J0elsuf's Daily Income And Accountability Journal

[j0elsuf]

So I got the idea of doing this from another community I was part of that was about overcoming distractions and escapism.

Since I had to pay for that community and don't have to pay for this one, I figured that I may as well do this journal here instead.

So the point of this journal is for me to track how much money I am making and what I am doing to improve my income or at least get me to stay focused on my income goals.

My escapist activities that prevent me from doing better in my vocation/finances are the following:

-Commenting on stuff, including getting wrapped up in this very board: Something I want to hold myself to is to not comment on anything except here. So no youtube comments, no dicking around at another board, no screwing around on other threads here, none of that. Just this thread and that's it.
-Watching adult films/scrolling through online dating: I meet a lot of women through online dating and I watch adult videos for entertainment as well as to inspire me to date more attractive women, but this often gets out of hand and I need to back off on it.
-Going down dumb rabbit holes on the internet: Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed about my financial life/vocation, I'll leap down rabbit holes on youtube or something just so I can get the anxiety out of my system. Not only does this not get the anxiety out of my system but it makes me more anxious lol. So I really need to stop doing this.

So these need to be micromanaged a lot. I also do really stupid action faking, such as...

-Watching/listening to educational content and doing nothing with it: I'll be honest, this gets worse than adult videos. Cuz with adult videos I'll watch for like 10 minutes then I'm done. But watching/listening to good stuff and doing nothing with it is something I can do (and have done) for hours. Literally hours.
-Fantasizing: There is so much stuff I want to do and I'll visualize the sales coming in but do nothing to make this kind of thing happen, often because I'm afraid I might mess something up. So instead of taking action I'll just fantasize about the result I want.
-Giving good advice that I don't take myself: This is tied to my escape behavior of commenting on stuff. I'll go on an entrepreneur youtube video or something and comment to someone who is struggling "just make the content/apply to the gigs as best you can without a second thought. You can always improve so don't worry about it." Then I fail to do the exact same thing myself. That is action faking over 9000.

Something I want to do in this journal is to track every time I escaped, every time I action faked, and allow you the Fastlane community to call me out on it and give me ideas on how to improve.

Of course I'll also track my income, which comes from three sources:
-Uber Eats: This is the main one, about 3/4 of my income. A goal this year is to not need to do this so much for money since my car hates it lol.
-Writing jobs: 1/4 of my income. I want this to be 3/4 of my income by my 39th birthday (June 29th).
-Selling my own content: I don't have income from this yet, but I have made so much content. I've written 6 or so books on certain mental health topics with my niche being men who have been sexually assaulted. I also work with men who consider themselves involuntarily celibate. Those are my target markets. I do coaching and have an idea for a membership but I have no idea how to set all this up. I mean I made websites and stuff but that's about it.

I'm also going to track certain things I want to do every day. Here are those metrics:

-Wake up relatively early, a bit before 9: I usually go to bed at about 1 in the morning or so. I've tried going to bed really early and getting up super early, but it never works out well. I usually drown in escapism when I do that. My best days usually see me getting out of bed at 8:30 in the morning or so.
-Do productive things while waiting on Uber Eats requests: One of the worst things I do is waste time while waiting on Uber Eats requests and boy does that take away from my ability to build my business. So instead, I want to do productive stuff, like look for writing gigs or something.
-Apply to at least 5 writing gigs: If my goal is to replace Uber Eats with writing gigs, I'm going to need to get my name out there. I may up this to 10 but we'll see. I get sent a list of organizations who are looking for writers pretty much every day so doing this is not difficult. Its just a matter of applying and plugging in my resume. I may even buy some more connects on Upwork but from what I have seen, writing upworkers are now getting paid less than minimum wage for the stuff they do. Seriously, Upwork should have never charged freelancers to bid on projects. But its whatevs.
-Do some physical activity before bed: This doesn't need to be insane, it's not like I'm forcing myself to lift heavy weights at the gym for an hour every day (as fun as that may be, which it is), but I do need to do something. Like today I did 200 push ups and 200 squats. That will suffice.

This is going to be the year where I finally make way more than slave wages. For practically my whole life I thought that was all I was worth. I'm changing that now.

 

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[j0elsuf]

Here is my first entry.

Day 1

Income from Uber Eats: 114.38

Metrics I hit

-Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: I was on the road doing Uber Eats pretty much all day today so there were no wait times.

-Do some physical activity before bed: 200 push ups and 200 squats after Uber Eats

Metrics I missed

-Apply to at least 5 writing gigs: Couldn't do this because I had to move all the stuff from the living room of my apartment to my room. I forgot that someone moved in and I was gonna do that for him. If I didn't do that, I would have applied to the gigs. No worries, I'll apply to 10 tomorrow.

-Get up before 9 in the morning: Didn't do this either, I got up a little after 10.

It kinda sucks not being able to do my writing in my living room anymore. The couch was way more comfortable than the chair I have in my room. Guess I'll need to manage.

There's a one-bedroom place right behind my complex that doesn't cost too much more than where I'm at now. I should be able to take over someone's lease there soon this way I can have a place to myself again.

