What I've Learned Over the Past Year
And what I'm trying to improve on in 2022
Thanks for reading The Sunday Morning Post. Each week I share my thoughts and analysis on the economy, real estate, and more from my perspective as a community lender in Bangor, Maine. To get my weekly articles, which are always free (and ad-free), make sure you’re subscribed below.
I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s Eve. The night itself always ends up feeling a bit underwhelming. But New Year’s itself - the calendar changing into a new year and bringing with it the opportunity to reset and refocus - that I have always appreciated.
I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a new year as much as I have this one. While there were plenty of jarring and disheartening things that happened last year that made 2021 not-so-particularly-good, the lasting feeling I have towards 2021 is that it just felt like such an “in between” year. Much of 2021 was spent just...waiting.
Last week I wrote about how it was a good year for anyone in real estate. The same might be said of banking in that the volume of new loan requests was extremely high, delinquencies were quite low, and, in general, business was good and local banks made a tremendously positive difference in their communities.
With high volume came challenges, however. I think if you were to ask almost anyone in banking, they would say that the last two years have felt like a non-stop sprint trying to keep up with relentless incoming requests. Low interest rates, a strong economy, and healthy amounts of stimulus funds have had buyers and borrowers extremely active and to just summarize it in a neat, tidy way: it has been wicked busy.
What I’ve Learned
These past two weeks I have spent a good amount of time with my team at First National Bank reviewing what went well over the past twelve months and looking ahead at the year to come for what we can improve upon. In this week’s article I wanted to offer some raw advice that I gave to my team and New Year’s resolutions I am giving to myself for 2022. I frame a lot of this as resolutions because, simply put, it doesn’t feel right to give “advice” on things I am actively trying to improve upon myself. I always get frustrated with columns by people who have just discovered something like nature or running or a new diet and they write from a place of authority on it even though they have only just taken up the new habit themselves. So I want to frame this article in the context of the fact that these are things I’m trying to improve upon myself and not things I have mastered. I am certainly not perfect.
This is also not meant to be a this is the optimal morning routine article or a do one thing each day that scares you type of advice column. The following just represents straightforward, unfiltered ideas for 2022 based on the lessons of 2021.
#1 - Do the Annoying Thing
I keep a to-do list in front of me on my desk all day long. At the end of the week, I transcribe everything remaining on it to a new list so that I can start with a fresh sheet on Monday morning. I noticed as this year went on, however, that more and more things were being carried forward from Fridays to Mondays. This was due at least in part to just how busy the year was; many weeks there were just not enough hours in the week to get everything done. But then again, more things also got carried forward because it is hard sometimes to do the most annoying or challenging tasks. And if you have a ton of other work to do, it’s far easier to pick the low-hanging fruit just for the feeling of accomplishment at having completed something than it is to do the difficult or deep-thinking tasks needed to cross the more challenging things off your list. On a To-Do list where you get a little hit of dopamine every time you cross something off the list, you’re going to go for the easiest things first even if it not always those that most need to get done.
But here’s the thing: the annoying thing only becomes more annoying the longer it remains unresolved. Rarely does the annoying thing clear itself up on its own. Yes, every once in awhile you circle back around on something only to find out that it is no longer relevant because the problem was solved or a fellow team member or staff member has resolved it (I am fortunate to have very good assistants who are excellent at executing their work and very good at problem-solving). But more often than not, procrastinating on something difficult only causes more problems in the end because the urgency and the related frustrations with it only become worse the more time that goes by. So just get it done so you can cross it off the list.
#2 - Set Expectations
I think I am by nature a people pleaser. On the one hand, it is part of what makes me good at my job because I actively enjoy helping my bank customers accomplish things. Otherwise why would I do this? It is fulfilling to me to see my customers be successful. And when they are in need or distress I enjoy being able to help them.
But sometimes you have to tell people things that are either difficult or not what they want to hear. Most commonly over the past year, this has often been related to timelines for the fulfillment of loan requests. Appraisals, title work, bank underwriting, processing of paperwork: it has all taken longer this year. The reasons are many, and mostly related to extremely high volume. An appraisal that used to take 3-4 weeks and cost $600 now takes 5-6 weeks and costs $900. More complex appraisals that used to cost $2,400 and take 6-8 weeks now cost $4,800 and take 10-12 weeks.
But there were plenty of other reasons for delays over the last year, too. Supply chain issues weren’t just in shipping and manufacturing, they showed up even in atypical places like bank lending. Among the strange things that happened to my customers last year included an appraiser appraising the wrong property and then us having to start the appraisal clock all over again, a title attorney retiring a week before a closing and essentially going off the grid, and a whole slew of flood zone determinations that came back as either inconclusive or mismatching what the borrower’s insurance company determined (believe me, it is a nightmare when this happens and frustratingly difficult to resolve; it can take weeks or even months).
Those random and unpredictable things aside, if you only tell people what they want to hear, everyone will end up frustrated because sometimes what people need to hear is the several specific things they need to do or information they need to provide in order for you to be able to help them. Or at the very least people need a better idea of timelines not only so that they can plan but also so that everyone is working from the same set of expectations. Oftentimes giving unwanted news on the front-end saves everyone a lot of frustrations and stress on the back-end.
#3 - Things Take a Certain Amount of Time and That Is Okay
For all the automation, digitization, and streamlining of processes thanks to both technology and human resourcefulness, there are still things that take time. I might have 35 things on my to-do list on any given day and I might think I have to get to all of them, but if you don’t acknowledge that some of them are just going to take a certain amount of time, it is easy to get overwhelmed and end up actually accomplishing nothing.
