I thought about doing an April Fool’s post, but I’ve never really been a fan of the ‘holiday.’

I thought maybe what we need today is a little less foolery and a little more hope.

So. Today as I embark on the first day of CAMP NANOWRIMO full of hope to see a novel through to the end of the month, I’m also celebrating and embracing a challenge:

• MY DAD is doing Camp with me! He inspired today’s post with his comment yesterday, so this one goes out to him.
• Today I am posting my hope*writers bio on facebook. This is a huge thing for me because I have largely avoided all social media for the last SEVERAL years, and I’m about to introduce myself to a brand new community of online writers. I feel the love and support, but I also have a bit of stage fright. Wish me luck!

As this post might have my largest audience yet, let me take this opportunity to share a message of hope from me to you:

These LYRICS: are imperfect, but I’ve included my favorites :

 

Love possesses nothing
Nor would it ever be possessed
Love is love sufficient unto love
And you can figure out the rest

For those of you who have children…

They'll come through your womb but not be coming from you
They will be with you, but they do not belong to you
You can give them your love but not your thoughts
For they'll arrive with their own hearts

and lest we forget…

And think not you can direct the course of
Love itself directs the course of love
Believe not God is in your heart, child
But rather you're in the heart of God

…God is Love

I pray the thought gives you peace for the present and hope for the future.

 

xxxlinsey

I hope this finds everyone well, staying safe and healthy and busy doing the neglected things. My good wishes go out to you all.

This month has been a lesson in things not going as planned. I don’t think I’m alone there. However, good things have come out of this month too, and I’d like to take a moment to celebrate them.

• I met my March goal for this blog though, of course, it ended up looking different than I planned.
• I met most of my quarterly goals, which is more encouraging than I can say.
• I became 100% self-employed. Scary but exciting.

In the midst of this global crisis, good things are still happening.

I’m still writing. I don’t really know what else to do. Life goes on and these books don’t write themselves.

I have an idea I hope you’ll like for April.

As I said in my previous post about the NaNo Life, I’ll be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo again this April.

My project is BOOK 3, which is currently about a third written. I began this project back in 2016, plotting it meticulously in PREPTOBER and writing my heart out in that year’s November NaNoWriMo.

The characters, regardless of my efforts, threw out my plan and have insisted on telling their own stories. That is something I didn’t plan and didn’t know how to handle at the time.

Tomorrow I return to writing with abandon…no editing allowed…which is both nightmarish and exhilarating. I never know what’s going to come out when I just sit down to type, and these characters have surprised me more than once.

I think, instead of abandoning the blog this month, I will share some of what I’m doing. Would you like to see fiction samples? See more into the writing process? Something else?

You tell me.  

I had a request for the successes with my routine and how it is structured.

I know, right?

Yes, me.

I.

was asked to write about my routine.

You better believe it! Cause now I have one and it makes my life a lot easier. 

Guess what else? When it gets messed up, I feel it. Like a lot of you this week, I’m facing unanticipated time at home. I was supposed to be traveling. It was supposed to be my vacation week. Instead, I find myself at home struggling with all the feels.

In light of my recent canceled travel, and for those of you who may find yourself at home more than usual, I’ve decided to give you a peek at my routine.

This virus is affecting everyone. My trip has been cancelled and, like many people’s, my routine has been disrupted.  I struggle with creating a new routine from a broken one. I know I’m not alone in this. I also know there are people in the world dealing with bigger problems than we have currently. That’s ok. If this post helps even one person feel better about their unexpected time at home, I’m happy.

Very often 24 of my hours are spent at home so I have to break them up into some kind of order. I might as well be in control of that order.  The way I see things.

I can only take partial credit creating this routine. I’ve had a lot of help from an app called The Fabulous. I highly recommend you check it out if you’re in need of a routine. [Let me know if you want to know more about the app, but it’s pretty self explanatory.]  I even recommend the paid version though I’m not getting paid to say that.

You can be assured as soon as I can get paid to say something, I will say it. I’ll also tell you all about it.

Also, remember, I didn’t make this routine in a day, and I don’t follow it perfectly. It’a guideline.

My Week//Workdays: 4AM to 11PM

WAKE AT 4AM: READING OR WRITING

Some days it takes a while to wake up as you may imagine. Others, I spring out of bed ready to go. On those mornings it’s nice to have a task to go to with all that energy. Reading the things I have written or am planning to write (notes or outlines) can help propel me into the next hour. A book I’m already reading or something non-fiction can be just as motivating. If I’m not recovering from being alive, I’ll be reading or writing or planning. This first hour is free time for those three things, and I almost always spend them alone. 

WRITING AT 5AM 

I start working on my current writing project. For February it was this blog, and I did ok. For March it’s:

1. another work of fiction [officially BOOK 3] that needs to be about half written [I do NOT expect to finish it in March but may end up prepping it for April, which is Camp NaNoWriMo]  UPDATE: I’m definitely doing this one for Camp next month. My goal is FIFTY thousand words. I might be insane, but I have a lot of material already to work with. Very excited about it.
2. my thesis which desperately needs to be completed.
3. this and two other blogs [you’ll hear about them later].

