Well, it’s the first week of February, and I’ve already set some incredible goals. Although I often try to push myself beyond time and space, I believe I can achieve quite a few things if I put in maximum effort.
For example, I can still write more than a million words this year if I sit down and actually write. Yes, school slows me down a bit, especially as the courses this semester take a bit more of my time. However, I always focus more on personal improvements and what I was able to do yesterday.
That way, I don’t set myself up for failure or get down on myself for not accomplishing some grandiose goal. It’s OK to swing for the fences, but you also need to be happy with the single base hit.
This month, I’m pointing to the upperdeck, bat in hand, ready to smash one out of the park. In other words, I’m ultra-motivated to make some things happen that are going to ultimately change how the second half of the year unfolds for myself and WriterSanctuary.
What I’m Doing with YouTube and Why
I’m doubling down on YouTube. Yes, I’ll keep writing blog posts for WriterSanctuary. After all, I am happiest at my keyboard. However, Google has made it exceptionally difficult to reach new audiences, thanks to AI Overviews.
YouTube is much easier when it comes to generating views on the content. Not to mention that AdSense for YouTube is far more lucrative than it is for the blog. Essentially, I make almost five times the money in ad revenue alone on YouTube.
This means that I am putting in maximum effort to upload at least three videos per week. This doesn’t include the Monday night live streams or the live writing sprints.
At the end of the day, I’d like to put more time into building WriterSanctuary. However, that is going to be incredibly difficult until I can generate enough money to hire help while retiring as a freelance writer. This would also give me a bit of time and money to start working on creating online courses.
Now, I don’t need a fancy car or a three-million-dollar house. But I’d like to make more than $600 per year as a content creator.
Pushing for One Million Words
One of my goals for 2026 is to write one million words. Well, I fell behind a bit over the last couple of weeks. In February, I plan on dialing up the effort a bit.
The best part is that I plan to kill two birds with one stone. As I am trying to upload three videos per week on YouTube, I’m using some of the blog content as scripts for those videos. So, I’m blogging while preparing the text to use on YouTube.
I’m also working on finishing the first draft of Fury this month while potentially getting started on wrapping up VII. Unfortunately, classes are taking up a bit more time than they did last semester, so I’m not sure if that’s a viable goal now.
Regardless, I’m going to try to get enough time set aside to get back on track for writing one million words this year. Despite college taking a huge chunk of my time, I’m somewhat confident I can keep the numbers from getting out of hand.
In May, I am running a 30-day challenge to write a book. So, that will help tremendously for hitting one million words. The trick is to make sure that I’m still being productive as a writer until then.
Experimenting with Courses and Software
I’ve scheduled some time to start experimenting with creating courses and the apps to use. I’m still not sure if I’ll keep them on WriterSanctuary or use something like Udemy. I’m also toying with the idea of building a separate website for the courses.
I want to explore all my options before I commit the time. Setting up a good course that people will pay money to take isn’t easy. It’s a time-consuming process while making sure you’re offering something of high value. And that starts with a solid learning management system.
If you’re interested, I might have my YouTube subscribers test out the various systems with me. Feel free to comment if you’d like to help me test the different LMS platforms. If I decide to run the tests with everyone, I’ll share the link on the Community Tab of the YouTube channel.
The plan is to set up a really basic WordPress course that will be free to everyone. So, it’s a test while potentially learning something in the process.
I’m not exactly sure when these live tests will be ready. I still need to experiment with setting up a few LMS plugins and learn how they work before we can move forward. But this is the first step to possibly building something great.
Bringing Back the Interviews
It’s been quite a while since I’ve interviewed some authors, and I have a massive backlog of emails to go through. I just hope that those authors are still interested in being interviewed. I feel like I let a lot of folks down lately.
In my defense, life has been quite a bit more hectic than it has been in the past. I don’t always get to do the things I’d like, and much of what I do as a creator has to be put on the back burner. I don’t make a lot of money as a YouTuber at the moment, and more important things need to take precedence.
Now that I’ve been able to get a few things hammered out, I can get back to the regular interviews. I don’t foresee anything intervening again in the future, but remember, life can happen at any moment.
Take Monday, for example. I couldn’t do a live writing sprint because I had to wait for American Furniture Warehouse to show up, which they didn’t do on time. I didn’t want to be in the middle of a live stream and then take 20 minutes out to deal with delivery people.
So, the plan is to go through the emails, contact the authors, and get back to a live interview every other week. It’s going to be good times ahead.
New Additions to My Spreadsheet
I spent a lot of time on February 1st creating a new timesheet. It was suggested that I should include EVERYTHING I do throughout the week, including school and the time I spend as a home health care provider.
It’s interesting to see just how many hours I put into the week trying to maintain everything. Unfortunately, the hours I spend as a home health care provider are fewer than the hours I actually work. I only get paid for about three hours per day from the state, but I often put in closer to six or eight, depending on the day.
Nonetheless, seeing where all of my time goes throughout the day has helped ease some of my tension. To see that I’m putting in closer to 60 hours per week doesn’t make me feel like a slacker, especially since school is taking up a good chunk of that time.
I suppose you can say it’s a boon to mental health. In the past, I would stress about not getting enough done in the day. That usually came with the self-denigration of being “too lazy” because I should have more time. In reality, I work more than most full-time folks out there.
In any case, adding the slots for everything I do has been helpful in relieving a lot of my stress throughout the day. And I no longer view myself as lazy, considering all that I handle.
I really thought I was wasting far more time than what was available. I was starting to feel like a fraud.
Let’s Make February a Productive Month
So, in a nutshell, we’re looking at more writing, more YouTube videos, interviewing authors, and testing out some learning management systems this month. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose that’s not a lot. However, it’s what I have time to manage…according to my revamped spreadsheet.
Now, whether I’ll get it all done is a different story. Life has a way of happening at inconvenient moments. All we can do is deal with the chaos and move on.
Yet, I’m looking forward to a pretty amazing February. It’s all for the greater good…
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