Every 3 months I take stock of what happened in my business over the last quarter and what I got done.
These reports track the growth of Side Hustle Nation and my latest projects and experiments.
I’ve chosen “progress” reports over income reports because I believe we can make progress every day toward our goals, and that’s something worth measuring and celebrating.
In fact, you could say I’m obsessed with progress. I even created a physical Progress Journal to help keep me on track.
I don’t think many of us predicted 2020 turning out the way it did, but it wasn’t all bad.
In the spring, I remember wishing for a “fast forward” button, a way to just get beyond the lockdowns, anxiety, and isolation.
But playing ostrich and putting my head in the sand wasn’t really an option — not for my family or my work.
I know most people are ready to put 2020 behind us for good, but there were some bright spots in the midst of all the craziness.
With that in mind, here were some of mine I’d love to share.
Is there a light at the end of the quarantine tunnel?
Or is it an oncoming train?
It’s Progress Report time!
Oh 2020 … I’m somewhere between “when will this year be over??” and “how is it July already??”
We’re still in a semi-strict social distancing protocol here in California. We haven’t seen family or most of our close friends in months.
Playgrounds are closed, as is the zoo and the library. Lots of conversations with our 4-year-old start or end with “when the germs go away.”
2020 started off so promising! And then around the beginning of March, the wheels started to come off.
And not just for me, but for the broader global economy — thanks in part to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Here in California, we’re “sheltering in place” until at least May, meaning no unnecessary trips out of the house. Day to day, that’s not all that much different from my last 11+ years of working from home.
It’s just I’ve got more company these days.
As we turn the calendar on a new decade, I thought I’d reflect back on the last 10 years.
To paint the picture of where the 2010s started for me, I was:
coming off a great year in business, and had high hopes for the future
about to get married
blogging at nickloper.com, on a bunch of random topics
$150k underwater in our house, which was a huge source of stress
Let’s see what happened next!
Progress report time!
Why go through this exercise?
It’s time to evaluate what happened over the last 3 months (and in this case to look at the year as a whole), to see if you achieved your goals, and to ask if you’re happier or otherwise better off than you were when you started.
So am I?
It’s a fun creative challenge to keep coming up with new episode ideas. I’m happy to see a nice little upward trend there in September.
Compared to last year, the show was up 22% for the quarter.
We’re closing in on 10 million lifetime downloads!
The biggest spike on the chart coincided with publishing this monster 7000-word post on passive income. It was a ton of fun to write and hopefully can be a pillar piece of content for years.
Even though there’s no “hockey stick” growth to report here, one bright spot is an increase in search traffic in June. Organic traffic was up 13% in June compared with May.
Progress report time! (It’s a tradition on the blog.)
Why Progress? Because that’s what it’s all about.
To me, progress means forward motion, or actively taking the steps to improve each day. It’s one thing we can control.
