Operating Habits: Building Your One-Person Creator Business One Habit & One Week at a Time
Week One: The Daily Content performance Tracker
In 2026, I’m working directly with 100 creators building real businesses.
I want to bring operating strategy, competitive positioning, and financial planning to a community that’s fundamentally different from my typical industrial and technology clients.
For the first 100 creator founders: Four 60-minute 1:1 advisory sessions for $95.
Context: My standard engagement starts at $10K/month. This isn’t that. This is me learning from you while helping you build something sustainable.
Limited to 100 spots. Message me with questions or to claim yours or just click below to sign up (sign up requires browser access):
Every Friday for the next 52 weeks, I’m publishing one habit designed to help you build a sustainable, profitable one-person creator business.
These aren’t productivity hacks or growth shortcuts. These are the foundational systems that separate creators who build real businesses from creators who create content and hope.
Week 1 is the foundation: The Daily Content Performance Tracker (Manual Version).
By week 52, you’ll have built a complete operating system. But we start here. With a spreadsheet. And your hands. Thank you for reading.
- john -
Before you automate anything, before you build dashboards or buy tracking software, you need to understand your business with your own hands.
You need to manually pull each day’s numbers. You need to enter them yourself. You need to see the patterns emerge as you write them down.
You need to be in the details and dirt of your business.
Why? When you track manually, you’re in the details. You see the nuance. You notice which posts actually moved the needle. You understand what “good” looks like before you try to measure it.
Most creators jump straight to software. They set up a dashboard, get overwhelmed by data, and never look at it again.
We’re doing this differently.
This week, you’re learning to be a data analyst of your own business. By hand. Every single day.
The discipline of hands-on understanding is what separates builders from drifters.
Time to build.
What You’re Going to Do
Every single day, you’re going to spend 5-10 minutes manually pulling your content’s performance from the previous day.
No automation. No API integrations. No software.
Just you, your platforms, and a spreadsheet.
You’ll log into each platform where you posted.
You’ll look at the analytics.
You’ll write down what you see.
Here’s what you’ll record:
Post Name — What was the post/content about?
Post Type — Was it a video, carousel, infographic, text, thread, etc.?
Platform — Which vertical did you post on? (LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Substack, etc.)
Impressions — How many people saw it?
Reactions — Likes, hearts, upvotes, etc.
Comments — How many people replied or engaged in discussion?
Shares — How many people reshared/retweeted/forwarded it?
Follower/Subscriber Growth — Net gain in followers/subscribers that day from this platform
That’s it. 8 data points per post. 5-10 minutes of work per day.
Why Manual Tracking Matters
You might think: “I should just set up a tool to do this automatically.”
Don’t. Not yet.
Here’s why:
When you manually pull your numbers every day, you’re forced to understand your business. You log into LinkedIn and see the real engagement numbers. You check Twitter and realize which posts flopped. You look at TikTok and understand what the algorithm rewards.
This is what I have done for the last eighteen months. By tracking these datapoints yourself, you see and feel what’s working. You learn to understand each platform a little better each day.
You see the pattern with your own eyes before any dashboard can tell you.
That’s the insight many creators miss. They let tools do the thinking.
They never develop the intuition.
Manual tracking forces you to become obsessed with your own data. That obsession is what builds the best businesses.
By the end of Week 1, you’ll know your platforms better than personally ever have.
By the end of Month 1, you’ll start being able to predict performance and you’ll know the platforms better than 99% of the creators on them.
By the end of Quarter 1, you’ll have the intuition to make decisions without needing a dashboard to tell you.
That intuition is your real competitive advantage.
And it starts with manual tracking.
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Why These 8 Metrics?
Each metric tells you something different about your content’s performance:
Impressions = Reach. How many people did it reach? (Is your content getting in front of people?)
Reactions = Surface-level engagement. Did people like it enough to tap a button? (Is the content interesting enough to react to?)
Comments = Deep engagement. Did people like it enough to reply and continue conversation? (Is the content making people think?)
Shares = Virality potential. Did people like it enough to tell others? (Is the content valuable enough to redistribute?)
Follower/Subscriber Growth = Conversion. Did this content convince someone to follow you? (Is this building your business?)
Post Type = What works. Over time, you’ll see which formats get the most engagement. (Which formats should you repeat?)
Post Name = Documentation. You’ll remember what actually performed. (What was the common thread in winners?)
