Day 25 | In a Rut

It had to happen. I've been through this countless times. Give it my all, stay mad-productive for weeks, then suddenly - dead stop. Stuck in a rut.

I can't get myself to be productive. Don't even feel like watching a movie or anything else I'd normally consider entertaining.

Why Now?

I have a theory. These periods stop me from burning out completely. Despite all my hustling since forever and ever, I've never suffered an actual burnout.

Unless you count these ruts - which I don't. Because they never last. The engine always starts back up.

I imagine a real burnout like puncturing a hot air balloon - a sudden tear that sends you plummeting to the ground. My ruts are more like turning off the burner for a week. Once the flame comes back, so does the lift.

The Cycle

My hot air balloon of productivity has flight cycles that last anywhere between 2 and 6 weeks, with much shorter rut cycles.

My standard rut cycle:

Feel fed up and bored
Can't get myself to do anything
Am a mess but won't fix it
About a week passes
Find something I actually want to do
Back in action

There always comes a time when I get fed up with my own fed-upness, bored of my boredom, and start functioning again.

I tend to face one common problem: the thing I end up doing then is often something new.

"Doing something new is great!" you might think. Unfortunately, you're wrong.

I've got unfinished projects piling up that could actually make money. Starting fresh when you should be finishing? That's so illogical - and yet often needed to kickstart me.

This Week's Disasters

I haven't followed my challenge rules at all. Hours and hours online. It's been bad.

Not that I've been completely useless. I somehow managed a few productive hours each and every day. But the frustration is building:

The Bank Loan Saga

I'm trying to get a loan from a huge, well-known bank. Their online form keeps spitting out incorrect values. Three days since I reported it. Still broken.

They have thousands of employees and can't get someone to fix this? Insane!

My bank account is shrinking faster than anticipated, and given how I don't currently have an income it's not so easy to find a bank that'll send dollars my way.

The Affiliate Link Mystery

Remember that $4.04 from last week? Dead silence since. Those links went from getting clicks daily to exactly one click all week. Despite over a thousand visitors.

I've decided to move away from affiliate links and set up display ads instead. Have applied for Google AdSense and haven't heard back yet.

The Social Media Circus

I want to set up social accounts with API access to promote my location site.

The process feels like driving a truck in William Friedkin's Sorcerer.

Pinterest: They want a video of my OAuth flow. For an app that only I will use to post from my own account! Currently under review.
Instagram: Made a Facebook account (required for Instagram API). Two minutes later... suspended. They wanted a video selfie. Sent it. Thirty minutes later... permanently banned. No explanation. Guess they don't like my face.
X (Twitter): The only adult in the room. Fifteen minutes to set up. Strict rate limits, sure, but it works without jumping through flaming hoops.

Not only do I have X up and running, posting photos and information from my location site twice daily - I also have three followers after less than 24 hours.

The Hall of Unfinished Projects

Let's move on to my list of shame:

Statistics website for popular topics (10% done)
Interactive coding entertainment site (25% done)
Food-related website (10% done)
Youtube channel performance tool (40% done)
Curated Amazon products site (75% done)

And there's a whole list of new ideas calling my name. An unopened can of worms. Can you hear them? They want out!

Will I stupidly start something new instead of finishing what I’ve got? Maybe. But if that’s what breaks the rut, so be it.

Current Numbers

Traffic update:

Language site: 6.2K monthly visitors (flat)
Location site: 3.2K monthly visitors (flat)
Film site: 338 monthly visitors (+47%)
Tool site: 23 monthly visitors (up from zero)

At least something's moving a tiny bit. Even if it's not my motivation.

You'll have to excuse me. Time to go bathe in more not-feeling-like-doing-anything. That water's getting stale.

Money made so far: $0

-Hank