Just to give one example, there are about 12 things I have to input or click on for me to properly order an appraisal on a property. Once I do all that, the boat is in the water so to speak, and the process should proceed from there (thanks to a lot of other people's work) resulting in a completed appraisal back in my inbox in a few weeks’ time. But if I rush an appraisal order (and I’m not talking about expediting an order, I’m talking about actually trying to click on the 12 things too quickly) and something is not submitted properly, it can back up the whole process. Alternatively it can cause another member of our team to either be confused or stressed or my rushing might rob that team member of their own time. So when I order an appraisal now, I pause and just remind myself, “Okay, you have a lot to do today but this process is going to take about 15 minutes…it will not possibly take less than 15 minutes to do it right…and that is fine.”
Incidentally I am also trying to maintain this attitude on the home-front. I can say unequivocally that my favorite thing to do in this world is to read to my kids before bed (we are currently on the third Harry Potter book as a family, I am reading The Penderwick Sisters to my daughter, Spy School to my oldest son, and always a smattering of kids’ books to my littlest). At the same time, the post-dinner routine with the kids can be exhausting and filled with frustrations. I love my kids to death, but they completely zap my energy from when I come through the door at, say, 5:30 pm, to when the last light is turned out at, say, 8:30 pm. So even though I love the activities within the routine, the process itself can be pretty draining (I think fellow parents might be able to relate). Sometimes I will remind myself at any given moment that this particular part of the bedtime routine is going to take a certain amount of time, and that is okay. Usually that helps me maintain at least the minimal sense of calm and focus needed to try to be a good dad doing these things I love with people I love while the sands in the hourglass of good-dad-energy slowly drain away from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm.
#4 - Time Passes
This item is not specifically something I came up with last year, but actually something I have reminded myself since I was in high school that I want to share with you, which is the understanding that time passes. Sometimes to get through a stressful moment or situation I will imagine myself being on one of those long moving sidewalks at the airport, but instead of traveling through an airport the moving sidewalk is carrying me through time itself. Like, no matter what happens, this moving sidewalk of time is going to carry me through this situation and out the other side. I just have to stay on it.
Now, that doesn’t mean you can just stand there and do nothing; you still have to actually accomplish whatever tasks or work to resolve whatever has made the situation particularly stressful, but I have always had confidence in myself to do that. I don’t necessarily know where that confidence comes from, but I am always sure of myself that I’m going to pull through and that I’m going to come out the other side of it.
This mental trick is what helped me power through things like major papers or projects I had to complete in high school or college, it has helped me get through acutely stressful moments in my civic and community life, and it has certainly helped me in my professional life get through moments, weeks, and even seasons and years that have been particularly challenging. Time always passes, the stress you feel in any particular moment will eventually just be a memory, and more often than not, you’ll be a better person for the lessons learned and the challenges you experienced along the way. And if not, at least that thing will be over and in the past. Unless it was a particularly traumatic or life-altering event, you’re not going to be thinking about something on May 15th that was stressing you out on December 28th.
#5 - Charge Your Devices Downstairs Each Night
It really shouldn’t have taken me so many years to figure this one out, but it’s always wise to charge your computer and cell phone each night so you start the day with a full battery. And those chargers should be downstairs away from your bedroom. This is two-part advice: it’s good to be charged and it’s especially good to get an interruption-free night of sleep. Studies show that even the presence of a phone in the room is enough to alter one’s mood and focus, so keep the phone and computer downstairs (in the charger) at night and start the day fresh in more ways than one.
The Year Ahead
I wish you all the best for 2022. I am grateful for each and every reader and I thank you for joining me each Sunday morning. My New Year’s resolution for The Sunday Morning Post is to simply to keep going with it. My first article was on April 11th, 2021 and I’ve been writing on a weekly basis ever since. I hope to maintain that pace in the months ahead. My readership has steadily grown (I appreciate it!) and it has been fun to engage with readers on all manner of topics. THANK YOU, again, for being a part of The Sunday Morning Post community. Please join me again next week and if you know someone who you think would enjoy this article or anything from the archives, I would appreciate it if you would forward this along. Please also keep reading below for my Weekly Round-Up and One Good Read of the week.
Ben Sprague lives and works in Bangor, Maine as a V.P./Commercial Lending Officer for Damariscotta-based First National Bank. He previously worked as an investment advisor and graduated from Harvard University in 2006. Ben can be reached at ben.sprague@thefirst.com or bsprague1@gmail.com. Follow Ben on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram and make sure you are subscribed (for free!) to receive future articles.
Weekly Round-Up
Here are a few things that caught my eye around the web this week:
Homebuilder Matt Panella is making six-figures (in addition to his construction revenue!) posting videos on YouTube about his construction projects. “‘At this point, all of our contracts and every single home that we’ve built in the last year and a half has come from YouTube,’ he says.” Read more here via The Tilt and find him on YouTube here.
New England Patriots Wide Receiver Kendrick Bourne is getting into rental properties, but then again, who isn’t these days?
Hundreds of new rental units are being built in Biddeford:
A rare eagle usually home to Russian Kamchatka is lost in Maine:
One Good Read
For all the time in my life spent as an avid Red Sox fan, I had never read one of the seminal articles about the team. I finally read it for the first time yesterday. If you need some hot stove content to get you through the long baseball-less winter, click here to read “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” by John Updike, who recounts the final game played by Red Sox legend Ted Williams. It’s at least a 20-minute read, but worth it.
Got story ideas, news tips, or suggestions? Email me at ben.sprague@thefirst.com or bsprague1@gmail.com. Have a great week, everybody.