Zen Against The Machine

Blog

  • Weekly Update #008 – Bouncing Back & Social Media Backlogs

    Weekly Update #008 – Bouncing Back & Social Media Backlogs

    📆 Monday, 11 August 2025 | Meeting #008 | Social Media Business

    Welcome to your Monday Morning Meeting — the operational log of how we’re building a lean, focused creative business across three verticals: a history podcast, a photography YouTube channel, and this blog, Zen Against The Machine.

    Each week, we share the key results, decisions, and next actions that keep this creative company moving forward.

    A Week of Recovery and Rest

    Last week was about easing back into motion after a business trip and a stubborn flu. The early days were slow, but by week’s end, enough energy had returned to get moving again. It wasn’t a week of big launches, but it was one of quiet course corrections.

    🧘 01 Zen Against The Machine

    Last Week’s Goals: Maintain weekly meeting cadence, release July Monthly Report.

    Results:

    • Weekly posts maintained for 8 consecutive weeks.
    • Monthly Report deferred to 2025-10-10.
    • Drafted roadmap for channel goals and direction.

    Key Decisions: Prepare a long-form “Vision & Goals” post, release on 2025-08-25.

    This Week’s Focus: Maintain weekly meeting cadence; develop “Vision & Goals” draft to 50% completion.

    📚 02 The History Podcast

    Last Week’s Goals: Script progress only if time allows.

    Results:

    • No script progress (aligned with low priority).
    • 6 weeks behind original release schedule.

    Key Decisions: Move relaunch date forward from 2026 to 2025-10-03.

    This Week’s Focus: Minimal script work; priority remains on ZATM and The Photography Channel.

    📸 03 The Photography Channel

    Last Week’s Goals: Catch up on backlog, shoot one extra video.

    Results:

    • No shoots completed due to illness and extreme heat.
    • Minimal editing progress; editing remains a major bottleneck.
    • Backlog now at 2 episodes.

    Key Decisions: Start batching episodes to create a buffer.

    This Week’s Focus: Resume editing and shooting; build a 3-episode buffer.

    🚧 Risks & Blockers

    • Health recovery from recent illness.
    • Persistent editing bottleneck for YouTube content.
    • Compressed timeline for podcast relaunch increases September workload.

    🔭 Looking Ahead

    The next few weeks will be about building momentum and slack into the system; no massive leaps, just consistent output and a clear plan.

    📌 Follow the Journey

    If you’re balancing content creation, multiple creative projects, and the realities of running a lean media operation — you’re not alone.

    Check out our running series:

    See you next Monday. Stay focused. Stay building.

  • Weekly Update #007 — Barefoot, Still Building, and (Mostly) Hitting Social Media Goals

    Weekly Update #007 — Barefoot, Still Building, and (Mostly) Hitting Social Media Goals

    📆 Monday, 04 August 2025 | Meeting #007 | Social Media Business

    Welcome to your Monday Morning Meeting — a behind-the-scenes log of how we’re building a lean, focused creative business across three verticals: a history podcast, a photography YouTube channel, and this blog, Zen Against The Machine.

    Each week, we reflect on progress, challenges, and other lessons as we fight to grow something meaningful.

    📝 Executive Summary

    • 📅 Showed Up: 7/7 days
    • 🎙️ Podcast: Still on hold due to overload
    • 📸 YouTube Channel: Catching up
    • 🧘 ZATM Blog: On track — 7 weeks of consistency

    🌡️Personal Overview

    This week began and ended strong. Despite a business trip that took up 3 whole days (this is still a side hustle) I managed to get a lot done; including losing my only pair of shoes in a tropical storm.

    Unfortunately this was not enough to get all the tasks checked off the list. The return flight was not as smooth as hoped and I am now also battling a (not so) mild cold.

    🧘 01 Zen Against The Machine (ZATM)

    📅 Last Week’s Goal:
    Keep up the blog cadence, finalize the ZATM logo, and start outlining the July Monthly Report.

    ✅ What Happened:
    Seven weeks straight of Monday Morning Meeting posts — sometimes it is all about a long-term collection of small wins.

    Oh, by the way, do you like the new logo?

    🎯 This Week’s Focus:
    Battle the man-flu and release the July Monthly Report (dropping August 10?).

    📚 02 The History Podcast

    🎙️ Episodes Published: 0

    📅 Last Week’s Goal:
    Only work on the script if time allows.

    ❌ What Happened:
    No writing. Technically on target. We’re now 5 weeks behind schedule.

    🎯 This Week’s Focus:
    Pick away at the script only if higher-priority work is unaffected. Consider putting this entire podcast on hold till the end of the year and batch ~6 episodes before launch. To be determined.

