A Year in Stats

As I write this section at the end of 2019, I'm reflecting on this past year and deciding what I want 2020 to look like. I hope by the time I'm finishing this post, I have some better words, better habits, and higher stats because I'm going to work on them all year long.

Stats as of December 31st, 2019:

• Facebook - 534 follows, 503 likes

• Instagram - 1255 posts, 1278 followers, 115 following

• YouTube - 7184 subscribers,

• Pinterest - 137.2k monthly viewers, 6.6k followers

• Goodreads - 304 ratings, 62 reviews, 9 followers, 127 friends

• Mailerlite (Newsletter) - 4716 active subscribers

• My website - 12.5k unique visitors in last 30 days (dec), 13.5k visits, 15.6k pageviews

• 2019 total business income - $1594

• 2019 total business expenses - $1359

• 2019 net income - $235

I don't want to just look at stats regarding my followers, though. I knew 2020 was a year that I wanted to make serious progress in all areas of my life - work, faith, fitness, health. So I went ahead and tracked a few more things:

• Average hours of sleep per night - 7 hours and 30 minutes

• Average bedtime - 9:47 pm

• Average wake up time - 5:17 am

• Average steps per day (with my phone on me) - 3749

• Average amount of coffee per day - 40oz (two full travel mugs)

• Average amount of water per day - 38oz - yikes.

• Total workout time per month (Dec 1 - 31) - 2.2 hours (this is intentional workouts, not just being active for a day, but actually getting dressed and following some kind of workout routine or going running)

• Weight as of Dec 31 - 123lbs

Lastly, the most important part to me. I asked my husband to describe me over the past month in 3 words. I gave the examples; productive, happy, overwhelmed, angry, sad, excited. He chose:

Stressed, Unfocused, Well-Caffeinated

Ah sweet, optimistic, blissfully ignorant Steph... Little did we all know, this pandemic threw a wrench in some of our best plans for the year. Work got so incredibly busy and my stress levels hit a new high during this year. I've had to find a lot of ways to cope with the work and adjust a lot of our routines.

Stats as of December 31st, 2020:

• Facebook - I deleted my Facebook page.

• Instagram - 1328 posts, 1226 followers, 89 following

• YouTube - 7809 subscribers

• Pinterest - Unknown monthly viewers, 6731 followers

• Goodreads - 304 ratings, 62 reviews, 9 followers, 128 friends

• Podia (Newsletter) - 4736 active subscribers

• My website - 8k unique visitors in last 30 days (dec), 10k visits, 13k page views

• 2020 total business income - $2736

• 2020 total business expenses - $557

• 2020 net income - $2,179

This year I deleted Facebook and I changed my Pinterest and Instagram back to a personal account from a business account. And, here are the stats I consider a bit more meaningful:

• Average hours of sleep per night - 7 hours and 33 minutes

• Average bedtime - 9:21 pm

• Average wake up time - 4:53 am

• Average steps per day (with my phone on me) - 5133

• Average amount of coffee per day - 16oz

• Average amount of water per day - 56oz

• Total workout time per month (Dec 1 - 31) - 7.3 hours (every other day almost perfect, a couple extra rest days for the holidays. I worked out about 30 min each session while following YT videos)

• Weight as of Dec 31 - 126 lbs

Again, I asked my husband to describe me in three words. Honestly, I was hoping for improvement here, but given the things that happened this year, I’m cutting us all some slack.

Stressed, Inspired, Tired

Let's be honest. This year was tough, but it was also really wonderful in a lot of ways. I got two separate raises at my day job. My husband started working at my job as well and got a raise mid-year. We paid off two car loans, a credit card, and three student loans and also bought our first house. We painted the kitchen cabinets, installed new sinks, painted 8 different areas in the house, built a desk space, built shelves, installed flooring, did A LOT of yard work, and cleaned up a lot of small details in the house.

I stepped back from social media and simplified my business down more than ever. I played with my daughter more. We enjoyed being outside more. We adopted a puppy. We started going to a new (and wonderful) church. Our prayer life grew a lot.

It wasn't a bad year by any stretch - it was certainly a busy one.

I hope as we all step into this new year, we grow, in whatever way matters to us most right now. Going into 2021, I hope to step even further away from technology and start a garden at our home. I want to start running again and spend more of my days outside. I want to read more books from different genres than I would normally reach for.

Whatever your goals are for this new year, I wish you the best and I encourage you to track your progress.

If you like stuff like this, you can check out what I'm working on RIGHT HERE. Happy 2021!