a depressingly blank Zoom background. Mostly, this was because I just haven’t had time to find furniture that I like. 

Recently this changed. I finally had some time to buy a new bookcase and filing cabinet. They’re quite nice and certainly a big improvement over my prior decor. 

Of course, these purchases meant I had to transfer everything from the old furniture to the new. That archaeological dig unearthed a bunch of articles I had printed out and hand-scrawled notes I’d thrown in a folder to come back to later. As I read through this collection, I quickly realized almost all this material had to do, in some way, with growing a business. I soon became thoroughly engrossed in reading, stopped checking my email, let my computer go to sleep, and left my phone on the other side of the room. 

It was an interesting journey through the past few years of my practice. Some of these articles and ideas were no longer relevant, as they contained ideas or advice I’d tried that didn’t work for me, or experiences I’ve subsequently written about here. But a lot of it still resonated and, as I worked my way through this stuff, it became pretty clear that there were some recurring themes. Nothing particularly earthshaking or radical, but ideas that are definitely worth revisiting. More importantly, the process — particularly being separated from my phone and other distractions — allowed me to step back and see connections that I had forgotten about or previously missed.

So what are the lessons here? First, creating a strategy for growing a business isn’t a one-and-done deal. What worked a few months ago might not work now, or could be ripe for further improvement. Through my review of this collection of material, I could see the evolution in my thinking and approach, and sort out what didn’t work, examine whether improvements were possible, and chuck the stuff that didn’t work or was no longer relevant. 

In the next two-and-a-half months we’re all going to be bombarded with articles, commercials, and general blather advising us to plan for 2025, and my experience reading my articles and notes reinforced how you can’t plan for the future without assessing where you’ve been. Looking back on decisions and moves I’ve made is essential for taking stock of what works (and what doesn’t) and how to deploy resources in the future. Simply having an idea once, implementing it and never reexamining it can too easily lead to stagnation. 

And what’s the best way to do this? By freeing ourselves from distraction! Stepping back from our phones and computers (and even some of the idle office chitchat I now enjoy that I missed so much during the pandemic) allows you to get new perspectives and see the connections between what you’ve done before and the results they’ve led to. Because the past is the strongest foundation we can build upon for the future.