    📸 03 The Photography Channel

    📹 Videos Published: 1

    📅 Last Week’s Goal:

    • Stay on schedule for August 3 upload
    • Upload the delayed video on July 29
    • Film 3–4 more videos during the business trip

    ❌ What Happened:
    Managed to shoot quite a lot of footage on the business trip but due to the crazy weather it may only be enough for one video. That video was supposed to be published on Aug 3 and is behind schedule.

    The July 29th video was published as planned and is the second best performing video so far on the channel. The video’s performance is far from what I expect it to be but I am making progress and that feels good. Real Good. There will be more details in the upcoming monthly report.

    🎯 This Week’s Focus:

    Catch up with the content schedule, and shoot at least 1 additional video.

    📌 Follow the Journey

    If you’re juggling content creation, anonymity, multiple creative projects — and trying to stay sane — you’re not alone.

    Check out our running series:

    See you next Monday. Stay focused. Stay building.

  • Weekly Update #006 – Burnout, Setbacks, & Zen: A Social Media Business When Life Gets in the Way

    Weekly Update #006 – Burnout, Setbacks, & Zen: A Social Media Business When Life Gets in the Way

    📆 Monday, 28 July 2025 | Meeting #006 | Social Media Business

    Welcome to your Monday Morning Meeting — a behind-the-scenes log of how we’re building a lean, focused creative business across three verticals: a history podcast, a photography YouTube channel, and this blog, Zen Against The Machine.

    Each week, we reflect on progress, challenges, and lessons as we fight to grow something meaningful — without burning out or selling out.

    📝 TL;DR

    • 📅 Showed Up: 4/7 days
    • 🎙️ Podcast: Still paused due to overload
    • 📸 YouTube Channel: Fell behind after injury and heatwave
    • 🧘 ZATM Blog: Only arm on track — 6 weeks of consistency

    🌡️Personal Overview

    This week began strong: Monday to Wednesday saw solid momentum, especially for the YouTube channel.

    But midweek, two things hit: a 37°C (99°F) heatwave and a dead air conditioner. Add a pulled back to the mix, and the rest of the week was spent lying on the floor in pain, staring at the ceiling.

    Hot out of the gates — then fizzled fast.

    With a business trip coming up (this is still a side hustle), the schedule’s taking another hit. The challenge this week: recover, recalibrate, and keep creating.

    🧘 01 Zen Against The Machine (ZATM)

    📅 Last Week’s Goal:
    Keep up the blog cadence and start outlining the July Monthly Report.

    ✅ What Happened:
    Six weeks straight of Monday Morning Meeting posts — a small but important win. This blog remains the project’s anchor, keeping everything (and me) grounded and accountable.

    🎯 This Week’s Focus:
    Finalize the ZATM logo and make real progress on the Monthly Report (dropping August 10).

    📚 02 The History Podcast

    🎙️ Episodes Published: 0

    📅 Last Week’s Goal:
    Only work on the script if it didn’t disrupt higher-priority tasks.

    ❌ What Happened:
    No writing. Technically on target, but morale is slipping. We’re now 4 weeks behind schedule. With the business trip incoming, the timeline might slip further.

    🎯 This Week’s Focus:
    Same as last week — pick away at the script only if higher-priority work is unaffected.

    📸 03 The Photography Channel

    📹 Videos Published: 0

    📅 Last Week’s Goal:
    Publish the July 27 video and film 3–4 more videos to build a buffer.

    ❌ What Happened:
    Momentum was there — until it wasn’t. The back injury killed productivity late in the week. Some editing got done, but not enough for a publish.

    🎯 This Week’s Focus:

    • Stay on schedule for August 3 upload
    • Upload the delayed video on July 29
    • Film 3–4 more videos during the business trip

    📌 Follow the Journey

    If you’re juggling content creation, anonymity, multiple creative projects — and trying to stay sane — you’re not alone.

    Check out our running series:

    See you next Monday. Stay focused. Stay building.

  • Weekly Update #005 – Social Media Progress, Podcast Delay, and Zen Milestones

    Weekly Update #005 – Social Media Progress, Podcast Delay, and Zen Milestones

    📆 Monday, 21 July 2025 | Meeting #005 | Social Media Business

    Welcome to our Monday Morning Meeting — a weekly recap of everything happening behind the scenes as we build a social media business with minimal gear, maximum focus, and plenty of lessons learned along the way.

    We’ll cover progress across all three content arms — the History Podcast, Photography YouTube Channel, and this blog, Zen Against The Machine — as we balance growth, setbacks, and the art of showing up consistently.

    📝 TL;DR

    • 📅 Showed Up: 7/7 Days
    • 📚 History Podcast: Still on pause — major delay due to overload
    • 📸 Photography Channel: Slightly ahead
    • 🧘 ZATM Blog: Maintaining this blog series as a weekly anchor

    🧘 01 Zen Against The Machine (ZATM)

    📅 Last week’s goal: Establish ZATM as our weekly blog anchor.

