Each month I stay accountable to my goals by reviewing the goal, the strategies, and progress. This month ended with a week-long vacation, and I outsourced some of my projects to keep up with the flow.

2022 Goals

Overarching theme: “Promotion”

2022 Goals

Goal 1: Who am I as a writer?

Obstacles

• A track record of success in the real estate niche
• Hard to break into new industries
• Not sure what will ignite my spark

Strategies

• Make time to “write for fun” and explore new topic niches

Progress: I brainstormed some ideas, but I haven’t done any fun writing exercises or sought work in a different niche. Grade: F

Goal 2: Increase my knowledge base and writing skills.

Obstacles

• Balancing the need to generate income and acquiring new skills. 
• Classes cost money, which eats into revenue.
• Finding the time

Strategies

• Read the free resources that come into my inbox
• Create a “learning” budget I can use on courses
• Dedicate a set time for industry reading and learning.
• Create themes for the month to focus the learning

Progress: I consistently made time to read the newsletters that hit my email inbox. I did some deeper research into different topics in the copywriting industry and I joined two copywriting social media groups. I did not spend my professional development budget.

Grade: B

Goal 3: Promote me.

Obstacles

• Time spent prospecting for new work
• Competition may be fierce
• I’m a shy person who doesn’t like to talk about myself
• Finding the byline writing opportunities on the immense World Wide Web

Strategies

• Launch a “how I edit” series on my website blog
• Find byline opportunities
• Make my website even easier to see my writing
• Dedicate a time to job hunt

Progress: I reviewed the pre-made “how I edit videos” and made a schedule to post the next two. I was pretty busy and didn’t seek any byline writing opportunities. Grade: C

Goal 4: Maintain income stream of [confidential) through 2021. That’s an average of [confidential] per month.

Obstacles

• Limited time to work
• Reduced need in the market for writers
• Managing my time wisely

Strategies

• Reduce Upwork dependance so more money comes to my pocket.
• Charge the rates I’m worth..
• Work at least 5 hrs on my working days. 
• Track each month how much time is spent writing on projects versus time invested and rate earned. 

Progress: I worked hard this month, but we had a week-long vacation at the end. I opted to outsource some work to make sure important tasks were done on time. Because of vacation, one client didn’t send any work until I was on vacation (despite being notified!) Still, even with the loss of income from some outsourcing, my July monthly income was 64% above the target. If I hadn’t outsourced, it would have been 95%. Grade: A