December 2022 What’s on my plate? update

So much has happened this past month even though I didn’t do anything for the holiday rush—and I really wanted to but it’s hard with two toddlers who only want their mommy.

what I’m working on right now

  • A book on preparing for your trip to Japan and the phrases you need in Japan
  • New material for the こどものにほんご Japanese for Kids classes
  • Revamping the Kana course.
  • Studying to interpret at a court case.
  • Getting inspired by other book and course creators.

what’s in progress but not being worked on

  • A book that helps you hit your goals for learning Japanese
  • Flashcards and decks to go with the Japan/Japanese books
  • Moving my Japanese courses into the Learning Management System (LMS) on my website.
  • The Rewards program coming mid-2023
  • Updating Japanese lesson worksheets and compiling them into books.

what I finished in the last month

  • Caught up on sending worksheet feedback to my Japanese students.
  • Ironed out the rules for the Rewards progam. (Some of it is updated on the Rewards page.)
  • Finished uploading and writing out Beginner Japanese I and II courses in the LMS.
  • Set redirects from the original courses to the new courses.
  • Compiled list of students who should get access to the updated Beginner Japanese I and II courses.
  • For the 9 chapters of the studying Japanese book, reset 3 chapters (changed the size of the book) and finalized 2 chapters.
  • For the 15 or 16 chapters of the Japan trip book, reset 4 chapters (changed the size of the book), wrote draft for another 3 chapters.

conclusions/final thoughts

The work that goes into making an online course is no joke. That probably ate up 60% of my time. Well, that last 10% was just figuring out how to make AWS work for me so files could only be accessed through my site. It involved going through the Amazon firewall but I got it done.

I can see the goal posts, just not the goal line. And, that’s enough for me to keep going. It just gets tedious sometimes but I like doing all the things that I’m doing. That’s how I stay interested.

And, the people I’ve been listening to recently have really reminded me that I kind of lost my heart a little bit. I’ll tell you why next month, when it’s less crazy around here. Maybe I’ll write a post about who you can get some inspiration from too.

 
Hope your holidays have been great and wishing you a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!!

November 2022 What’s on my plate? update

I thought I should start doing this to see where I am 6 months and a year from now.

I do have a lots of to-do lists—anywhere from 5 to 10 at any one time O__O —but sometimes I forget to put dates on them. And, I wanted to share this with you so you could weigh in with what would be more useful to you. I can’t always change gears but I’ll seriously look at whether the priorities should be different.

what I’m working on right now

  • A book that helps you hit your goals for learning Japanese
  • A book on preparing for your trip to Japan and the phrases you need in Japan
  • New material for the こどものにほんご Japanese for Kids classes
  • Recording videos for my Japanese courses.
  • Giving my Japanese students feedback on their worksheets.
  • Studying to interpret at a court case.

what’s in progress but not being worked on

  • Flashcards and decks to go with the Japan/Japanese books
  • Moving my Japanese courses into the Learning Management System (LMS) on my website.
  • The Rewards program coming mid-2023
  • Updating Japanese lesson worksheets and compiling them into books.

what I finished in the last month

  • Reworked the Account Dashboard so it’s easier to find things.
  • Edited and uploaded Japanese course videos I had been able to record.
  • Reorganized and put up the framework for Japanese courses in the LMS.
  • Held a live Japanese Keyboard installation and troubleshooting event. (Did the marketing, automation and slides.)
  • Added a ‘holiday’ parameter to my automations in Mailchimp so they would pause when I triggered the holiday and turn back on without me doing anything.
  • For the 9 chapters of the studying Japanese book, wrote final draft for and set 3 chapters, wrote draft for another 4 chapters.
  • For the 15 or 16 chapters of the Japan trip book, wrote and set 4 chapters, wrote draft for another 3 chapters.

conclusions/final thoughts

. . . writing this, I’m realizing I knock out a lot more than I feel like I do. So, if you don’t think you’re making any progress, jot down your lists for this month.

Did you get more done than you thought? Would love to hear about it!