Monthly Round-Up, Discoveries, Achievements – February 2013

February is probably one of the more unproductive months of the year. Why? Because it’s that time were people are coming down from that ‘new years’ high; the resolutions have failed, everything’s becoming boring and lifeless – it’s a pretty lame month if you have a bad mind-set.

Luckily for me, and also a number of you readers – we have good mind-sets, therefore February is an amazing month – just like the other 11.

This is the first monthly report I’m doing, I thought about starting this a while back but I wasn’t sure if it was suitable for my blog. I’ve decided it is, for three reasons:

1. I want to show you that I’m improving month by month with habits and goals
2. I want to share things I’ve come across and learnt
3. I think it’s fun

 What I Achieved This Month

I achieved a number of things in February, and although I stuck with some bad habits, I think it all went pretty well.

Wrote my first ever guest post

This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Kevin Cole from Perform Destiny asked me to write in his series called The Best Kept Secrets, so I leaped at the chance.

Finished my speed-reading mini course

This was actually quite spontaneous. I’ve always been interested in reading faster, and did manage to increase my speed (after reading Tim Ferris’ post on scientific speed reading, which the series is based off) – so I thought I’d help you guys out by compiling a couple of videos on the subject.

Watch on YouTube

Compiled my 3-part series on motivation into a nifty PDF

I decided I would give away yet another free product; this time it was something I’d already completed, but wanted to re-cover the content. I copied and updated my 3-part series on motivation and compiled them all into a single PDF with new images.

This will be available in the resources section, I’ll let you know when it’s up via Facebook and Twitter (so you should probably like my page on Facebook; follow me on Twitter!)

Published my first ever digital product

This was probably the big thing that I achieved in February, it wasn’t a huge project (only a 15-page guide), but I really put my time and effort into it. It’s basically a short guide explaining how you can become more productive, sounds simple; is simple.

If you’re a subscriber to my email list, you may already have heard about this. Otherwise, feel free to enter your email in the sidebar and receive your copy.

 

What I didn’t achieve

There were a number of goals I didn’t achieve in February, and some tasks I never got done; all the more work for March though, right?

Unfortunately I didn’t post as much as I’d have liked to. My ‘article ideas’ document is piling up like crazy – reason for this is because I’ve been doing hours of research and reading to provide you with the best content I possibly can.

One of my goals for February was to improve the design of my blog by changing a lot of small things, possibly even unnoticeable. I want to provide the best experience I can for you, the reader – and so this is something that is high on my to-do list.

 

What I’ve read/watched this month

• Willpower: Why Self-control is the Secret to Success
• Matthew Woodward’s Monthly Income, Growth & Traffic Report – Jan 2013
• Seth Godin on Failing Until You Succeed

I’ve almost finished the book on Willpower, and quite frankly it’s been a great journey. Unlike most personal development books, it actually cites sources and studies, making the reader feel safer taking the advice presented. I definitely recommend this book if you have any interest in psychology and personal development.

I discovered Matthew Woodward’s blog through a Problogger post in February. The first post I read was his January income report, you’re probably thinking, ‘But you write about productivity?’ Yes, but ultimately I run a business as well (more than just this blog), so income and growth reports are a great motivation tool for me.

As an avid user of the internet, I spend a lot of time on YouTube (probably more than I should), occasionally there’s a STAND OUT video (see what I did?). This month I really enjoyed a video called Seth Godin on Failing until You Succeed, which is basically an interview with the man himself where he talks about running a business, dealing with failure, and more. It’s a must watch, 10/10.

What I’ve discovered this month

• This month I’ve wasted a lot of time on pointless things; don’t get me wrong, my life isn’t some sort of strict schedule, but there’s a limit. I crossed that limit. I guess it comes back to being conscious about your decisions, which is something we can all work on. Definitely a goal for this month!
• It’s best not to argue with people who have strong opinions, instead try and understand their point of view from a neutral position.
• Willpower is like a muscle, we can and should train it.
• I really can’t focus while listening to music.

 

How I Stayed Productive in February

As I was building the resources page for my blog, I came across an application called RescueTime It’s hands down amazing. RescueTime is an awesome tool (free, of course) that tracks the time you spend on computer applications and websites. You can visit the dashboard on the RescueTime website, or wait for the weekly summary which RescueTime sends to your email inbox.

I’d highly recommend checking it out.

Some of the other things that kept me productive were:

• The Pomodoro Technique
• HabitRPG (read my review here)
• Setting weekly goals and tasks

 

Statistics and Summary

This section is mainly going to show statistics (such as Google Analytics, RescueTime summaries), and a few other things.

My website growth

In February I actually had fewer visitors than January, a bit of a downside but the graph talks for itself. I had a lot of spikes in January, mainly from Reddit (which is really unpredictable).

Being productive has helped me have more consistent visitors, and you can see that towards the end of January, my visits have completely dropped off; whereas last month, they stayed consistent and actually increased.

Level of Productivity

I only came across RescueTime around the middle of last month, so I have nothing to compare this month’s statistics with. I’ve posted some screen caps below of how February went for me, also so you can get an idea of how RescueTime works (it’s 100% free, remember)

Efficiency Summary

I’ve always considered myself to be more productive in the morning, this confirms that. I dropped off in the weekends a little also. One of my goals for next month is to move up over 50% efficiency.

All Categories

Other than ‘uncategorized’, social networking is what I spend most of my time on. I’m quite disappointed at this as cutting down on social media has been one of my goals for a long time.

Promotion is part of social networking, but I definitely wouldn’t spend upwards of 10 hours a month purely on promotion.

That’s followed by games – I’ve been trying to justify playing the odd game here and there as a break, but often get carried away. I’d like to keep this outside of the top 5 in March.

So that’s it for my monthly round-up, I hope you enjoyed it! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or contact me via the contact page.

Again, if you want to pick up that free guide, enter your email in the sidebar, or visit here.

Until next time! Stay productive, live awesome.