The month of January wasn't as productive as I'd have liked. One project went well but the others I felt my head was a bit all over the place, that I was focusing on the end result and scaring myself with what might happen and I was casually doing what I felt like on the day without any kind of schedule or time limit.
I was reaching the end of the working day feeling a little despondent because I couldn’t see what I’d achieved. Then the following day I would force myself at my desk and end up frittering time because, although I had my post it task board, I was struggling to get motivated.
Plus when things didn’t quite go my way such as being trolled and fearful (that old chestnut - fear of success!) I would just end up scrolling social media instead of cracking on with the next task on my to do list.
So I decided to make February (and the last few days of January) a bit more organised with my writing and YouTube videos. I decided to give myself a deadline for various projects during February so a) I could achieve more and b) I had something to work towards on a daily basis.
I pulled out my planning journal (it’s a lemome) and took my four projects from my post it task board quarter one and decided what I could realistically achieve over the next five weeks. Then I plotted them out on a calendar grid to see how much time I had. Then, I divided the tasks up for week one (this week) and finally gave myself daily tasks - all coming from the master monthly list.
And this video is exactly how I did it:
So far it’s working well and I already feel I’m being more productive. Yesterday I finished all my tasks on my daily list and today I just have two tasks left (this blog post being one of them!)
I feel February (and these last few days of January) could end up being incredibly productive!
Over the weekend I sent out a newsletter which opened with a short anecdote about my YouTube channel. The subject of the newsletter wasn’t actually about YouTube at all but I received an email back from one of my lovely subscribers asking what had happened with my YouTube journey. She said: It feels almost like we followed you on your journey then when you arrived at the Emerald City, you left us outside the gates.
I completely agreed. I’d stopped talking about YouTube once I reached monetisation. I’d shared a lot of what I was going through including my analytics and how close I was getting on my Instagram Stories - but then just didn’t carry that narrative on.
My YouTube journey has dominated my life for a year. I was thinking about it a lot; anxious that I would not reach the relevant requirements and then, when I did, I was worried about being rejected and monetisation would not be allowed for my channel.
So I thought I’d explore why I stopped talking about my YouTube channel in this blog post, as well as looking at my YouTube journey so far.