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:
93% / Double the number of members of The Religion Teacher (December 2017 to present) (-2%)
348,748/1,000,000 words for kids (A part of my #1millionwordsforkids goal) (+28,057 words)
531/600 Resources (Videos/Worksheets) for Members of The Religion Teacher (+7 resources)
Personal Goals:
39/75 Books read (+5 books)
29/73 Books of the Bible read from beginning to end (+2 books read)
72/100 30-minute workouts (+14 workouts)
How I Spent My Time in June 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:
- 27:06 – Daily Bible Devotional for Kids
- 19:46 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 10:32 – Bible Breaks Bible Stories for Kids
- 9:02 – Daily Review
- 8:18 – Morning Preview
- 6:09 – The Religion Teacher YouTube Videos
- 5:48 – The Adventurer Saga
- 4:12 – The Religion Teacher Blog Posts
- 4:12 – Weekly Review
- 3:20 – Bible Breaks Newsletter
- 2:12 – The Religion Teacher’s Saints Worksheet Collection
Total Time: 119:33 Hours
June 2020 Highlights & Lessons Learned
Daily Bible Verse Devotional for Kids
I wrote more than one hundred reflections on Bible verses in the Gospel of Mark and John. I am tentatively titling the work “The Words of the Lord” because each verse is a sentence spoken by Jesus Christ in the Gospels.
Looking at each sentence of the Lord one by one is an incredible experience. I have learned a lot and reflected on my own life. I am really looking forward to getting these into the hands of children and families.
I will compile 365 of these verses into a book, but I’m excited about some other possible formats: daily emails, monthly printouts, social media posts. We will see what is most useful.
I started to share a few examples on social media:
Bible Breaks Story Collections
I finalized two more collections of Bible stories. The collection on the Eucharist will be published in July and the one focused on prayer will follow a couple of months later.
Take and Eat: Bible Stories for Kids about the Eucharist will release on July 20th:
I hope these stories will encourage a greater appreciation of the Bible. I hope that kids read these stories and will then go on to read the Bible on their own to learn more.
During these days of isolation and quarantine, we can turn to Scripture to encounter the living God.
The Religion Teacher Videos
I haven’t created many whiteboard videos during the coronavirus quarantine. I’m not sure what was holding me back. Isolation can become a habit. I felt more comfortable silently writing rather than getting in front of the camera.
I experimented with a few whiteboard-only videos that I could create in the early morning hours before the kids woke up and before I showered for the day.
I wanted to see if these videos would be as effective as the ones with me in it. I’m watching the views and uses closely to see, but I’m going to put in some more face time in the weeks ahead.
Here are the videos I created in June:
I did create one video in front of the camera. Check out that long coronavirus hair!
