Welcome to my August 2018 Project Report. My goal with these monthly reports is to help other authors, entrepreneurs, leaders, or anyone else who wants to make an impact through their work. Each month It share how I spent my time as an author and creative entrepreneur and the successes, failures, and lessons I learned along the way.
How I Spent My Time in August 2018
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 projects I spent the most time on last month:
- 14:52 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 7:54 – Launch: Christ in the Classroom (follow along here)
- 5:14 – Weekly Review
- 4:51 – Instagram Live Interviews
- 4:17 – Morning Preview
- 3:12 – Daily Review
- 3:50 – Fiction Writing
- 2:32 – The Religion Teacher Newsletter
- 2:17 – The Religion Teacher Fall 2018 Launch
- 2:04 – The “Make It” Project (Formerly “Prolific” Project)
Total Time Spent: 64:58
Here is what I produced last month:
- Worksheets: 5
- Articles/Blog Posts: 8
- Newsletter Emails: 14
- Videos: 7
- Books: 6,703 words (2,837 words of nonfiction / 3,866 words of fiction)
- Workshops & Webinars: 0
2018 Goal Update
In the past I tried to focus only on mission and vision and not specific performance goals. I’m trying something different this year and setting some big goals for myself as a entrepreneurial author. You can find my goals here. This is the progress I have made so far:
59% / double the number of members TRTm members (audacious goal)
0/5,000 copies sold of Christ in the Classroom (good/great)
0/1 published work of fiction (good)
3/7 paid speaking gigs (expected)
43/50 Read 50 books (good goal)
53% Paid Off / Pay off mortgage in 2020 (good goal)
24:39 PR / Run a 5K under 23:00 (good goal)
Incomplete / Start a support ministry for startup founders. (expected goal)
You can read about the process I used to set these goals along a scale of success here: A Simple Process for Setting Bigger Goals.
August 2018 Highlights and Lessons Learned
Vacation
We took a lot of time off this summer. In each of the last three months I sat down to write these reports and had to remind myself why I was so much less productive.
Vacations are wonderful, but when you are self-employed it really shows.
No one else is going to do your work for you. So, I’m working on being OK with being less productive.
It also helped that I put the Daily Learning Log on hiatus. I maximized every moment of vacation to focus on critical projects of content, customer service, and consistent email newsletters.
Instagram Interviews
I spent some time in August testing out Instagram for live interviews. I had a lot of success using Facebook Live last year and with so many people transitioning to Instagram, I wanted to check it out.
I recorded two live interviews and we had a failed attempt at another interview. I really enjoyed the process and it was great to talk to people I respect, learn things from them, and share our conversation in the process.
Here are the video recordings:
There were some technical challenges.
I didn’t know this at the time, but Instagram does not enable you to save live broadcasts if you invite someone to join you. So, I used the iPhone’s built in screen recording option to create a recording to share online. (I wish I had read this article before I started the interviews.)
I am planning to explore this some more and think about more ways I can utilize video to put people in touch with practical ideas and tools to make a difference in the lives of others.
Book Launch
Christ in the Classroom is finally out!
I spent some time in August preparing for the launch by planning and preparing content to give people a glimpse of what is inside the book. I have tried my best to stick to the simple book launch plan I wrote earlier this year. I’ve also pulled some ideas from The Ultimate Book Launch Guide article I wrote after the launch of my first book.
I’ve launched so many books over the years and yet I still seem to draw a blank every time the book is about to come out. It is so hard to launch your own book. There are so many things to do that it is hard to narrow in and focus on just one at a time.
When it came down to crunch time, it was the weekly newsletter that helped the most. I asked myself what I would want to include in the newsletter, then worked backwards to pick the content I wanted to create for the launch of the book.
Book launch month for me is going to be 90% focused on serving my audience, particularly the email list. Then, in the months that follow I am going to shift my focus to a second phase, an influencer launch and reach out to people who might be willing to review, share, or buy the book in bulk.
I set a goal at the beginning of the year to sell 5,000 copies of the book. I’m well below the pace I should be on right now, but I’m very pleased with the response from people who have seen the book so far and I’m confident that it is going to make an impact and start spreading organically.