Platform = Efficiency. You’ll discover which platforms are actually worth your time. (Where should you double down?)
Together, these 8 metrics tell you exactly which content is building your business and which is just entertainment.
The Template You’ll Use
I’ve create a templated Google Sheet for you.
Access, make a copy and download here.
You’re tracking every post, every day, across all your platforms.
Step 1: Create Your Tracking Spreadsheet (10 minutes)
Create a new Google Sheet called “Content Performance Tracker.”
Or click here, make a copy and download the one I’ve made for you.
Add these 9 columns:
Date
Post Name
Post Type
Platform
Impressions
Reactions
Comments
Shares
Follower/Sub Growth
Make the header row bold and colored (so you can spot it quickly when you open it daily).
Save it somewhere you can access in 10 seconds.
Bookmark it. Pin it. Make it your habit.
Step 2: Set a Daily Tracking Time (1 minute)
Pick a time each morning to check your previous day’s analytics.
I recommend some time between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM.
Before you do anything else. Before you post anything else.
Before you check email. Before you plan your day.
Why morning? Because you have energy. Because you haven’t been pulled in 10 directions yet. Because it’s a ritual that starts your day right.
Add a recurring calendar reminder: “Content Performance Check — 6:45am”
Step 3: Open Each Platform (3 minutes)
Every morning, log into each platform where you posted yesterday.
For LinkedIn:
Go to your profile
Click on the post from yesterday
Look at the post details: Impressions, Reactions, Comments, Shares, Profile views
For Twitter/X:
Go to your Analytics tab
Find yesterday’s posts
Record: Impressions, Likes, Retweets, Replies
For TikTok:
Click on yesterday’s video
Check: Views, Likes, Comments, Shares, Follower count at bottom
For YouTube:
Click on yesterday’s video
Check the stats card: Views, Likes, Comments, Shares
For Substack:
Go to your recent posts
Click yesterday’s article
Record: Views, Likes, Comments
For Instagram:
Open yesterday’s post
Check: Impressions, Likes, Comments, Shares
(Track only the platforms you actually post on. You don’t need all of them.)
The point is: you’re manually checking each platform. You’re seeing the real numbers with your own eyes.
Step 4: Enter the Data (5 minutes)
Open your spreadsheet. Manually type in yesterday’s data:
DatePost NamePost TypePlatformImpressionsReactionsCommentsSharesGrowth1/31”Habits for creators”CarouselLinkedIn2,400156123+8
Type it yourself. Don’t copy-paste. Don’t automate. Type each number.
Why? Because as you type, you’re processing the data. You’re noticing patterns. You’re seeing which numbers are surprising. You’re thinking: “That post only got 12 comments? That’s low. Why?” Or: “8 new followers from one post? That’s good. What made that one different?”
That thinking is the magic.
Step 5: Write Down One Observation (30 seconds)
At the end of your tracking session, write one sentence about what you’re noticing:
“Video got 3x more engagement than carousel on TikTok”
“Long-form text underperformed on Twitter today”
“Morning posts get more comments than evening posts”
“That carousel about habits converted 8 followers—what made it different?”
“TikTok is 5x more efficient than LinkedIn for my audience”
Just one observation. One sentence. This is your pattern recognition starting to activate.
Step 6: At End of Week, Do a 5-Minute Analysis
On Friday morning (after you’ve tracked the week), spend 5 minutes answering:
Which post type got the most engagement?
Which platform drove the most follower growth?
Which post was my best performer? Why?
What should I do more of next week?
What should I do less of?
Write your answers in your spreadsheet in a “Weekly Notes” section. Nothing formal. Just thinking on the page.
By the end of Week 1, you’ll have 7 days of data.
You’ll start noticing:
Which post types get engagement on which platforms
Which posts drive actual follower/subscriber growth (vs. just vanity metrics)
The difference between viral posts and building posts
Which platforms are actually worth your effort
By the end of Month 1 (30 days of data), patterns become undeniable.
By the end of Quarter 1 (84 days of data), you’ll have genuine insight into your business.
You’ll be able to answer with confidence:
“What type of content actually builds my business?”
“Which platform should I focus on?”
“What’s my best-performing post type?”
“Am I converting viewers to followers/subscribers?”
“Which posts are pure entertainment and which are building audience?”
That understanding comes from manual tracking.
From your hands. From paying attention.
In 2026, I’m working directly with 100 creators building real businesses.