I'll do more writing than Uber Eats tomorrow since I'll be watching my buddies bowl at a tournament for most of the day. I'll be bowling in it myself Sunday. I'll finish up my writing assignments and apply to gigs while watching them.

Also tomorrow's Saturday and I usually run a 5k every Saturday so there's that.

 

[George Appiah]

Good luck with your pursuit.

And remember, my (imaginary) big cat and I are watching you here from an African jungle, ready to pounce on you the very moment you even imagine giving up on your pursuit.

 

[LightHouse]

This is a really interesting thread.

A couple of things here.

1.) Daily you write about more things you missed than you achieved ... why is that? Are your goals set to high for you at your current state? (remember what you do consistently is most important)

2.) You write about things you've missed and a resolve to do better then next day, but you've not yet written HOW tomorrow is going to be different. So you are approaching the problems in the same state that you got into them.

Let me repeat in a better way "You don't solve problems in the same state you created them"

Unless you are committed to not watching youtube tomorrow, then why set your expectations on something you have a high probability of not succeeding on? (The fix here is when you finally decide to commit to that... you will do what is actually needed to stop watching youtube... you don't need any fancy methods. This will also be clear to you when you are finally mentally committed to it )

3.) I think you've talked about it already, but if you had all the time back from UberEats, couldn't you split half that time learning better writing and practicing, and the remaining time expanding and selling more writing which seems more scalable than your alternative?

4.) Are games a problem for you? Particularly FF? (let's address real underlying foundational things here if so)

5.) where do you want to be in 5 years... or even 1 year? What does life look like if you could plan, prioritize, and execute everything perfectly?

 

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[j0elsuf]

Alright, a lot of stuff to answer but I'll do it. These are good questions and observations.

Daily you write about more things you missed than you achieved ... why is that?

It's a way of getting me to dislike it so much that I prevent doing it. It's a slow process for me since I've lost all faith in any kind of resources that could possibly streamline this. Sooooo I'll have to just keep goofing until I get so sick of goofing that I stop that particular mode of goofing.

Are your goals set to high for you at your current state? (remember what you do consistently is most important)

No. In fact, they aren't high enough. Again, there's gonna come a time where I will get very sick of selling myself short. Just takes me longer than most to get it.

You write about things you've missed and a resolve to do better then next day, but you've not yet written HOW tomorrow is going to be different. So you are approaching the problems in the same state that you got into them.

I'll admit, it's difficult for me to do that without being a perfectionist about it or attacking myself for not being perfect. Something I struggle with is attacking myself for not doing better...which makes me do worse. I feel like this is why I approach problems in the same state that caused them. Guess I'm so afraid of my own shadow that I don't want to enter an even worse state (which I'm actually capable of doing: Kiwifarms and 4chan (especially /pol/ haha) are just sitting there waiting for me to dick around on them for 5 hours a day lol

Unless you are committed to not watching youtube tomorrow, then why set your expectations on something you have a high probability of not succeeding on?

I don't really have an issue with watching youtube...it's getting into comment wars on youtube that I struggle with.

I think you've talked about it already, but if you had all the time back from UberEats, couldn't you split half that time learning better writing and practicing, and the remaining time expanding and selling more writing which seems more scalable than your alternative?

Wish I could do that, but Uber Eats is my solid income stream...at the moment. But yeah as soon as I can make just as much doing Uber Eats from assignments, I'll start doing that. That day is coming VERY soon too!

Are games a problem for you? Particularly FF? (let's address real underlying foundational things here if so)

Not anymore. I can go days without playing video games. When I do play video games I play maybe an hour a day. And now I've committed myself to stream myself playing them on my youtube channel this way I'm at least making some content while enjoying my hobby.

Be real honest, it's pr0n and online dating that are a problem for me. Longest I've gone without those is like 72 hours then I'll self-destruct. That doesn't happen too much with video games. High sex drive problems lol

where do you want to be in 5 years... or even 1 year? What does life look like if you could plan, prioritize, and execute everything perfectly?

I want to have all my debt paid off in 5 years and either living out in the country away from all the insanity here in the US or living Southeast Asia somewhere.

By 2022? I want to be making some progress on my student loans.

As well as what life would look like if I could plan, prioritize, and execute everything right? I could write like a 20000 word book on that lol.

 

[j0elsuf]

Day 5

Income from Uber Eats: 6.77 (started raining like crazy and I'm not about to do Uber Eats in heavy pouring rain)
Income from assignments: 35 (potentially 185, depending on if my work for my latest customer helps him or not; I don't charge for work that doesn't help anyone, not my style)

Metrics I hit:

-Physical activity before bed: 5k. Got a decent time given how awful it was outside, a little under 29 minutes. This was WITH me going to fast food joints all week to work because of how noisy my apartment has become too. Damn.

-Finish at least 2 assignments or apply to at least 5 gigs: Depending on whether my work actually helped my new customer or not, I did as many as 4 assignments. 2 were done for my cheapo customer.