    ✅ What happened: This is the fifth official Monday Morning Meeting post. We’re documenting our progress in public, aiming to help solo creators, anonymous content builders, and creative solopreneurs learn from our process — and our mistakes.

    🎯 This week’s focus: Maintain the weekly blog cadence and start drafting the July Monthly Report for release on August 10.

    📚 02 The History Podcast

    🎙️ Podcast Episodes Published This Week: 0

    📅 Last week’s goal: Finish the script and publish the next episode by July 4.

    ❌ What happened: We’re now 3 weeks behind schedule. We underestimated the effort needed by 3x, and overlapping backlogs from other channels made progress nearly impossible.

    ⚠️ Lesson learned: Don’t force three projects through one bottleneck. Bandwidth is bandwidth. Time to prioritize.

    🎯 This week’s focus: Work on the script only if it doesn’t disrupt higher-priority work.

    “I realized this week that trying to force progress on every channel at once is like raking water. Sometimes, the Zen move is to pause.”

    — ZATM Weekly

    📸 03 The Photography Channel

    📹 Videos Published This Week: 1

    📅 Last week’s goal: Stay on track with publishing and prep future content.

    ✅ What happened: We’re slightly ahead of schedule. Momentum is strong — but only if we bank it.

    🎯 This week’s focus: Publish the next video on July 27 and shoot 3–4 more episodes to stay a month ahead.

    📌 Follow the Journey

    If you’re figuring out how to create content while staying anonymous (or not), juggling projects without burning out, or simply enjoy watching someone else stumble forward — you’re in the right place.

    Check out our running series:

    Until next Monday — stay focused, stay building.

  • Creating Slack – Running A Social Media Business

    Monday, 14 July 2025: Meeting #004 | Social Media Business

    Hey Team,

    In these weekly meetings we’ll go over what we’ve accomplished last week running our social media business — whether we met our targets for the week (some of them); achieved any milestones (very small ones); and discuss any other meaningful issues before starting the week.

    We are still playing catch up with some channels and fully caught up with others. Slowly picking up the slack.

    The History Podcast

    Last week in review:

    We planned to release the next episode for the History Podcast on July 4th. Our target was to finish the Podcast script and launch the episode on July 4th.

    We made progress on the script but underestimated the workload by a factor of three. This, compounded with the backlog from all channels, put us in a bad situation. We decided to pause all work until we catch up fully with our other channels. There are distinct disadvantages to taking on many separate projects at once, and we are encountering them on a regular basis.

    This week’s target: Finish the Podcast Script.

    The Photography Channel 

    Last week in review:

    We are fully caught up on our schedule. We released the last two episodes on time. So far they are not gaining the views we were hoping but they are enjoying above-average stats. So far they are ranked 2nd and 3rd in performance.

    This week’ target: Publish the next YouTube video on July 20th and shoot two additional episodes to make some slack in the process by being ahead of schedule for the next batch of videos.

    Zen Against The Machine

    Last week in review:

    We decided to document our efforts and progress running a social media business and post it in blog format. This is about the only thing we are managing to do on schedule these past weeks.

    We hope it will provide insight and  help Social Media Entrepreneurs (SMEs) grow their small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) by following out progress and learning from our mistakes.

    Since we were bogged down with the other two channels, however, we made no progress in the production of more in-depth content for ZATM.

    This week’s target: Maintain the schedule for the weekly blog post and start work on the July Monthly Report to be published on August 10th.

    If you are struggling with social media anonymity and want to follow our journey, check out our posts about Zen And the Art of Blogging, Zen and the Art of Podcasting, and Zen and the Art of YouTubing. 

  • Catching Up – Running A Social Media Business

    Monday, 07 July 2025: Meeting #003 | Social Media Business

    Hey Team,

    Already on the third Monday Morning Meeting. In these weekly meetings we’ll go over what we’ve accomplished last week running our social media business — whether we met our targets for the week (sort of); achieved any milestones (not really); and discuss any other meaningful issues before starting the week.

    We missed our scheduled targets last week and are still playing catch up, with limited success.

    The History Podcast

    Last week in review:

    We planned to release the next episode for the History Podcast on July 4th. Our target was to finish the Podcast script and launch the episode on July 4th.

    We made progress on the script but we did not manage to stick to schedule due to playing catch up with our other channel. There are distinct disadvantages to taking on many separate projects at once, and we encountered some of them from the start.

    This week’s target: Finish the Podcast Script, record the Podcast, and launch the next episode by July 11th.

    The Photography Channel 

    Last week in review:

    We missed our original deadline and spent all last week catching up. We managed to finish the episode and launch it on Sunday; one week late. So far it is not gaining the views we were hoping.

    This week’ target: Publish the second YouTube video by July 13th and try to make some slack in the process by being ahead of schedule for next videos.

