Two weeks ago I wrote a post about how I wanted to really push myself while my family is out of town. Today I met up with them, ending my alone-time.
So, how’d I do?
Here’s a recap of the list of goals, with the results in between:
- 2 blog posts/day on dailymormon.email to get ahead.
Did really well on this one. There were a few days toward the end where I was staying up later than normal, which led to waking up later, which led to only enough time to do one email a day, but I consistently stayed on top of the emails and am still a few days ahead.
- 2 meetings on moviehunt.co
A little out of my control, as it required the availability of my partner to get together on the project. Weren’t able to make it happen, but we’ve both individually been making progress on the project.
- Sign up 50 beta testers for moviehunt.com
I let this one slip under the radar. The lesson is that if you don’t reference the things you’re trying to get done on a regular basis (i.e. daily) then some things can get overlooked. I have 13 beta testers signed up and a list of nearly 100 people that I’m going to reach out to, but haven’t done it yet.
- get dailymormon.email to 250 email subscribers
Well, I’m counting this an almost success. I did an interview on Mormon Life Hacker which helped a ton, adding over 175 subscribers in under a week. It put me up to a total of 251 subscribers, but I lost 4, so I’m currently sitting at 246, but I still feel awesome about the growth of the list. (Here’s the link if you want to join)
- book 5 new projects for Telekinesis Media (hit us up if you’re looking for a landing page or marketing video for your company. We’re really good.)
Man, I hustled on this one, but again, you can’t control the actions of others. I took 8 meetings, either in phone or in person, over the last two weeks, and there are at least 4 potential projects, but none have confirmed or signed contracts yet. So I’ll keep up on those, and it feels like good progress, but really wanted to land some of those.
- full outline and premises for each chapter on my book
So, full outline is done, and I made it through the five main chapters that kind of serve as headers for the sections of the book. Feels like really good progress, and I feel like once I transition to the writing phase that the words are going to flow pretty easily since I already know what to write.
- 1 blog post per week on this site
This is gonna have to count as the second in two weeks, even though technically I think I missed it by a day. I’ve been sitting on the idea to start a station/channel on Anchor for the last few months, and finally decided to take the plunge, so that plus blogging is going to be my creative outlet for the foreseeable future.
The great thing about Anchor that pushed me over the edge is that it’s the simplest (and cheapest) way to start and host and update a podcast. I’m still waiting for it to go live on Apple Podcasts, but in the meantime you can listen to the first episode on the Anchor app/website.
- 10 workouts at the gym
Oh yeah. Killed this one. Upped my game since I am competing in a diet bet for the month of August, and hit the gym hard. PR’d on the deadlift (325 lbs for 3 reps) and the bench press (210 for 2), and continually making progress there. Also down about 3 pounds since the fam left. Hopefully the trend continues!
- 8 hours of sleep per night
This was the one that I really wanted to nail, because I wanted to see how it effected my day. I normally average between 6-6.5 hours a night, and get ok sleep, but wanted to see if I could squeeze some more out of my day if I got that extra 1.5-2 hours.
I got a full 8 hours all but two nights. The biggest thing I noticed is that the extra time dramatically increased my sleep quality, as determined by the Sleep Cycle app I use to track sleep and as an alarm. I went from averaging 70% to sometimes over 90%.
Overall my days felt more energized, like I still had some left in the tank after work, which I think is what led to staying up extra late a few times rather than calling it a night at a reasonable hour.
- Shoot pilot for both new shows
Last but not least, this didn’t work out because of scheduling but also because we wanted to focus on our main show, Zion Politics, and we had people out of town or unavailable. We did, however, come up with a few ideas for new shows, and even a new screenplay idea, so not completely wasted opportunity there.
Overall, I feel like I could have done better. There were a few days where I wasn’t as focused as I know I can be, and there were the occasional lapses in discipline. I stuck to my schedule, got a lot done, and feel like it was measurably more than a normal two-week span of my life.
We’re definitely capable of more than we think, and we can do more in a day or a week’s time than we probably believe. However, it’s not super sustainable to pull 16+ hour days for an extended amount of time – you definitely want to sprinkle in some down time and obviously some family time.
The big takeaways were the importance of sleep, of clear and measurable goals, of planning and preparation, and reviewing the things that you’re trying to accomplish on a regular basis so that you don’t get distracted.
What are you trying to accomplish that you haven’t made progress on? Maybe it’s time to try your own mini sprint to see what you’re capable of.