My Quarantine Challenges: Breaking Out Of My Former Self

In response to @TheyCallMeDan 's #WhenCoronaEnds initiative, I wrote about how my life had gotten a bit of track. Or, if I'm completely honest, A LOT!

The last few years were tough, both financially and personally. I used to run a very successful internet marketing business, which I sold off some three and a half years ago, and that's when things started to go south, real fast.

I took a few financial hits and somewhere along the line I started to put off things, big plans I had that just weren't ready, or maybe I wasn't ready, and procrastination became the norm.

I need to break out from my current pattern of thought and behavior and there's no better time than now!

I Needed This Push

I want to thank @anomadsoul because I really needed a push to actually write down everything I have been thinking since quarantine life began. I have made some big plans and big decisions, but writing them down in this post will certainly help me with accountability.

My Current Situation

I live in Zagreb, Croatia and I am currently spending 23 hours a day in a small apartment with two other family members. An hour a day I spend either buying some groceries or taking a discreet walk in my neighborhood. Things in Zagreb are especially tense since we had a series of earthquakes just at the beginning of the quarantine.

I spend my time reading, writing and watching TV shows and movies.

My Plan

I want to use this opportunity strategically, and build up my internet marketing business again. I want to have enough money to finance some projects for Hive that I think would be very beneficial for the blockchain, as well as very profitable for me. Also, I want to use every day as an opportunity to sharpen my writing skills and to get as much reading done as I can. Accumulating Hive is also on my list of priorities. So, posting on Hive every day would be an absolute must for me.

My Goals

1) Making Money On Fiverr

I am a seller on Fiverr and I am offering writing services there. I had my first sale of $20 yesterday. My goal is to make an average of $40 per day in the next 30 days, and if successful, try for $60/day in the month after. The Fiverr income would allow me to pay all the bills and have the freedom to power up all the Hive I earn. By the third month, I plan on offering five different Fiverr gigs (I am at three right now) and hoping on hitting the $100/day mark. That would allow me to also finance some Facebook ads for my online business.

2) Making Money With Email Marketing

The Fiverr income would help me finance and set into motion my email marketing business. This is similar to the business I previously ran. My first goal for this is to write website copy and email sequence materials for each of niches I plan to target. By May 1st, I plan on having all the materials for my keto/fasting website written, and by May 15th, all the materials for the personal development website.

I will use Namecheap for domains and hosting, and ConvertKit for email marketing.

By May 15th I want to have enough money for at least a small ad campaign on Facebook.

3) Reading Every Day

One of my biggest accomplishments in life is the fact that I have read over 1500 books in the last twenty years. However, I have been unusually unproductive in the last six months.

My goal is to read at least two chapters of a non-fiction book every day, plus make notes (when distilled, post to my @bookclub account) and to read fiction every night instead of watching TV. This is a daily goal, so should be easily tracked. My hope is to re-instill in myself the reading habit and have it grow strong enough so that I don't break it when quarantine life officially ends.

4) Write Every Day

I write every day, so not all that much should change on that front, but I do want to be more specific in my goals. My daily goal is to write at least one post for Hive, one piece of marketing material for my websites and any other writing for Fiverr that I need to do.

5) Get Up At 5 A.M. Every Morning & Meditate

My most productive period of life was when I was writing my internet marketing newsletter back in 2010, and I used to wake up at five in the morning and meditate for half an hour. I would usually do a ton of writing after that, basically bursting with inspiration, and by 10 A.M. my work day was done. My daily goal is to wake up at 5 A.M., meditate for half an hour and start writing before anyone else in my apartment wakes up.

So, these are my goals. If I revise them or update them, I will post an edited version here. Wish me luck!

All the best, my dear Hivers!

Joe