Here is a report of where I spent my time and how well I progressed towards reaching my goals last month.
MY 2020 GOALS
PROFESSIONAL GOALS:
97% / Double the number of members of The Religion Teacher (December 2017 to present) (+0%)
291,763/1,000,000 words for kids (A part of my #1millionwordsforkids goal) (+12,639 words)
520/600 Resources (Videos/Worksheets) for Members of The Religion Teacher (+4 resources)
PERSONAL GOALS:
25/75 books read (+8 books)
27/73 Books: Read the entire Bible from beginning to end. (+2 books read)
44/100 30-minute workouts (+8 workouts)
How I Spent My Time In April 2020
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:
- 15:30 – Bible Breaks Bible Stories for Kids
- 18:24 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 11:07 – Weekly Review
- 8:12 – Morning Preview
- 7:20 – Daily Review
- 6:30 – New Book: A Daily Bible Devotional for Kids
- 4:30 – Make It Book
- 4:07 – Site Outage & SSL Certificate Update
- 4:04 – The Religion Teacher’s Saints Worksheet Collection
- 3:22 – Formative Fiction Newsletter
Total Time: 122:51
April 2020 Highlights & Lessons Learned
Coronavirus Quarantine Schedule
We completed a full month of quarantine at home with our kids. I will be honest. I have really enjoyed this time with our family. We have a nice routine and I feel so blessed to have so many kids.
I get a lot of work completed in the mornings before the kids wake up and homeschooling begins. My wife and I communicate throughout the day about different calls, commitments, or online events we have. It’s nice to have the flexibility.
Still, like everyone else, we miss our friends and family. We pray every night for an end to this pandemic.
Bible Stories & Verses for Kids
Writing Bible stories for kids and families remained my highest creative priority in April. I completed the first draft of three collections of Bible stories on hope, the Eucharist, and prayer. I released the Lent collection in March. I’m excited to get these books out into the world to encourage families and classes (virtual or otherwise) to come together to read more of the Bible.
I’m calling the series “Bible Breaks” because I think every home and class can dedicate just a little bit of time to take a break with the Bible. Reading a Bible story at the beginning of dinner has been a great experience for our family. The stories in the collections are only 1-2 pages and can easily fit into a quick five-minute break throughout the day or at dinner and bedtime.
Back in February, I made a plan to write and edit these collections in a four-week schedule: write, revise, edit/design, and publish. While there were some delays in designing and publishing, the four week schedule kept me working quickly and finishing books on a much more rapid pace than before.
I’m taking a break from the Bible story collections to see how well they are received in the next few months. My next project is a daily devotional prayer book for kids focused on the words of God. So, the focus will still be on encouraging kids and families to read the Bible, but just in a different format.
Website Outage
I have spent a frustrating amount of time in the last two years with website trouble. This one was unexpected and entirely too long. It was difficult to wait for the technical support to isolate the problem and find a fix, so I kept calling until I found someone that could help. Some of the tech support said there was nothing they could do beyond elevating the support ticket to a higher level, but I finally found someone who could fix it.
The big lesson here was to be persistent. Keep calling, keep asking until you find someone who can help.