Metrics I missed:

-Wake up before 10: I woke up a little after 10. Overcast/rainy weather in the morning just makes me so freakin tired. I could have slept in until 1 in the afternoon if I didn't force myself up.

-Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: Didn't do Uber Eats and I wasted a little bit of time watching wrestling documentaries just because I was nervous about this new customer.

So here's what happened last night. My new customer hits me up. I tell him that I'm nearly done with the work and I described it to him. What I described isn't what he wanted. So I was pretty much back at square one today.

And because the work I charged him for wasn't gonna help him any, I certainly wasn't gonna charge him for redoing stuff.

Am I approaching this the right way? Or am I being way too principled and selling myself short?

I'm just not the type to just charge no matter how good or bad my work is, not my style. If my work sucks, I don't want to get paid for it.

I mean if this client DOES like what I did I will charge him. But if he's like "this sucks, change it," I'm only gonna charge for work that he accepts and likes.

Kinda weird I've been doing freelance writing for close to 5 years now and I still feel like I'm a complete noob. It's the kind of thing where I never feel like I know enough. Kind of annoying to deal with tbh.

 

[j0elsuf]

And, do/would you still let your clients use your writing even if they don't like it, on the basis of "it sucks, but I need some content so I'll use it anyway"?

Yes. But they DO need to still pay me for it.

I ask how do you evaluate whether the client likes your work or not? Do you ask specific questions or do you try to get a feel for it from their response?

I just wait for their response. I literally ask them if they like it or not.

I'm extremely direct in my communication no matter who it is with.

This, in turn, allows them to be direct with me without any penalty.

Like last night, I told the customer "if there is anything you want me to change, let me know."

Turns out he liked the outline I gave him but not the script.

Simple, easy direct questions and answers.

Being passive-aggressive is for the cowardly and I'm not a coward.

 

[j0elsuf]

what would happen if you deliberately went to youtube and started writing a comment - then delete it and close the tab...

open another youtube tab, start writing comment, delete it, close tab

repeat 5x a day

wonder if that would help?

That's kind of what I do. I actually do that way more than 5 times a day haha. More like 10 or 12.

The former 4chan sh1tposter in me is NOT easy to get rid of lol.

 

[j0elsuf]

IMHO : one channel is better, but best to ask the bigger YouTubers in the group. also, I'm sure they would tell you not to rely on youtube only, that's violating the law of control (they could shut you down overnight and you would lose all your income)

Well currently my YouTube channel has gaming content, wrestling content, and resources for Incels and men who have been sexually assaulted. So all of those under one channel makes no real sense.

I also want to make a channel with bowling content and I know for a fact that wouldn't gel well with the other stuff on my channel.

Also yeah, I have other stuff other than YouTube channels for sure. Got a few blogs and websites too.

Also Uber Eats and freelance writing stuff.

Altogether I have three sources of income:
-Uber Eats (WAS about 75% of my income, now it's closer to half)
-Writing assignments (getting closer to half my income but in 2020 it was a quarter to a third of it)
-My content (like 1% of my income cuz I don't have a big following yet)

My goal is to get enough writing/editing assignments in my queue to where I don't need to do Uber Eats at all. Then I can make money from my content.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

If this was a decade ago and was pushing 30 instead of pushing 40, I would do exactly that. Would probably do Uber Eats for like 10 straight hours, do writing stuff until 2 in the morning or so, go to bed at 3, get up at 7. Back then I was able to operate pretty well on just 4 hours of sleep. Not anymore lol.

But I definitely need more sleep nowadays, I can feel it. Also I am not a morning person at all. Getting up before 7 would require me to probably get to bed at 8 or 9 at night, and that is when I am most effective with my writing.

When getting up between 9-10, I can go to bed at about midnight, which seems to be the sweet spot for me. I just can't bring myself to fall asleep any sooner than that. Trust me, I've tried. For example, if I get into bed at 10 at night or so, it'll take me a couple hours to fall asleep. If I get into bed at midnight, I'm out within 10 minutes.

I did try getting up that early a couple years ago. Resulted in me needing to take 3 to 4 naps a day just to prevent myself from randomly falling asleep. Also started drinking Monster drinks just to stay awake too. If this sounds like a rationalization, so be it.

I CAN do regular Uber, but prefer not to. I'm trying not to get the many variants of COVID19 that are now being spread all around my city. Doing regular Uber would pretty much guarantee that, since my city is full of nothing but college kids who not only demand to sit in the front seat but also don't wear face coverings.

I understand. I don’t want to hijack your thread (you seem to be making good progress btw) but do you look at your phone right he before sleeping? That definitely makes it hard to fall asleep; I have the same issue.

There was a good discussion about caffeine started by @MTF too. Caffeine really sticks with you longer than people think (and I do love coffee).

Just some ideas. You seem to be making progress!

edit: as for being 40, my grandfather is 80 and is still CEO of our small business. He is there early every day, 6:30 am. He says he loves being at work, but sometimes jokes he just doesn’t want to be at home where my grandma can gripe at him.