    Zen Against The Machine

    Last week in review:

    We decided to document our efforts and progress running a social media business and post it in blog format. This is about the only thing we managed to do successfully these past weeks.

    We hope it will provide insight and  help Social Media Entrepreneurs (SMEs) grow their small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) by following out progress and learning from our mistakes.

    Since we were bogged down with the other two channels, however, we made no progress in the production of real content for ZATM.

    This week’s target: Maintain the schedule for the weekly blog post and start work on the Monthly Report to be published on July 10th.

    If you are struggling with social media anonymity and want to follow our journey, check out our posts about Zen And the Art of Blogging, Zen and the Art of Podcasting, and Zen and the Art of YouTubing. 

  • How (Not) to Stick to Schedule – Running a Social Media Business

    Monday, 30 June 2025: Meeting #002 | Social Media Business

    Hey Team,

    Welcome to our second Monday Morning Meeting. In these weekly meetings we’ll go over what we’ve accomplished last week running our social media business — whether we met our targets for the week (we didn’t); achieved any milestones (we didn’t); and discuss any other meaningful issues before starting the week (we need to stick to schedule).

    The most important thing to discuss this week is the fact that we decided to relaunch all three of our current social media business units by the end of the month. It is now the end of the month and we did not meet any of our targets or schedules.

    There were of course valid excuses, all of which are lies. Yes we got nailed out of the blue with unforeseen personal issues that too us of course. But such is life, and we failed to put in contingency plans or slack in our system. As a result we are significantly behind schedule.

    The History Podcast

    Last week in review:

    We planned to release the next episode for the History Podcast on July 4th. In order to do we set a target to finish the script by last week.

    We failed to make progress in the script editing. We may still be able to hit our deadline if we get our shit together and work our arse off for the rest of the week.

    This week’s target: Finish the Podcast Script, record the Podcast, and launch the next episode by July 4th.

    The Photography Channel 

    Last week in review:

    We missed our deadline. No real excuse for this. It was supposed to launch yesterday and we are not even close to completion. We recorded the VoiceOver but are still in the initial stages of the edit process. If we work our arses off today we may be able to launch today or tomorrow. This is already putting us behind schedule for the next YouTube video. This week will be excruciating.

    Need to batch a few YouTube episodes to allow for some slack in our content schedule to avoid similar problems in the future.

    This week’ target: Publish the first YouTube video by tomorrow and the next one as scheduled on Sunday.

    Zen Against The Machine

    Last week in review:

    We decided to document our efforts and progress running a social media business and post it in blog format. This is about the only thing we managed to do successfully this week.

    We hope it will provide insight and  help Social Media Entrepreneurs (SMEs) grow their small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) by following out progress and learning from our mistakes.

    This week’s target: Maintain the schedule for the weekly blog post and start work on the Monthly Report to be published on July 10th.

    If you are struggling with social media anonymity and want to follow our journey, check out our posts about Zen And the Art of Blogging, Zen and the Art of Podcasting, and Zen and the Art of YouTubing. 

  • Launching A Social Media Business

    Monday, 23 June 2025: Meeting #001 | Social Media Business

    Hey Team,

    Welcome to our first Monday Morning Meeting. In these weekly meetings we’ll go over what we’ve accomplished last week running our social media business — whether we met our targets for the week; achieved any milestones; and discuss any other meaningful issues before starting the week.

    The most important thing to discuss this week is the fact that we decided to relaunch all three of our current social media business units by the end of the month.

    The History Podcast

    We will release the next episode for the History Podcast on July 4th. 

    We already have a draft script currently being worked on.  It is over 30,000 words at the moment but it needs to be edited down to 27,000 words. That should be enough for three one-hour episodes; which will be published weekly. That gives us 10 work-days to finish the edit, record the episode, and edit the audio. Not a lot of time but do-able.

    This week’s target: Finish the Podcast Script.

    The Photography Channel 

    The next video on your YouTube photography channel is due on the 29th of June.  We delayed the release of this video longer than ever expected. The script is finished and we need to record the VoiceOver. Based on past videos this is going to take two hours of work. The main challenge will be to finish the edit on time. There is plenty of B-roll that needs to be shot. This is going to be a tight squeeze but this one is going live this Sunday, no matter what. 

    This week’ target: Publish YouTube video on Sunday.

    Zen Against The Machine

    We decided to document our efforts and progress running a social media business and post it in blog format. 

    We hope it will provide insight and  help Social Media Entrepreneurs (SMEs) grow their small-to-medium businesses (SMBs). 

    We will not rely on clickbait, we believe hard work and a systematic approach is the key to be successful in life and in business.

    This week’s target: Get this first weekly blog post online and (soft) launch our new social media business.

    If you are struggling with social media anonymity and want to follow our journey, check out our posts about Zen And the Art of Blogging, Zen and the Art of Podcasting, and Zen and the Art of YouTubing.