I’m Always Trying to Do Too Much
New year. New plan.
This year I am going to try something different, or at least that was the plan until yesterday. I was going to use 2023 as a year to focus on my writing by only publishing in my newsletters and Medium. I might have been able to sneak a book in there too, as I got acclimated to writing articles and essays that would satisfy my schedule for publishing.
It was going to be great, maybe finally getting to work on my book.
The crux of the plan was that if I started publishing every day on Medium, my earnings would go up, as well as earnings from my newsletters. That money was going into savings to use for my trip to see my kids in November and to finance a new laptop.
Then I realized I need money for more than that. I am still paying off my hospital bill until May, and we have no emergency fund, so I need to be making enough money to support my bills here at home.
The thing is, I have learned over the past four years that I cannot count on Medium to pay consistently. Every time I get a little ahead of the game, they change the policies and algorithm and my earnings go into the toilet. I cannot bet my future on Medium all of a sudden being fair with what they pay the writers, no matter what Coach Tony says about starting to pay for external views and being more transparent.
So, in addition to my writing, I have to add something that will consistently make me money over the whole year, like a side hustle, or a business. I have something in mind I’ve been thinking about for about 6 months now because I was reluctant to start yet another project.
But since I have simplified my schedule and shuttered most of the projects I worked on last years, like my personal YouTube channel (for now), and my blogs, I really only have four things on my plate:
A YouTube channel and weekly coaching sessions with my client and friend
Cringeworthy - The Newsletter
The YouTube channel I am working on with my friend will be one video a month (maybe biweekly), Medium will be daily, and the newsletters will be weekly too, so the workload is nowhere near impossible. If I wanted to have a side hustle, say 20 hours a week at most, I could do it easily, even with everything I have to do for my role as house-husband and father.
As for the side business, I will remain silent, because I usually tend to broadcast everything I do and if I fail, it is a huge blow to my motivation to back peddle and tell people I am a dumbass for bragging that I started another fruitless business. Let’s just see if I can sustain the new hustle and start making a little money before I go off and tell everyone about it.
2023 is shaping up to be a busy year, but not so much so that I will not be able to focus on my writing. After my business gets going after the initial setup, I will even have time to slowly write my book.
Sure, it would have been nice to only focus on writing, but I need to make money to get out of this hole I found myself in, and the only way to do that is to have some type of business, considering I am not able to work a regular job due to my severe mental illness.
Which brings me to my final concern. I have to always think about contingency for when, not if, my illness will throw an episode my way and I will be out of commission. I don’t like to be negative, but I have to think about the inevitable psychosis, depression, and anxiety.
My writing will be fine if I take a few days off, but if I start a side hustle, I need to make sure my clients are served while I am out-of-comission.
It is a fact of my life.
What do you think of the plans I’ve made?
Do you think this is doable - sustainable?