Edited for relevance

 

[j0elsuf]

No post today? @j0elsuf
Everything good?

I typically take Thursdays off from writing and driving just so I can measure what I have done for the week as well as do other stuff: Bowl, play video games, other stuff. This way I don't do the same stuff over and over and over and things stay fresh.

 

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[j0elsuf]

Day 2

Income, Uber Eats = 84.29

Metrics I hit

Wake up before 10 in the morning: I got up at about 9:30. Was going to get up earlier but the store where I wanted to get my new phone from didn't open until 11 or so. So I slept in a bit.

Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: Uber Eats didn't stop today at all, and the deliveries paid really well. I did Uber Eats during the afternoon rather than the morning since I had to run a whole bunch of errands (do shopping, look for a new phone, practice for bowling tournament tomorrow) during the day.

Physical activity before bed: Practiced bowling a bit.

Metrics I missed

Do at least 2 assignments or apply to at least 5 gigs: I've actually been writing in my blog more than anything since I'm kind of burnt out on doing assignments. I'll definitely work on them when I'm on the road tomorrow, however.

So I was actually eligible for an upgrade to a new phone anyways, may as well take advantage of it. A new phone will cost me $100. Not too bad. Dude at my phone store said they will be in on Monday.

May or may not check in tomorrow since I will be on the road bowling. If I do check in it will be pretty late at night probably.

 

[j0elsuf]

Day 10 - ALMOST cracked and broke the streak. But I saved myself. Started a comment then deleted it. Anyways...

Income, Uber Eats = 54.89
Income, assignments = 48

Metrics I hit:

-Physical activity before bed: Got some bowling practice in for my tournament this weekend then ran a 5k right after. Couldn't finish running the 5k tho, but I still completed it. Walked 2 laps after running 3. It's all good. Probably because I had a couple drinks and a pretty massive lunch after I bowled.

-Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: For some reason, Uber Eats has been on fire the last week or so. It's insane. However, it's a lot of volume but really small orders without an expected tip. Only did Uber Eats for a couple hours today though.

Metrics I missed:

-Wake up before 8:30: Got up at about 10. This was intentional since I want to stay up late so I can prepare myself for an all-nighter where I do a massive stream on my YouTube channel before heading out to bowl. That'll be tomorrow night.

-Do at least 2 assignments or apply to at least 5 gigs: Only got one hour of assignments in. I showed my customer what I did so far, he should like it.

So tomorrow is my "freestyle whatever" day then I leave to bowl Friday morning. I'll try to check in here when I'm out of town but we'll see. I tend to not access the internet at all on my PC when I'm travelling for bowling tournaments.

 

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[j0elsuf]

Day 2

Income from Uber Eats = Nothing. It rained like crazy all day. No way was I going to drive around all day in that.
Income from writing assignments = A little over $165

Metrics I hit:

-Wake up before 9 in the morning: I got up at about quarter to 9.

-Apply to at least 5 writing gigs: I applied to 10 to make up for yesterday

-Do some physical activity before bed: Couldn't run at the park because it was raining and my gym was closed by the end of the tournament. So I just went to the cardio room of my apartment complex and walked uphill for a bit. Not a 5k but ehh, it'll work.

Metrics I missed:

-Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: Well, I didn't do Uber Eats today. Also I kinda wasted the day just hanging out with my bowling buddies. Which was fun, but definitely not too productive.

Tomorrow I physically bowl in the tournament I was just talking about. So I'll be spending most of the day doing that. I'll still apply to at least 5 writing gigs as well.

Might also drop some money on Upwork connects to put some more proposals in there. We'll see. Don't know if I should or not.

I might squeeze in a little Uber Eats before and after I bowl but we will see about that.

 

[j0elsuf]

Day 3

Income, Uber Eats = $92.50
Income, writing assignments = $12.50

Metrics I hit:

-Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: Uber Eats was all I did until I stopped. Made a lot as well. Nearly $100 in a little over 4 hours.

Metrics I missed:

-Do at least 2 writing assignments/apply to at least 5 writing gigs: I did finish one writing assignment that was due today. After that I went on a date and that got me to take the rest of the day off.

-Do some physical activity before bed: Yeah, didn't do that either cuz of the date.

-Wake up before 9 in the morning: I got a little after 9. Gonna need to get up super early tomorrow in order to make back the money I spent.

I had another date tomorrow but I might pass on it. It really depends on how good Uber Eats is. If it's anything like today was, I'll be alright and I'll go. But if not, then yeah, it ain't happening.

 

[j0elsuf]

Day 2

Income from Uber Eats = 67.71
Income from writing assignments = 15

Metrics I hit:

Physical activity before bed: Weight room at my apartment complex, nothing new there.

Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: There wasn't any wait time in between requests so I did this too.

Get up before 9 in the morning: Did this, but not the way I wanted to. I woke up at 7 or so with one of my ears being completely blocked. It prevented me from falling back asleep. It's fine now, but we'll see if that's the case after I sleep tonight. Might need to do an earwax irrigation alongside my impending work physical. I was really sluggish today for sure.

