Chris Worfolk's Blog

Yesterday I edited the new videos for WAM. I also had time to encode them, upload and schedule them for release so the whole process is done now: they’ll roll out early next week.

I have done some work on preparing Running For Anxiety for public release. There is still a lot to do but at least I have the music catalogued now, which is essential for copyright reasons.

Speaking of videos, the mindfulness meditations are now live on WAM’s channel:

Today I created captions for the last three lectures of Get More Restaurant Customers, so the entire course is now done.

I took the two demo meditations from Mindfulness for Social Anxiety, added video introductions and uploaded them to YouTube. I’ve scheduled them to publish tomorrow and Saturday.

I fixed the problem with the eBook version of Skeptic’s Guide to Pregnancy and submitted that to Kindle. I’ve also done the iBooks version and submitted that, and created the print edition, too.

I’ve put together a to-do list for making Running For Anxiety publicly available. Finally, I’ve brainstormed ideas for expanding the mindfulness course range.

My video work has come back from Fiverr, so hopefully, I can sign that off today and start working on the editing tomorrow.

Book sales

Another notable event to mention: I seem to have gone viral. nixCraft posted about my book, How To Exit VIM, and it has had almost a hundred shares. Hashtag fifteen shares of fame. I’ve had a look on KDP and it has translated into increased book sales.

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The other big thing to report for today is that I attended a business networking event. They said that if you want to achieve something you need to add knowledge or add people to your life. I’ve been adding the knowledge, so this is my adding people.

As it turns out, when I went searching for one, I found that my Toastmasters friend Andrew Hodge was running one. I’ll blog more about it when I get time, but it was a really worthwhile evening and I look forward to attending again.

I’m pleased to announce the launch of my new book, Skeptic’s Guide to Pregnancy. Here is the blurb:

“Are you tired of reading pseudoscientific nonsense in pregnancy and parenthood books? If so, this book is for you. In it, author Chris Worfolk offers his frank assessment of preparing for parenthood with research references to back it up.

In this short book, you will find a mixture of cold hard, evidence-based facts, mixed with Worfolk’s brand of sarcastic humour and a collection of anecdotes to help you remember it.

Invest a few hours in reading this and avoid nine months of tedious and unnecessary planning, worrying and spending on things you don’t need. And, if all else fails, you will have enjoyed the ride.”

It has been two years in the writing as I have been documenting since we started Project Venla. This month, I’ve put the final touches to it. In some ways, it’s a victory for sunk cost fallacy. But I prefer to think of it as using Darren Hardy’s time/reward matrix.

In any case, it is officially out today and will be appearing in in eBook and print, via Amazon and iBooks, in the next few days.

Tough day today because teaching is rather relentless: 9 am to 6 pm. And I’m not bitter about Aaisha changing the font on our group presentation’s slide deck to Arial. It just makes me sad that there are people out there who care little for typography.

Anyway, progress:

I’ve captioned another four of the lectures for the Get More Restaurant Customers course.

I have rewritten my Udemy profile. When I originally wrote it, it was for the IT Contracting Master Class course, so it was entirely IT focused. The new profile discusses both my IT and psychology credentials.

I have settled on a cover for my new book, with the aid of input from my Facebook chums. I have put the eBook cover together, too, and tried compiling the eBook. However, I am having some technical problems at the moment and 10 pm is not the time to start stressing over troubleshooting. Not when there is captioning to do.

Yesterday, I started the book creation process for my new book. Thank you to everyone who has weighed in on the cover options I posted on Facebook; need to make a decision soon.

I also created captions for another of the lectures in the Get More Restaurant Customers course.

There were more course sales yesterday, too, and some more people requesting personal reports on WAM.

Productive day, today. I got through all of the biological psychology reading I wanted to, as well as working on my development psychology presentation and applying psychology portfolio. Plus, a bunch of non-psychology stuff:

I’ve added all of the new photos I wanted to my new book and printed out a new copy to give to my editorial review team (Elina).

I’ve filmed five new videos for Worfolk Anxiety. There is still editing to do. I have commissioned some new logo intro videos on Fiverr, so I am waiting for those to be done before I do all of the cutting up.

I’ve created captions for the first five videos of my Get More Restaurant Customers course.

Finally, I’ve also mocked up four cover options for the new book. Go check my Facebook feed if you want to vote for your favourite.

Hot off the heels of GO TRI Temple Newsam, I signed up for GO TRI Braham.

It was a different setup: less running and more cycling. The cycling was on the road and slightly less hilly. It was also more competitive: people turned up with racing bikes and separate shoes for running and cycling.

The competitiveness was most obvious on the road. I held my own on the run but I was overtaken by a lot of people in the cycle, even on the climb. The revised format made it a quicker course, though, and in the end, I finished 22nd, same as last week.

My time was 33:21

Despite being slow relative to the other athletes, I wasn’t too disappointed by my time. Despite being ill, I still averaged 24kmph. That is nothing to write home about if you are a cyclist. But, as I struggled to get my speed above 20kmph on the towpath, and kept telling myself I would be faster on clear roads, a little vindication did make me feel better.

The event was well organised and the results were online the same day.

Tough day, today. I spent the morning in bed ill, before getting up for a “test walk” to see if I was feeling good enough to compete in GO TRI Braham. The answer was probably no, but I pushed through anyway, which totally wiped me out for the rest of the day.

However, some progress has been made on the book. I’ve written the new sections that I am planning to add and have picked out a selection of photos to use. So, I just need to add those in and send them back for review and the writing phase is done.

Last week, I completed my first triathlon. Except it wasn’t a triathlon, nor was it anything like a real distance.

It was the “GO TRI Temple Newsam”, a novice event designed to get people into triathlon that is organised by the British Triathlon federation. It took the format of a duathlon with a 2km run, 5km bike and another 2km run.

Despite a slow start, leaving me dead last, I managed to pull up the pace and pass most of the field. In the end, I came home in 22nd position, out of a field of 58. Not a total disaster for my first event.

My time was 37:07.

Coming off the bike was hard. I did a duathlon training session on my birthday, and for the first kilometre, I had no running legs. That’s not a huge thing when you are running 10k, but quite a big thing when you are only running two.

It was also a good reminder that my descending on the bike sucks. I lost a few places coming down the hill because I was on my breaks and other people weren’t. Luckily, what goes down must come up, and I was a faster climber than everyone who overtook me.

Event-wise, I think it was good. It felt a tad disorganised at times, but that didn’t really matter: everyone knew what was going on and there were marshalls at all of the key points, so that is all you need.

My only criticism is that we were promised a secure transition area for our bikes. But, that turned out to be the middle of the field. Not a problem when you are riding a Halfords-own-brand bike, but if you brought your £1,000 bike (which is pretty common if you are into your cycling) you would probably be quite annoyed.

It was good fun and I would do it again. Especially when it warms up a little bit!

Yesterday was a write-off. Venla was ill again, so I spent most of the day looking after her. The time I did get free I spent at the gym and doing biological psychology reading. I think that means I have technically failed the challenge. Thanks, Venla.

But some of the work seems to be paying off. Four people requested a personalised report yesterday. It’s not currently hooked up to my mailing list, as I wanted to monitor people’s behaviour before I do that, but so far it looks like it could be a valuable source for reaching new people.

Paying customers are coming through on the Mindfulness for Social Anxiety course, too.

Today has been a little better in terms of work. I’ve queued up week 8 of WAM’s Running for Anxiety course and scheduled the email announcement, too.

Second, I went through my new book with my editorial team (Elina) and made all of the corrects. I still have some further editing to do but things are looking to be in good shape.