Q1 2024 Recap

I realize I never wrote a blog post breaking down my specific quaterly goals for this last quater. I mentioned them all in my blog posts but I never dedicated a post specific to them. So, to come back and break them down feels very humbling as I review the quarter.

I always knew I was ambitious with these goals, especially as I started the quarter with a new job the second week of the year. While the money situation in Q4 was a little worrisome without knowing when I would find employment, having that extra time every day was magical. I was able to go on walks most mornings, I had time to write every day, I had time to do things – besides read apparently.

So, I knew transitioning back into working and specifically chat was going to take some adjustments on my end. Especially when it came to writing after work. So, there were wins and there were some big misses this year.

G O A L ONE: Write 100,000 words between my romance novel and The Girl in the Hay Bale.

Good, better, best goals: 100,000/125,000/150,000

Well, I never really finished the romance book, I need to go back and do that, but I was publishing that novel on a platform called Kindle Vella, where you purchase by episode, like a serialized version. I kind of lost interest in finishing the book in February and then by March, Amazon made some very harmful changes for authors, so I don’t know that I’ll go back to that. I need to check to see what the TOS is on publishing that separately now that they’ve changed it.

In mid-February, I decided I wasn’t going to get to The Girl in the Hay Bale and transitioned to my next project, which I suspect will take about a year and a half, if I’m lucky. I’m not sure I am.

Overall word count for Q1: 59,864

G O A L TWO: Grow social media to grow my reader base.

Instagram good, better, best goals: 800, 900, 1000

Instagram Follower count at the end of the quarter: 742

Email good, better, best: 50, 100, 250

For a long time, I didn’t really know what to do with my email newsletter, bujt I think I’ve finally found a good set up for it, so I’m excited to really lean into here in the next half of the year.
Email subscribers: 30

G O A L THREE: Focus on taking care of yourself while you start your new job and get a daily score of 75 or better.

The reason I keep this goal even when I forget to give myself a daily score every day is because if I take the steps to take care of myself, it makes me better at everything.

Back in Q4, when I was not working, walking became a bit of a lifeline for me. I was a little afraid that walking would fall off once I got back to walking, and it did for a few weeks, but I’ve been sticking to walking 2-3 times a week since then and it feels good. Sure, it’s a workout, but it’s the only time I ensure thatI leave my house (remote work life).

I did go through some tough depression back in mid January into February, but I think that’s behind me. Maybe some winter blues, I’m not sure, but I’m feeling better than I did then.

Overall, the quarter could have been better stats wise, but I think I did all right given all the changes.