Metrics I missed:

Finish at least 2 writing assignments or apply to at least 5 writing gigs: I did a little more than one writing assignment. I was so sluggish from undersleeping today that I didn't do as much as I wanted. Weak.

I did get the prize money from a bowling tournament that I competed in 2 months ago, however. Wasn't expecting that so that's nice.

I'll get on the rest of these assignments tomorrow. Hopefully I won't get woken up by anything crazy.

 

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[j0elsuf]

Day 2

Income from Uber Eats = 60.99
Income from writing assignments = 18

Metrics I hit:

-Finish at least 2 assignments or apply to at least 5 gigs: I finished 1 assignment and applied to 3 gigs, so I did a little of both.

-Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: Despite today being a holiday, it was still pretty busy. So it was back to back which is nice.

-Do some physical activity before bed: Instead of lifting weights, I actually got a substantial amount of bowling practice in. This was a little bit after I started doing Uber Eats for the day.

Metrics I missed:

-Wake up before 9 in the morning: Every now and then, I'll have weird dreams that I want to "finish," sending me back to sleep when I should be up and doing stuff. This morning was one of them. I didn't oversleep a lot, only about a half hour, but still.

All things considered, today was a decent day. The bowling practice went really well and I can't wait to take what I've been working on next time I bowl for real. Was decent exercise too since we bowled like 7 or so games.

I got more assignments added to my queue so I'll do what I can to knock those out tomorrow.

 

[BizyDad]

Yeah I'm just starting to realize that. It's sad but only five short years ago $2k a month seemed out of reach. This is what happens when you think you can't do better than an entry-level job.

I mean anybody can turn on Uber Eats and deliver stuff for 12 hours a day and make over $100 a day. Now that I know that, I want to do something a bit more rewarding that is just as fun.

I'll be honest, I don't have any idea of how to get past that level. Literally nobody in my life taught me any business/vocation skills, it's been nothing but trial and error for me.

That's only cuz maintaining my mental health was more of a career for me than any kind of vocation. Might come across as an excuse and maybe it is but that's just how things shook out for my 20s and most of my 30s.

Literally the only thing I know how to do is write. I know nothing else. And even with writing I don't think I'm that great.

Learning about the craft of freelance writing is fun, however. More fun than the stuff I usually do for fun like gaming and stuff.


I usually apply to about 5 a day. As of this month, I've applied to about 20 or so.

But I don't put in much effort and I do this to avoid being anxious. I usually just put in my info, give them my resume and my website and that's about it. Just like when I looked for entry-level jobs back in the day; just apply to stuff without a second thought. I don't bother with cover letters since I heard most who hire writers don't even read cover letters.

S'Funny, I used to do sales in my 20s the same way. I would immediately try to close within like 30 seconds into the pitch lol. Good god, I must have taken and left 15 or so different telemarketing and sales jobs during that decade of my life.

I want to learn about writing gigs and freelance writing but the more I learn, the more overwhelmed I get, the more I think I don't know enough, and the more action faking I do. So I figure the best thing I do is just apply to stuff, throw heaps of crap at the wall and see what sticks.

I'll be real honest, if I can't hack it in freelance writing by the time I turn 40 (18 or so months from now), I'm pretty much just gonna give up and go back to entry-level stuff since if I can't get it by then, it's clearly not for me.

So yeah, I kinda don't have a choice. But that observation tends to paralyze me under the pressure more than get me to take better action.

Oh wow. Ok. So that's where we're at. Ok. Got it.

So... Maybe you and me aren't so different. I mean, I relate to a lot of what you said, it took me back a bit.

But there is one way that I know we're different. I have never doubted my ability to learn whatever I need to learn to get to where I need to get to.

And I never set deadlines on myself for the learning. What is this b.s. 40 yr old rule? after that you're just going to work entry level jobs the rest of your life?

No. No. No.

You're better than that. If writing is your thing, dedicate the next 5 years of your life to becoming the greatest writer you possibly can be.

I applaud you for taking action instead of goofing around. The most important thing about being a writer is actually writing.

But there's a lot of free resources out there on how to hone your writing. How much are you educating yourself into improving your writing?

Do you want to be the kind of writer who writes novels? Screenplays? TV episodes? Sales copy? Technical manuals? Resumes for other people? Blogs? Reporting?

You're just getting started, and freelance writing is one step up from Uber eats. But you sound like you're ready to quit your fast lane journey on some BS 18-month deadline.

In an 18 months, you wouldn't have even gotten on the fast lane (hopefully you've read the books).

Fantasizing: There is so much stuff I want to do and I'll visualize the sales coming in but do nothing to make this kind of thing happen, often because I'm afraid I might mess something up. So instead of taking action I'll just fantasize about the result I want.

This is not such a bad thing.

Fantasies are the beginning of goals, goals become the beginning of plans, plans become the beginning of habits, and habits form the foundation for the rest of your life.

The key really is for you to figure out what your ideal fantasy is, what do you want your ideal day in your life to look like 10 years down the road? Then start taking steps to get there.

