Welcome to my June 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 June 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:
- 10:38 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 10:34 – The Daily Learning Log (archive)
- 7:43 – Fiction Writing
- 5:22 – Weekly Review
- 4:52 – Beatitudes: A Bible Study for Parents (#BibleStudyforParents)
- 4:11 – The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning
- 4:02 – Daily Review
- 3:17 – Morning Preview
- 2:48 – The Religion Teacher’s Genesis Worksheets
- 2:47 – The Religion Teacher’s Confirmation Worksheets
Total Time Spent: 77:54
Here is what I produced last month:
- Worksheets: 9
- Articles/Blog Posts: 70
- Newsletter Emails: 12
- Videos: 1
- Books: 13,285 words (4,523 words of nonfiction / 8,762 words of fiction)
- Workshops & Webinars: 1
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:
42% / 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)
33/50 Read 50 books (good goal)
52% Paid Off / Pay off mortgage in 2020 (good goal)
24:57 / 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.
June 2018 Highlights and Lessons Learned
Beatitudes Bible Study
I heard Coach Urban Meyer say in an interview that his 6:00 a.m. Bible study is the most important part of his morning routine. He never misses it. It is essential to his day.
That got me thinking about how much I need something like that, especially as a parent. I thought I would run a little experiment of creating a short 6:00 a.m. Bible study specifically for parents based on the Beatitudes. Here is how the projected developed:
- I used a process of Lectio Divina to outline the three parts of each mini-study.
- I decided to go through the eight Beatitudes twice to make it about a two-week study.
- I focused primarily on Instagram because I wanted to experiment with a new platform.
- I only promoted it by mentioning it in my email list for teachers and by the creative use of hashtags.
- I kicked-off the series the same day as IGTV launched, so I created a video to introduce the series.
As far as the statistics go:
- Each post had 250-300 impressions and 15-30 likes in Instagram.
- The comments on many of the posts were reassuring.
- I gained about 100 additional followers to my Instagram account.
Most importantly, though, writing these short studies really helped me as a parent. I was much more focused on what I should be doing to become a better parent and, most of all, trusting in God to help.
I don’t know if I will work on another series again or not. I have a lot of other projects that need my full attention in the months ahead, but this was a fun experiment.
Fiction Writing
In June I finished another round of fables to teach the Beatitudes and Ten Commandments.
I spent more time studying the Aesop’s fables and realized the ones I was writing were way too long and too complex. Once I tried to write more succinctly, I was able to write three or four fables a day rather than just one. This was an eye-opening experience. I was in the habit of writing just one every day, but pushing myself to do more really opened my eyes to the possibilities of writing many, many more of these short stories.
Next month I hope to select one fable for each of the Beatitudes to publish as a free eBook and lead magnet to sign up for a Fiction Friday email newsletter.
The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning
I have been sitting on the revision of The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning eBook for way too long and I finally had it ready for publication in July. It is amazing that it has been so long since I wrote the eBook. I’ve grown a lot as a teacher and as a writer so there was a lot to update. I like how it turned out and I’m really excited about it being used by new subscribers to my website this year. Plus, it aligns with my new book, which is also on lesson planning.
The last 5% of every project is the hardest. At a certain point you just have to ship it and move on. The eBook still isn’t perfect. The formatting could be better. The cover could be better. Still, I needed to get it out there so people can use it. I could have published it much earlier but I let the Resistance slow me down.