I want to bring operating strategy, competitive positioning, and financial planning to a community that’s fundamentally different from my typical industrial and technology clients.
For the first 100 creator founders: Four 60-minute 1:1 advisory sessions for $95.
Context: My standard engagement starts at $10K/month. This isn’t that. This is me learning from you while helping you build something sustainable.
Limited to 100 spots. Message me with questions or to claim yours or just click below to sign up (sign up requires browser access):
“This sounds tedious.”
It is. That’s the point.
The best founders obsess over their metrics. Manually. Every day. They know their business in a way that dashboards can never reveal.
If you’re not willing to be tedious about your business, you’re not serious about building one.
“Can’t I use a tool?”
Later. After you understand the game, you can automate it.
Right now, you need to learn.
“What if I miss a day?”
You won’t. Because you’ll have it on your calendar. And because checking your numbers will become addictive once you start seeing patterns.
But if you do miss a day, just pick up the next day. Don’t get hung up on it.
Don’t miss more than two days in a row.
“How long do I do this manually?”
At least 12 weeks. Maybe 26 weeks.
Once you truly understand your data—once you can predict which posts will perform before you post them—then you can consider automation.
But not before.
Your Challenge This Week
By Friday, February 14, 2026:
Create your tracking spreadsheet (9 columns, template above)
Track every post you publish this week (manually enter the data)
Record all 8 metrics for each post
Write one observation per day
Do a 5-minute Friday analysis (what patterns are you seeing?)
Reply here: “I’m tracking. Hands on. Week 1 starts now.”
That’s it.
Just this week: Create the sheet, set the calendar reminder, and commit to 10 minutes per morning.
Next week, we’ll show you how to analyze what you’re seeing and make decisions from it.
The creator economy is crowded. Everyone’s publishing. Most are failing.
Crowded markets often have low barriers to entry and high barriers to success. That means that your operating discipline is the variable that most determines your outcomes.
Why? Because they’re optimizing for the wrong things. They’re chasing viral moments. They’re hoping instead of measuring.
This 52-week series is about building differently.
Every Friday, a new habit. Every habit, a building block. By week 52, you’ll have the system that separates successful creators from everyone else.
You don’t need luck. You don’t need funding. You don’t need a team.
You need discipline. You need systems. You need data.
We start with data. Manual. By hand. This week.
Next Week: Habit #2
Habit #2: Weekly Analysis & Pattern Recognition
(Publishing Friday, February 14, 2026)
Now that you’re tracking daily, what do the patterns tell you?
Next week, we’ll show you how to analyze your weekly data and answer the questions that matter:
Which post types convert best on which platforms?
Which content is pure entertainment vs. actual business building?
Where should you focus your effort next week?
What should you stop doing entirely?
One week of data. Five minutes of analysis. Crystal clear direction.
See you next Friday.
Get the Template
Download: Content Performance Tracker Template (Google Sheet)
The spreadsheet is ready to copy. Just add your data.
Questions?
Comment below. I’ll help you set it up.
This matters. Let’s go.
One Thing
You’re joining a 52-week movement.
52 weeks. 52 habits. One complete operating system.
It starts with a spreadsheet and your hands on the data.
See you Friday with your tracker set up.
- john -
In 2026, I’m working directly with 100 creators building real businesses.
I want to bring operating strategy, competitive positioning, and financial planning to a community that’s fundamentally different from my typical industrial and technology clients.
For the first 100 creator founders: Four 60-minute 1:1 advisory sessions for $95.
Context: My standard engagement starts at $10K/month. This isn’t that. This is me learning from you while helping you build something sustainable.
Limited to 100 spots. Message me with questions or to claim yours or just click below to sign up (sign up requires browser access):
John Brewton documents the history and future of operating companies at Operating by John Brewton. He is a graduate of Harvard University and began his career as a Phd. student in economics at the University of Chicago. After selling his family’s B2B industrial distribution company in 2021, he has been helping business owners, founders and investors optimize their operations ever since. He is the founder of 6A East Partners, a research and advisory firm asking the question: What is the future of companies? He still cringes at his early LinkedIn posts and loves making content each and everyday, despite the protestations of his beloved wife, Fabiola, at times.
This is a really valuable suggestion, thanks John. I'll be implementing this into my work next week, and logging in each week. As I'm just starting out, so this advice is golden!
I’ll be doing this!