Your journey is already begun. You've achieved a relatively stable income stream. You're self-sufficient and confident enough to talk to many women, so you've got some things going for you. Build on that. Focus on your positives, you can run 5K. Start envisioning what that life 10 years from now is like, what kind of job are you doing or what kind of business do you have? What does your day-to-day look like? And keep taking steps towards that.

Read some more of the gold threads on this forum. There's plenty of people who have been where you've been and have gotten to financial independence.

Some do it in just a few years. Everyone has a different journey, everyone has a different struggle. But they're no better than you.

Keep your head up. Good luck. Hth.

 

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[j0elsuf]

Change your Channel Trailer. It looks creepy.

LMAO oh yeah I plan to, because yeah it SUCKS. Shot it 5 years ago. It had even more potato-fied equipment than the equipment I currently use! lol.

Yeah my channel is more than just jRPG video games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. I do wrestling related content stuff too, among other stuff. Gonna also do bowling content as well, especially coaching content as soon as I get decent bowling coaching certification. Nearly every bowling buddy of mine tells me that I'm a really good bowling coach.

I really want to put more time into the channel but I also want to put more time into my website and blog too. Add Uber Eats, bowling stuff, and doing writing assignments on top of that and all of a sudden I have no time for anything haha.

 

[j0elsuf]

Day 1

Income from Uber Eats = 95.14
Income from assignments = 100

Metrics I hit:

Productive stuff in between Uber Eats: Requests didn't stop unless I made em stop. Got all the available bonuses too!

Finish at least 2 writing assignments or apply to at least 5 gigs: Sooo...yeah. Last night I started another contract with a customer...who is paying me $100 per hour (actually only 80, since Upwork needs to make their money). Let's GO!! I also did some writing for my cheapo customer. I'm only allowed to work 6 hours this week for the new guy since I didn't want to rock the boat too much.

Work out before bed: Lifted at the weight room in my apartment.

Metrics I missed:

Get up before 9 in the morning: Quarter to 10 today. Guess it didn't really affect me too much but I'm still not impressed with my oversleeping. I'm gonna move this to before 10. I'm just not a morning person I guess.

Doing my writing assignments outside of the apartment really helped. I got a lot done in about 3 hours or so. Right around 2000 words. Not bad.

This new gig is amazing. Can't believe this customer is trusting me enough to pay me $100 per hour.

This does NOT mean I'm gonna stop Uber Eats however. What I want to do right now is do all I can to make sure tons of money come in my bank account so I can pay all these dumb cards off lol.

Gonna try and hit $200 tomorrow in between everything. I know it can be done. Just need to repeat what I did in Uber Eats, put in this hour for this new customer, then do just a little more in writing assignments.

 

[j0elsuf]

Day 2

Income from Uber Eats = 62.60
Income from assignments = 100

Metrics I hit:

Wake up before 10 in the morning: I got up around 9:30. My goal is to scale this to where I can reliably get up earlier. It seems like I can get up before 10 reliably so I should be able to work from that.

Finish at least 2 assignments or apply to at least 5 gigs: Did the 2 assignments. Doing work for this new customer is really exciting. I edited what I did last night and did some new stuff today.

Metrics I somewhat hit:

Do physical activity before bed: Attempted to run a 5k, but it started raining like crazy. So I had to cut it short. Bummer.

Metrics I missed:

Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: So today was pretty slow. I could have worked on assignments in between requests, but instead I wasted a bit of time driving around looking for a park that I could run at that is closer to the place I'll be moving to. I could have done this at a later time, during my downtime for sure.

Tomorrow's Super Bowl Sunday, and something I want to do to celebrate is do some streaming. I figure tomorrow would be a good time to do this.

 

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[j0elsuf]

It's been great reading through your progress dude!

I appreciate it. Doing this has definitely kept me on track when it comes to the stuff I do for work. I haven't taken an "unscheduled" day off ever since I started it and that's because I know I got people watching this thread who are gonna call me out lol.

 

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[j0elsuf]

How many hours do you work for UberEats and is the time the money worth it?

4 to 5 hours a day, from 10 or so until 3 or so.

Seeing as I get paid on average about $80 per day, it's worth it. Feels nice to just be able to "work" 4-5 hours a day (Uber Eats doesn't feel like "work" at all, I could do it all day if I really wanted or had to) and do other stuff right after.

Now if I had a lot more writing assignments to do that paid a lot more, I would ditch it altogether. But I don't have a lot to my name and I have A LOT of stuff to pay off. Don't have the luxury of ditching Uber Eats...yet.

But by the Summer I should be able to.

 

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[j0elsuf]

How much taxes do you pay for those 80$?

Next to nothing. For 2019, I paid about $400. But that was with me making about $50 per day. So it'll probably be way higher in 2020, we will see. I'm expecting to pay about $1000 for 2020 considering the stimulus hookups everyone's been getting and me earning a bit more.

