Week 56 Retrospective

Achievement Unlocked: 2nd Product

Achievement Unlocked

Got my second revenue-generating product this week!

At the beginning of 2018 I came up with a list of goals for the year.

The first of these was:

  • Diversity: Have at least one more project generating some passive income

Well, I’m happy to report that as of this week I can cross that off the list!

Yep, last week I finally added a paid tier to Chat Stats and—much to my complete surprise—actually made a sale!

So it’s official—I now have two passive-revenue-generating products. Only time will tell what the long term plateau of Chat Stats’ revenue is, but its current lifetime revenue of $20 is a number that took Place Card Me five months to get to. So that’s fun.

Speaking of those 2018 goals, with this one checked off the list much earlier and more easily than I expected, they are now looking pretty good:

  • Growth: Get to $20k total or $2k monthly passive income by December
  • Sustainability: Make $80k of total income (including salary/freelance work)
  • Dynamism: Continue to reflect and iterate on my life regularly

Of these I think sustainability is a lock, dynamism is looking good, and growth is going to be a stretch. But that feels like an overall good place to be with almost 75% of the year still ahead.

Did I enjoy the week?

Yep. Nothing like the random thrill of earning $10 off of something you made to boost the spirits.

Am I happy with how I spent my time?

Yep.

Week 56 time breakdown

Week 56 time breakdown

Shipping the payment workflow for chat stats ended up being more complicated than I expected (it always is), and then I had to do some support/bug-fixing for my first customer, but I view all of that as time well spent. Like I said last week:

This week my #1 priority is to make it so that someone can make a payment on chatstats.co. If I achieve that, everything else will be gravy.

Gravy.

What’s up next?

Honestly, I don’t know.

Two things I consumed this week are sitting with me at the moment:

  1. Sam Altman’s excellent productivity post—where he asserts that deciding what you work on is one of the most productive things you can do (something I wholeheartedly agree with, but sometimes lose sight of)
  2. Patrick McKenzie’s excellent “Leveling Up” talk—where, among other things, he mentions that choosing a project based on passion and interest is among the most important things you can do.

So the unifying theme is to be more deliberate about what you choose to work on and why, and I’d like to dedicate some time and headspace to that this week.

Will report back where I land.

cheers,

—Cory