Last week, on top of being a husband and dad, working my primary career, trying to keep Evolution’s Hand Book 3: Primary Target moving, and trying to manage the new season on my anime review site, I also enrolled in Bryan Cohen’s The 5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge. What impact did that have on what I intended to deliver? Did I have to give up anything (hint: I didn’t give up the “husband and dad” part — that’s for sure!)? We’ll talk about that after I share the numbers.
Progress Report 2022 Week 29 By the Numbers
The numbers don’t look bad — so what did I give up to take the class?
My goal is ten thousand words a week. My output this week was more! But maintaining that on top of the new class came at cost I didn’t realize until today. I came home from work, helped my son kick off his day at work, then tried to throttle up to take the next class.
I found I could barely move. I run close to the edge of endurance as a matter of course. This might sound morbid, but I grew up on a farm, and I’m a “bottom line” kind of guy. I figure I might be dead tomorrow. Sooner, if my luck really sucks. So, I try write anime reviews or novel chapters or something all the time. I’m tired most of the time, but it’s also a source of energy, if that makes sense.
Taking that class, though, pushed me over the edge. I’m going to finish it, because it’s an outstanding class. But it taught me about more than just Amazon ads: I need to be more aware of my workload. I’m not as young as I used to be, and my reserves aren’t quite as deep.
Progress Last Week
Here were my goals from last week, along with how I did:
- Finish reaping what TCP sowed: Done!
- Finish Ira Malhotra’s Pinch 2: Done!
- Finish Jadwiga Janczak’s Pinch 2: Done!
- Start Jack Booth’s Pinch 2 (stretch objective): Bumped
I bumped Jack Booth’s pinch 2 because I realized that it had to come after Atticus Porter’s Plot Turn 2. It’s a slight tweak, but I love how the interaction of the characters guided me to make that decision. So, you’ll see Jack Booth’s Pinch 2 again as a goal for next week.
I should also mention that I finished Atticus Porter’s Plot Turn 2. So I’m going to say I hit my all four goals, even if I had to swap one.
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2022 Week 29
- Finish Jack Booth’s Pinch 2
- Finish Jack Book’s Plot Turn 2
- Finish Melchizedek “Dek” Conrad’s pre-Plot Turn 2 (it’s a scene I think is important; it came to me as I mowed the grass last week)
- Stretch objective: Start Matsushita’s Plot Turn 2
What Do You Think?
Do you have a tendency to overwork? How can you tell when you’ve crossed the line? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments!
I’m the same. I’m always trying to fit more in and don’t like unproductive stuff such as watching shows that I’m not reviewing…
I haven’t burnt out as such, but largely because of the variety of things I do. I’m not sure if it was burn out with my writing or my creativity took a hit from the pandemic or I probably was just tired.
I think I might slow down one day in the distant future, but like you I have too much stuff that I want to get done and worry about time running out.
There are times I’m not sure if something’s productive or not. There are times that if I watch a show I’m now reviewing, I few a bit renewed. But I don’t know how to put a value on that.
We humans should have an owner’s manual.
But then we might find out how to restore to factory settings and become immortals!
So it’s hidden because of a conspiracy! That’s much more interesting than “we just don’t know!”