January started out relatively well, but then life and school intervened a bit. And although I am slightly behind for my 2026 goals, there isn’t anything out of my reach. The trick is not to stress about what didn’t get done and look forward to the things we want to do. Learn from the past, but don’t dwell on it.

Since January is wrapping up this weekend, let’s see if we can set up some goals for February that are realistic for our time schedule and abilities. Of course, I already know that I have a few hiccups ahead, such as everyone’s birthday and a few medical visits.

That’s part of the reason why I try not to stress about not hitting my goals. Between life, school, and work, it’s virtually impossible to guarantee time. The best I can do is manage what time I have for the things I want to accomplish.

Improving my personal relationships is one of those – and that requires an investment of myself.

What Are We Working On in February?

As my time is spread pretty thin, there’s only so much I can do during any given week. This is especially true as my classes are a bit more demanding of my time this semester. And although I love being a creator, getting my bachelor’s degree is more important.

So, what am I working on in February with the time I have available?

Getting Back On Track to Write One Million Words

I’m not too far behind in writing a million words this year. Despite the last couple of weeks being a bit paltry in terms of productivity, I can still dial up the effort and catch up without burning myself out.

Out of all the goals I have for myself in 2026, this is perhaps the most difficult. Not because it’s a lot of content to write, but because of a lack of time.

I average around 1100 words per hour, whether I’m writing a tutorial, video script, or part of my book. That means I have to write for nearly four hours per day (Monday through Friday) to finish with over a million words for the year.

Considering how much I do throughout the week, scraping together four hours is exceptionally hard, especially now that the semester started.

Using a bit of time during the weekends is helpful. Since writing is something I love to do anyway, it doesn’t really feel like “work” to publish a new tutorial, work on some of my book, or perhaps write a video script. Never forget, I am happiest at my keyboard, regardless of what I’m creating.

12 YouTube Videos (WriterSanctuary)

I am doubling down on YouTube videos for WriterSanctuary. The plan is to have a new video every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And if I can get the new videos to perform as well as my top two, then I would be on track to generate $200 per day from ad revenue.

Of course, that’s depending on uploading 50 videos that perform as well. When it comes to writing content, gaining the same amount of views is extremely difficult.

The top 10 videos for the past month consisted of six reviews and four tutorials. So, those might be the videos that tip the scales. I’ll still try Vlog type of content, but I’ve never had much success with those.

I researched what makes the top two videos work so well on YouTube. All I have to do is duplicate that process 50 more times. If that were purely my focus, I could see some decent income by the end of May.

Unfortunately, those types of videos take the most time to put together. And as I pointed out earlier, time is a commodity I just don’t have in abundance. Regardless, I WILL have 12 videos published in February.

8 Writing Sprints (WriterSanctuary)

I would like to get back to regular streaming for the writing sprints. They help generate views, watch time, a bit of ad revenue, and I dedicate them to writing my book. In other words, they kill several birds with a single stone.

Besides, I enjoy chatting with the viewers as we work toward writing something together or just hanging out.

The writing sprints are usually on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30 am to about 12:45 pm, Mountain time. Depending on how things develop over the next week or so, I’ll try to get them back on Fridays. However, I have a lot going on in the mornings on Fridays, so I don’t know if that will be realistic.

The sprints are nice because I can use them for virtually any purpose. Since I want to be done with my next book, Fury, that’s what I’ve been focusing on. Yet, I have used them in the past to play catch-up on blogs or client work.

That’s the beauty of writing sprints; you can use the time any way you see fit.

Schedule Author Interviews

I’ve been asked a couple of times this year about the author interviews. I’m working this weekend on getting everything set up again to start promoting authors on the channel. This time, however, I’m including a few new things for 2026.

Starting soon, I’m uploading clips of past interviews with links to the authors on YouTube Shorts and TikTok, not that I think TikTok is going to be around much longer.

I’m not sure if it’ll make a difference for my watch time or sales for the author, but any publicity is better than none. And I’d like to contribute as much as I can to helping others, especially indie authors.

Truth be told, I miss interviewing authors on the channel. I’ve met some great people and had a lot of fun.

This means sifting through hundreds of emails that I’ve accumulated over the past few months. I just hope those who submitted a request are still interested. It’s been a rough few months, and a lot of what I wanted to do got pushed back quite a bit.

Create Video Template (ColoradoPlays)

The next channel I want to monetize is ColoradoPlays. It’s the gaming channel that we really haven’t done much with outside of live streams on Sunday nights. Monetizing the channel will help me generate some revenue for Extra Life, the charity we support for Children’s Hospital.

The trick is to come up with an easy-to-make format that doesn’t take a lot of time to create. Perhaps a faceless channel with gameplay in the background while talking about a relevant topic would be the easiest. There are just so many of those out there.

What I might wind up doing is something I did for WriterSanctuary in the very beginning. Essentially, I used the blogs as a script and embedded the videos into the website. That way, people could read or watch the same content.

That’s precisely how I kicked off WriterSanctuary’s YouTube channel.

In any case, I want to have a solid plan for the future of ColoradoPlays and YouTube. It’ll have to be quick and easy while still being enjoyable or effective content. I’ll start with at least one video per week to test the waters.

Finish First Draft of Fury

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I need to finish writing the first draft of Fury. In this case, I am setting the deadline to the end of the month. That means I only need 540 words per day to meet the goal.

In reality, I can write that in about half an hour. So, if I can squeeze out at least 30 minutes every day, I could easily meet that goal.

This is probably the most ideal and most realistic goal on the list, especially if I use the writing sprints to work on the book. I actually think I’ll be able to finish the book long before the end of the month. But I’ve said that before. Many times.

So, let’s keep it realistic and strive for a minimum of 540 words per day in Fury. If I dedicate both writing sprints to the book each week, I’ll easily finish by the end of the month.

The Checklist…

To help keep me accountable, I’m sharing the checklist of the above goals. The idea is to share it publicly while using the idea of viewers seeing my progress to keep me motivated. After all, no one wants to highlight their failures, right?

Let’s see if I can commit enough to follow through with these plans. I’m also scheduling an update for the end of the month to break down how I succeeded or failed in these goals and what to take into the next month.

Despite the Chaos, Keep Moving Forward

No matter how bad things get, it’s always in your best interest to keep yourself moving forward. Sure, life is going to derail your efforts at every corner. But you don’t have to sit there, off the track, sulking about how crappy life is to you. It’s easy to get stuck in that mindset and lose yourself in despair.

Not everything is going to fall into your lap overnight. Real success takes time and perseverance. Even if things slow you down today, it doesn’t mean that tomorrow isn’t going to be the best day of your life. Learn from your mistakes and become the best version of yourself.

For instance, although I wasn’t as productive as I would have liked, I am still doing well in classes and moving myself closer to my end game. It’s often in babysteps, but at least there is forward progress. And in the grand scheme of things, that’s all that really matters.