Also I live in Florida which has no state taxes, so that helps

Maybe you can find a part-time job which pays you more

I'll be honest, I'll take the hit on pay if I can make my own schedule. I did take such a job last year (as a golf cart jockey at my buddy's golf course lol) because I was worried that the stay-at-home lite orders during April and May was gonna take Uber Eats away, but just two shifts a week drained me to where I didn't want to do ANYTHING after work.

The freedom I have of making my own schedule with Uber Eats gives me A LOT more energy to do writing related stuff. It's just how I'm wired. Not using this as an excuse or anything but I know myself too well. I have been more productive over the last two years following my own schedule than in two DECADES of working for the man.

When I was a shift manager at Circle K in my early 30s, the only thing I had energy to do after work was go to the gym or bowl. And I did A LOT of escapism. Porn, 4chan, Social Media, I would just jump on all of those after clocking out. ESPECIALLY 4chan and Manosphere/PUA/Incel communities (they're one in the same; PUAs = Incels leading Incels lol).

There are times where I would spend whole weekends on those; just go to the gym then bounce in between those places in between social media and online dating.

Making my own hours (even with something like Uber Eats) gets me to say "yo. You only have a set amount of time to do the stuff you need to do. Use it wisely. If you're gonna dick around, do it after you've done all your work for the day."

Consider what I've done over the last two years since I started making my own hours:
-Deleted all my social media (except Insta, once a month or something I'll pop in and see if I can slide into the DMs of the college girls I see on Tinder lol; I keep a list of all the insta handles these chicks have then follow/DM them at the end of every month)
-NO more 4chan, PUA, Incel, or manosphere communities. Not ONCE in the last two years.
-I only watch pr0n for like 10 minutes before bed and that's only if I feel like it (usually every three days or so). Back when I was working for the man, I would easily waste 1-2 hours binging it.
-Gaming? Only during downtime. And even then I'm making content from it. Compare this to when I was working for the man, playing 3-4 hours a day to de-stress.

None of this would be possible if I kept working for the man.

Hope this explains things a bit.

 

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[Lyinx]

Day 4 - NEARLY relapsed but didn't. Started writing out my comment but I deleted it.

what would happen if you deliberately went to youtube and started writing a comment - then delete it and close the tab...

open another youtube tab, start writing comment, delete it, close tab

repeat 5x a day

wonder if that would help?

 

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[Lyinx]

Well currently my YouTube channel has gaming content, wrestling content, and resources for Incels and men who have been sexually assaulted. So all of those under one channel makes no real sense.

I also want to make a channel with bowling content and I know for a fact that wouldn't gel well with the other stuff on my channel.

Also yeah, I have other stuff other than YouTube channels for sure. Got a few blogs and websites too.

Also Uber Eats and freelance writing stuff.

Altogether I have three sources of income:
-Uber Eats (WAS about 75% of my income, now it's closer to half)
-Writing assignments (getting closer to half my income but in 2020 it was a quarter to a third of it)
-My content (like 1% of my income cuz I don't have a big following yet)

My goal is to get enough writing/editing assignments in my queue to where I don't need to do Uber Eats at all. Then I can make money from my content.

Welp, that's a lot of subjects.. you good at all of them?
Or would it pay to focus on one and become an expert?

Jack of all trades and master of none?

Hate to be a doubter, I've never seen anyone with so many things going that is half decent at any of them, they are usually mediocre at best.

 

[j0elsuf]

What would happen if instead of waking up around 9, you woke up at 6 or 7, and instead of doing 4-5 hours of Uber eats, you did it for at least 8 hours a couple days?

If this was a decade ago and was pushing 30 instead of pushing 40, I would do exactly that. Would probably do Uber Eats for like 10 straight hours, do writing stuff until 2 in the morning or so, go to bed at 3, get up at 7. Back then I was able to operate pretty well on just 4 hours of sleep. Not anymore lol.

But I definitely need more sleep nowadays, I can feel it. Also I am not a morning person at all. Getting up before 7 would require me to probably get to bed at 8 or 9 at night, and that is when I am most effective with my writing.

When getting up between 9-10, I can go to bed at about midnight, which seems to be the sweet spot for me. I just can't bring myself to fall asleep any sooner than that. Trust me, I've tried. For example, if I get into bed at 10 at night or so, it'll take me a couple hours to fall asleep. If I get into bed at midnight, I'm out within 10 minutes.

I did try getting up that early a couple years ago. Resulted in me needing to take 3 to 4 naps a day just to prevent myself from randomly falling asleep. Also started drinking Monster drinks just to stay awake too. If this sounds like a rationalization, so be it.

I CAN do regular Uber, but prefer not to. I'm trying not to get the many variants of COVID19 that are now being spread all around my city. Doing regular Uber would pretty much guarantee that, since my city is full of nothing but college kids who not only demand to sit in the front seat but also don't wear face coverings.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

Day 0 - Relapsed by commenting on wrestling stuff. Ugh. But it didn't distract me completely, still did a lot of work. If it's any consolation, this was after I did all my assignments. Still not cool.

