Making Lists, Determining ROI, and a Giant Dr. Pepper Cooler

Good morning, friends! It's me. I hope you're having a good day so far. I'm actually a little off my routine this morning. I don’t know why, but my wife makes coffee every morning and brings it in here. We had a party for Easter, and I bought one of those giant round coolers you see at grocery stores—like a big giant one. I don’t even know how many gallons it is, maybe 20 or 50 gallons. It’s the kind of thing you would put cans of soda in with ice.

I've always wanted one that looked like R2D2; I know they sold those. Anyway, I bought one at a garage sale, and it’s Dr. Pepper themed. I think it’s some tie-in with the movie *Cars*—I believe there’s a picture of Lightning McQueen or something on it, or some sort of racing motif. Last year, I went to an estate sale, which I like, and I saw it in the yard. It was very large, you couldn’t miss it from the street. It had a price tag of $3, and I didn’t want anyone else to get it. So I wheeled this giant thing around, holding onto it like it was a baby rescued from a fire. I said, "I want this!"

It was a Sunday, and the lady said, "Oh, Sunday is half-price day; it's only $1.50." So I paid $1.50 for it. It's been sitting in my garage for the past year, and the only thing that’s happened with it is that it gets moved around because it’s always in the way. It’s so large that it sits in front of our garage refrigerator unless you need to get to the fridge. Then we roll it in front of the storm shelter. But if you need to get into the storm shelter, you’ve got to roll it somewhere else. So all we do is move it around, but for Easter, I decided to finally use it. Why not, right? We bought some bags of ice and a bunch of cans of diet soda, put the ice in, and put the cans in. It was a big hit! But then it rained, and you can't bring it into the house. It was on the back porch while everyone was inside, and they would say, "Hey, I want a drink," and I’d tell them to go outside to the back porch. We have a patio covering it, so they didn’t have to go out in the rain. It wasn't quite the dream I had imagined, but there you go—that was the cooler.

That has nothing to do with what I was going to talk about this morning. What I was going to talk about is something that, in a way, ties back to the point of routines and getting things done every day. I'm the world’s worst. My ADHD is so off the charts that I’m easily distracted. I can walk into a room saying, "I’m going to clean this room," and the first thing I pick up is a pair of shoes. I take them to the closet and think, "These shoes would look better if I sorted them by color," so then I’m doing that. Half an hour later, I realize, "What was I doing? Oh yeah, I was cleaning the room," and I’ve only picked up one thing!

A lot of people say, "Rob, you get so much done! You do podcasts, blog posts, all these things." I run multiple blogs, so part of the reason I can do that is by making lists of voice notes. I hate mentioning voice notes, as it sounds like I’m plugging the app. But it is handy to use. I keep my lists in Google Docs for two reasons: one, because it’s free, and two, because I can access my list from any device. I can sit at my computer, make a list, and later be on my phone somewhere else, pull up the list, and edit it. When I come back to the computer, the changes are there. It’s this amazing thing called cloud technology—you might have heard of it. So I make these lists, which are essentially a schedule. They say things like, "Monday—post on Instagram, post on Twitter." Those kinds of reminders are essential because if you don’t do it, it’s easy to forget.

I'm going to tell you two things about my list. Honestly, I should probably only share one, as I need to come up with content to talk about every morning. But lucky you, I'll do two today! **Number one**: A mistake I've made on my list is putting entries on the day things are due. For example, it will say, "Wednesday—post on YouTube." But if you haven't made a YouTube video, that’s going to be hard to do. My list should say, "Monday—do YouTube video to post on Wednesday." You see? Things that take prep time need to be accounted for. It might be okay if it says, "Post on Instagram," because I have a hundred million photos I want to share. But if it says, "Write a blog post about your vacation for the past three months," that takes time.

So on your list, don't just put the end date. You can put the end date, but don’t forget the starting date—especially for big projects. It sneaks up on you! **Number two**: This ties into a term people call ROI—return on investment, which means what you get back from what you’re doing. It works in relation to how much time you’re spending doing those things. For instance, I run two different podcasts that are linked to the same Patreon account. It takes a significant amount of time to put together a podcast. I have to gather research from multiple websites, write a script, come up with creative ideas, record it, and then edit it.

But with this ROI, I have over 1,000 subscribers to my podcast, which is a pretty good return on the investment of time I’ve put in. I also have about 65 people on my Patreon for my podcasts and creative work. I’ve learned that when you stop providing content, they stop paying you. While I’m not doing it for the money—since it typically goes back into the hobby—it does help cover costs for domains, storage, and bandwidth.

Some of that goes back into the hobby, and I give some away to others doing different projects related to my YouTube channel about van life, Big Rob's Van. Just so you know, I make about $15 a month on my Patreon for Big Rob's Van. I went to Taco Bell the other day, got a combo with three Supreme tacos and a drink, and it was $13.

That said, I took money from my other Patreon and bought a thousand stickers for Big Rob's Van. Sometimes I connect with fans; one guy said he loved my work but was having a rough time, so I wrote him a letter, added stickers, and mailed it. The return on investment comes from personal satisfaction, measurable or not.

I've realized I'm not good at tracking my time. For example, I spend an inordinate amount of time watching YouTube videos. I have a multi-monitor setup and always have YouTube playing while I write or do emails. But what do I get out of that? Nothing, really.

As I look at my to-do list, some things require significant time commitments and provide big returns, while other activities, like social media, just consume time. I often have tabs for Twitter, Facebook, and my Substack page, *Ninjas and Neon*, open. I post there three times a week, sharing retro stories and toy reviews, but what’s the ROI? For me, it's minimal.

So, my goals today are to update my list, ensure I account for both end and start dates, and sort my list better. I’d like to know what I’m spending the most time on, perhaps through an app that tracks usage of each application. If I were honest, I think I’d find that a lot of time is wasted on social media and YouTube instead of investing it into projects that matter more. Anyway, just some random thoughts. By the way, this is an important investment every morning because I’m talking to you and, in a way, to myself. Between us, maybe we can figure all this out. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow!