Here is my monthly report on projects, goals, and the lessons I learned along the way.
My 2021 Goals
Professional Goals:
526,675/ 523,080/1,000,000 words for kids (A part of my #1millionwordsforkids goal) (+3,595 words)
675/1,000 Resources (Videos/Worksheets) for Members of The Religion Teacher (+19 resources)
Personal Goals:
21/24 Books Read (+4 books)
36/73 Books of the Bible read from beginning to end (+0 books read)
50/100 30-minute workouts (+6 workouts)
How I Spent My Time in June 2021
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:
- 11:19 – The Religion Teacher Email & Customer Service
- 8:34 – Daily Review
- 7:52 – Morning Preview
- 5:57 – @jareddees Social Media
- 5:40 – Kindle Vella Projects
- 4:38 – Theoloji 101
- 4:29 – The Religion Teacher Blog
- 4:03 – The Religion Teacher Saint Worksheets
- 3:19 – Make It Book
- 2:54 – The Religion Teacher Videos
Total Time: 83:10 Hours
June 2021 Highlights & Lessons Learned
Kindle Vella Projects
Amazon’s new serialized reading platform launches in July 2021. I decided to release a few serialized stories to correlate with the launch.
As an author, I am very excited about Kindle Vella. Up to this point, I have been publishing serialized stories here on my personal website. For the most part, these stories have been buried and overlooked unless I feature them in my email newsletters. Kindle Vella gives me the chance to publish stories directly to readers on a platform meant for reading.
I decided to publish a couple of stories that have been sitting on my desk and desktop for a very long time. They aren’t quite long enough to be books, but I want to get them out into the world. Kindle Vella gives me the chance to get readers and feedback for both of these unpublished works.
I had another story idea to encourage kids to become entrepreneurs that I wanted to test out as well. I finished one episode and outlined a few more.
Kindle Vella launched during the first week of July and here are the three serialized stories I have started so far:
Theoloji 101
I created a book proposal for Theoloji 101. I wanted to get some feedback from an editor and publishing company. The conversation convinced me to be my own creative director and publisher for the project. I’m excited to move forward and turn this unique project into an actual paperback book. More to come soon.
The Religion Teacher Saint Worksheets
I’m still working towards the goal of 1,000 resources for members of The Religion Teacher. I’ve already created more than 130 saint biography worksheets including last month’s Apostles Worksheet Collection. Now I’m moving on to the other major New Testament saints. I don’t have a definitive number of saints in mind, but I like the idea of a collection of 150 saint biographies and reflection questions.
I also hit a milestone of 100 member videos and graphic organizers and added some Spanish translations of the Gospel worksheets I created years ago.
1 Million Words for Kids
If you look back at the monthly reports for the last couple of years, you will notice one consistent goal: write 1,000,000 words for kids by the time I turn 40.
Well, I failed. I’m just a little more than half way to my goal.
But in all honesty, I look at what I have accomplished since setting this goal and it makes me happy:
- 7 published books for kids
- 8 (or more?) unpublished books for kids
- 100s of fables
- 1,000s of parents subscribed to newsletters
You will continue to see my updates towards the one million milestone for as long as it takes me to get there!
The Make It Book
Last, but not least. I started a new project on Racket.com. I’ve been sitting on a book for authors, artists, and creators for years. It is the reason for the 1 million words for kids goal. It is the reason for the 1,000 member resources goal. It is the reason I am able to work as a full-time author and stay-at-home dad.
The book is 75% written already so I decided to start sharing it piece by piece on a new audio platform called Racket.
