Each month I like to assess my time on creative projects and progress on specific goals in my work as a creative entrepreneur and author. Here is my report for April 2019.
My 2019 Goals
My One Word: Together
Professional Goals:
78% / Double the number of members of The Religion Teacher (December 2017 to present) (+1%)
3,162/5,000 copies sold of Christ in the Classroom (+unknown)
146,0010/465,00 words for kids (A part of my #1millionwordsforkids goal) (+14,081)
0/4 new published works of fiction on Amazon.com (+0 published books)
4/7 paid speaking gigs (+0)
Personal Goals:
21/100 books read (+6 books)
4/73 Books / Read the entire Bible from beginning to end. (+2 books read)
27/100 30-minute workouts (+10 workouts)
Incomplete / Play Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” on the harmonica.
How I Spent My Time in April 2019
I track every minute of time I spend working on projects using an app called Toggl (here is why). Here is a list of the top ten projects I spent the most time on last month:
- 14:01 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 7:40 – A Kid at the Crucifixion Story
- 7:06 – The Religion Teacher Videos
- 6:25 – Daily Review
- 5:17 – Beatitales Fables
- 5:09 – Weekly Review
- 4:40 – The Religion Teacher’s Saint Worksheet Collection
- 4:32 – The Religion Teacher Blog Posts
- 3:50 – Morning Preview
- 2:36 – 2018 Taxes and Accounting
Total Time: 79:35
April 2019 Highlights & Lesson Learned
Fiction Update
I spent more time than usual on writing and publishing fiction in April. I wrote a multi-part story for Holy Week/Easter, which I shared as s serial in my Friday Formative Fiction Newsletter.
The was a new genre for me and I enjoyed it. The story focused on a child’s experience witnessing the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was personally a spiritually moving experience to write it.
I also worked on finding an editor for Beatitales. I’m finding the experience of self-publishing to be very slow for this first book. I don’t have many connections in the Christian fiction world and I’m figuring out the process of self-publishing as I go along. I’m so grateful for the experience I have had working for a traditional publishing company for so many years. It is amazing what all of the departments and talented team members do to contribute to the publication of a book!
I’m excited to publish the complete Beatitales collection this summer.
The Religion Teacher’s Saint Worksheet Collection
For the members of The Religion Teacher, I have been developing a series of worksheets with biographies and reflection questions about the lives of Catholic saints. My goal is to have at least one worksheet for every week of the year. I expect to have this project completed by this summer.
(Learn more about The Religion Teacher membership here.)
Reading about the lives of these holy men and women has been a great experience for me. You start to see patterns in their lives and realize what it takes to be saint. Saints suffered, but they did not lose faith. Saints gave up what they wanted or what their parents wanted for them in order to follow God’s call. They stood up to every kind of opposition in order to do God’s will. I’m so grateful for the example they give to us and for the opportunity to learn about their lives as I create these resources.
The Religion Teacher Videos
I spent more time creating videos this month than usual. I wanted to create some useful content around Holy Week for religious educators to use in class. I always enjoy learning new things and sharing our beliefs through this mini-lesson videos.
I also spent some time researching best practices for YouTube videos and plan to make a few tweaks to my process in order to improve the quality of the presentation there.
Here are the new videos I recorded last month: