I don't want to be "one of those guys"

Here I am, up at 5am. Consumed with work on my mind. I've never been this consumed in my life. I've been working at my job for 6 months now and I'm still not where I need to be as far as being organized and "in control" of my job. I know it sounds crazy, but there is so much work that goes into just getting organized. I have over 80 properties I manage and each one has it's own uniqueness. 16 of them are out of state, so they require me to manage them remotely without seeing them more than 3 times a year (I've seen them once in the past 6 months).

The most challenging and stressful part of my job is spending money. One would think that wouldn't be a problem, however there is a lot of pressure to spend our monthly budgeted money because if we don't spend it in that month, we lose it (we don't get to carry it over into the next month), so most of the time I feel like an accountant, trying to ensure I have jobs lined up for work to be performed to spend the money. Every month I have about $16k-$40k to figure out how to spend. If I don't spend it, I'm in serious trouble. There is the stress of ensuring the job gets done in that month and then making sure I have the invoice in my hand by the end of that month. The most frustrating part is that I can't spend this money on the most obvious needs for my property (carpet and furniture) because those expenses come out of a capital budget, which is always VERY thin. In fact, carpet is the lowest of priorities with regards to capital budgets, so those are seldom approved.

In addition to my monthly spending dillemas, I just went through our most stressful month (July) which is budgeting month. This is where I take my budget based on what I spent part of this year and what I have planned for the remaining year, and create a budget for EACH property with that money I have. It's extremely tedious and time consuming. I've been having dreams of being late with my budget or not having started it. I finally finished it on Sunday evening a few days ago and I was RELIEVED.

Don't get me wrong, I really do love my job, but the past 6 months have been a serious adjustment from working a previous job that was much more flexible and didn't have all the restraints on a budget that I have now. It's taken some adjusting, but I think I'm getting it. I never imagined a job in the same field taking 6 plus months to really get control over (and I'm really pushing a realistic goal now of 1 year to REALLY have control).

But here I am, the guy up at 5am and can't stop thinking about work. I woke up to go to the bathroom and I was DOG TIRED (still am), but I can't fall asleep, so I decide to blog. I could just go into work, but I have to take Caiden to his mom's and it's too early for that. So, I'll do my best not to be THAT guy (the one that gets to work by 6am and doesn't leave until 6 or 7pm). Being a hard worker is important, but time for my family and myself is even more important. I just wonder how long it will last.