Hi everyone 👋,
🔥 What I have been doing this week
🏠 I managed to get a bit of time over the weekend to complete the second Grand Review. The structure adapts subtly each time I make one, which is inevitable in these early stages while I find the framework of what works best. I am relatively happy with the information that is in there, although I could easily expand even further when talking about the detail of the property.
📌 More sites have been added to the map. It can be quite a time consuming task on certain properties where the information is limited. It takes having to go over the episode multiple times to find the smallest of details to work from. I have genuinely though on several properties that “this is the one I wont find” and then like magic it shows up.
There are around 170 properties if you exclude the revisit episodes. I have found forty-one of the properties now. Take a sneak peak at the early version today. And don’t forget to subscribe for any future updates.
📝 The Main Bit
✍️ Quote of the week
Traction draws us towards, and Distraction draws us away from things we want in life. This is the message in the book Indistractable that I read this week.
During 2016 and 2017 I discovered a way to organise my time and fit in all the tasks I wanted to do, from becoming the fittest I have ever been in my life to becoming a Pilot while climbing the career ladder in the aerospace industry. There wasn’t a way around it, if I wanted to complete everything throughout the week then I was going to have to organise my calendar. Effectively allocating time to each of the tasks ahead of the week so that I could automate what I was going to do next. It worked to the most part. I often felt like I couldn’t be bothered to do a particular task when the time came to it, such as a 0530 wake up to start exercise before work. But more often than not I would do it.
Reading through this book it highlights the same type of structure and emphasises that we often distract ourselves (or get distracted by our devices) when we don’t have control of our time. Time-boxing is the name given for blocking out your calendar for specific tasks that align with your values. By focusing on these important tasks you create traction and move closer towards the goals that you want to achieve.
Over time, I have drifted away from this way of working and reduced the reliance on the calendar, but I have decided to give it another try. I have scheduled a Bixby Routine on my phone to automatically turn on Focus Mode at 0700 that blocks certain apps that I know distract me throughout the day. The structure of my calendar can be determined each weekend for the upcoming week so that I know what I am supposed to be doing and when. And all tasks are entered into Microsoft ToDo so that I can drag them into my calendar during the planning phase.
The goal of building a house is so large that it requires a sort of obsession to achieve it. Anyone who wants to get started needs to organise their limited time to only work on the most important tasks and avoid the distraction of life which pulls in every direction.
🕵️♂️ Property Glossary
I share definitions each week of words and terms that pop up now and then in the property world and can be confusing.
Assent
Refers to the formal document used to transfer property ownership to the rightful heir after the owner’s death.
🎧 Interesting Things I’ve Listened To
Different ways of thinking about money during a podcast by Ali Abdaal. If you’re looking to price a product or service for sale this snip explains a bit about consumer psychology that could be useful.
🔗 Links
Here are links to books and other resources that I may have mentioned above or that I think you might find useful.
Book/Article Snippet
I finished listening to Indistractable by Nir Eyal and Julie Li this week. It touches on the psychology of distraction that the modern world uses to control consumers and provides insight into how to claim it back to use that traction for your own things.
Apps I Use
Readwise – I’ve been paying for Readwise since 2021 and gained access to Readwise Reader Beta in 2022 and find it extremely useful for knowledge retention and research. I pass all my email newsletters through it and whenever I get a spare few minutes I can pick up where I last left off without any friction.
If you sign up using the link you’ll get an extra month free (two in total) so you can really test out the software without it costing you a penny. They don’t advertise widely so it is down to word of mouth like this that gets the tool new users. I find it invaluable.
Monzo – Carefully budgeting my spending is fundamental to being able to save towards the build. Monzo has helped me track and itemise spending for years. I now pay for the Premium account which gives me access to extra features and things like airport lounge access, phone insurance, worldwide travel insurance so it practically pays for itself. If you join using this link we’ll both get £5 (which I’ll use towards the build!).
Focus@Will – This app has superpowers. It has the ability to allow me to switch off from a noisy home and get some work done and it seems to work for me in about 5 minutes.
Socials
I’m now on:
Twitter as @Brendan_Burr
Instagram as @MeasureTwiceBuildOnce
Pinterest as @MeasureTwiceBuildOnce
Snipd for Podcasts @MTBO
That’s it for this week, thanks for reading!
Brendan