Income, Uber Eats = 34.86
Income, assignments = 120

Metrics I hit:

Wake up before 10: I got up about quarter to 10. Wanted earlier, but my body just said no. Maybe I need to sleep even longer? I'm pretty sure 7 hours is enough. Maybe I need to trim it to 5 again. Or up it to 10. Who the hell knows. I've always hated sleeping; its the one thing in my life that is never consistent for me.

Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: Uber Eats was ridiculously slow today. I was able to finish an assignment while waiting.

Finish at least 2 assignments or apply to at least 5 gigs: 1 gig, THREE assignments today.

Physical activity before bed: 5k. Decent time, too, 28:35. Not bad for someone who is still kinda overweight.

I'm going to try to get up really early tomorrow, but chances are good that I'm gonna need something that will wake me up. Won't be anything like a monster energy drink, though. Those are dangerous. Maybe a soda. We'll see.

Had a date tomorrow but it got cancelled. Good. More work I can do. I was actually going to get a serious bowling practice session in tomorrow before subbing for one of my buddies in his league. There's some stuff I want to work on. But after that, I'll get to work.

I promise that if you get on a more consistent sleep schedule, you will see your success explode 10x.

Just make yourself go to bed earlier when you aren’t tired. Set an alarm to wake up. It really works!

 

[j0elsuf]

Day 1

Anyways...

Income, Uber Eats = 74.19

Metrics I hit:

Do productive things in between Uber Eats requests: It was pretty busy today. They didn't stop until I made them stop. Tips sucked though. I did a little bit of Uber Eats yesterday too which I typically don't do. But I had an hour or two to kill.

Physical activity before bed: Weight room of my apartment complex. I'm stuck here for at least another month and am NOT happy about it.

Metrics I missed:

Wake up before 10 in the morning: I missed this by a millennium. Got up about quarter to 11 and I needed to force myself to get up. I could have stayed in bed for another 6 hours if I wanted to. I didn't want to do anything today at all.

Do at least 2 assignments or apply to at least 5 gigs: Neither. I didn't feel like doing any of that at all. I was too frustrated with what went down with my apartment. So instead of doing this I went to a show with one of my buddies and had a couple drinks instead.

Sooooo here's what happened with my apartment. Someone was lined up to take over my lease. I wanted to move out right before March and on Thursday, I was all packed up.

I was happy paying the sublease fee (which is one month's rent) but then they tell me I'm going to need to pay for the NEXT month's rent even though I won't be living there because they take a week to clean my room before someone can move in.

I told them that was alright, I'll just pay a prorated amount like I did when I moved in myself two years ago. Their response? "We don't charge prorated amounts anymore."

As a result, it didn't work out. THEN I had to tell my buddy who I was going to move in with that I couldn't move in with him, setting him back some cash.

It took every fiber of my being to restrain myself. I legitimately wanted to grab one of my bowling balls and throw it at everyone in that leasing office.

And now tonight! I'm hanging with my buddy, drinking a bit, trying to forget about yesterday's nonsense, and all of a sudden the digitizer on my phone starts messing up. This EXACT same thing happened with the EXACT same brand of phone (LG) last year before I had to replace that.

I'm just going to expect to buy a new phone every six months now. It's just part of the deal. I figured I would need a new one anyway since my phone isn't 5G and service is VERY inconsistent because of that, but still.

So I'm stuck inside this noisy a$$ apartment AND need to get a new phone. Bruh FML.

The result of all this was that I stress ate like you would not believe.

I pretty much transformed back to who I used to be a decade ago, eating out for every meal. I must have drank a gallon or so of soda over the last 48 hours. Went out for tacos three times over the last two days lol. Gained 5 pounds in like 3 days haha.

But...I have a plan. God damn do I have a plan.

First, now I know that my timing needs to be better when it comes to subleasing my place. I'll need to find someone again which is whatever, not difficult to do, but when it comes to physically moving out I'll need to line that up way earlier. Two or so weeks into the month or else I'm getting double charged. Now that I know that I know what I need to do.

If I CANNOT swing this, then I'll need to go to food joints in order to get my writing related stuff done. No worries. The taco joint that I hang out at every week serves smoothies for $2.50 after 4 in the afternoon. They close at 9. Everyone there knows me too since I'm a regular there. They don't care if I hang out there all day. They're used to it.

Soooooo after I'm done doing Uber Eats, I'll eat, hang out for a bit, then get myself a smoothie a little after 4. Then I'll just hang out there and do my writing/gig hunting, then leave right before they close. After that it's gym and check in here. Nothing to it.

OR if I run a 5k, I'll run the 5k about an hour after my first meal, then hit the taco joint at 6 or so. Either way, I'm good.

This means I'll need to do everything a bit earlier since I'll be ending my day earlier (9 instead of 10). Nothing to it.

If I can only use this apartment for downtime, so be it. That's just how it's gonna need to be and I'm alright with that.

Jeez, this was long. My bad. But I needed to get a lot off my chest. I'm hoping my new phone isn't gonna cost much. It ain't gonna be from LG, that's for damn sure lol.

 

[Harsha Vardhan]

I am also in the same place as you are in your life.
But it's good that you are taking ACTION.

 

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