That’s enough writing projects for me to pick one. I kinda like to alternate one month on just one project and the next month on multiple projects or whatever suits my fancy day to day. The NaNo Life works that way too. I hope that’s a future post…

At some point in this or the next hour I will usually talk to R on the phone.

EDITING AT 6AM

My editing project for the moment. These go on as long as they need to rather than alternating months. I just finished the second round of edits on my FIRST NOVEL so beta readers could have it. Now I’m proceeding to the next novel [BOOK 2]as of March 1st. I’ll be editing it for a while. I’ve not yet determined how long I need to finish, but I’m planning to be done with first round of edits by the end of June. That’s about the time I’ll pick up FIRST NOVEL again for final edits.

I am trying to get done with as much as possible before April, because that’s a writing month with Camp Nanowrimo, and there’s no editing allowed in writing months (April, July, and November). This is also part of the NaNo Life I plan to write about in the future.

WALKING AT 7AM

This is social time as well as exercise. I often get caught up on issues in the community, the weather report, and top news of the world all in addition to the physical and mental exercise. I am able to express myself and tell other people about my projects. It’s a place to complain and celebrate the daily little things. I love it.

ROUTINE @ 8:08

• STRETCH 1 MIN
• DRINK WATER 2 MIN
• MEDS CHECK
• MEDITATE 12 MIN
• SHOWER 12 MIN
• JOURNAL 12 MIN
• I FEEL GREAT TODAY 5 MIN [this is a declaration as well as a signal to  transition into work day stuff… so get coffee & notebooks etc. and head for the office//computer]
• BE GRATEFUL 5 MIN [I rarely have bad days when I stop to acknowledge my gratitude]
• CREATE A TIMELINE 5 MIN [plan the day]
• MORNING PAGES TIL 9AM [quick writing I do about my work day and what I’d like to accomplish. could be my feelings about the work and/or a pep talk]

WORK//EARN AT 9AM
WORK//EARN AT 10AM

Doing the work I get paid to do.  Depending on the project or the job I’m doing,  it can take a while for me to get settled, then I can focus intensely for a while before I need a break. For reference, I used to be unable to sit still for even fifteen minutes, and now I can do a 25 minute task without breaking focus. That’s a huge leap for me. If I don’t already have a project to work on, I apply for new jobs during this time.

ROUTINE @ 11:11

• STRETCH 1MIN
• CLEAN & TIDY UP 10 MIN
• POWER NAP TIL NOON [I also use this time to finish a cleaning job or work on a household project]
• BREAK//NAP AT NOON [I don’t always sleep, but I do always stop working]

WORK//EARN AT 1300
WORK//EARN AT 1400

Somewhere in here I will eat for the first time. I’m planning a post on the Intermittent Fasting method in the future too.

 ROUTINE @ 15:15

• DRINK WATER 2 MIN
• YOGA//WALK 20 MIN [I try to get some kind of movement]
• LOG MY TIME 3 MIN 
• ADJUST & RECOMMIT TIL 1600 

BREAK AT 1600

Alternately go back to work to finish early. Depends on the day and my needs. If I need the rest or skipped a noon nap, I might lie down for a while.

WORK//EARN AT 1700
WORK//EARN AT 1800

WRAP IT UP AT 1900

Finish. Plan the next day. Whatever needs to be done so I’m finished at 20:02

ROUTINE @ 20:02

• STRETCH 1 MIN
• LET GO 2 MIN 
• BE GRATEFUL 5 MIN
• GET INSPIRED 10 MIN [for tomorrow. plan tomorrow. or plan the writing project that’s coming down the list]
• MEDS CHECK
• FLOSS 2 MIN
• BRUSH TEETH 2 MIN
• WRITE TIL 2100 [this is the other dedicated writing time to my current writing project]

EDIT AT 2100

This is the other dedicated editing time for the current project.

READY FOR BED AT 2200

ROUTINE @ 22:22

• DARKER/QUIETER/COOLER 2 MIN
• JOURNAL 12 MIN
• READ 20 MIN
• MEDITATE UNTIL 2300
• LIGHTS OUT AT 2300

I’ve got a nineteen hour day going here and I think I’m handling it. Some days are better than others, and not every day goes according to plan. It’s nice to have an outline of the kind of day I want to have so I can get back on track for days things don’t go according to plan.

I’m as stable as I’ve been in years, especially for the season we’re in. I’m doing all the right things and some of the wrong ones, but whatever I’m doing seems to be working. It’s worth a shot, if you’re life is feeling a little out of order, to exert some control over it.

I’ll be getting back to this routine next week. I’m still treating this as a staycation week as much as I can. I’d love to hear your comments or answer any questions you have.

Until then, try to enjoy your time at home, be honest about your feelings, and start creating a routine you love.

remind your life who’s boss.

xxx linsey

I know some of you inwardly groaned at the title. Let me guess the reason:

1. either you can’t stand the idea of packing for anything, ever

2. or you think 4 days is way too long to prepare for any adventure.

Maybe both. Some of you can accomplish everything in this post in less time than it takes to read it. If you’re that person, not only do you not need my help, I don’t need help fixing my system. You have permission to stop reading. 

I hope you’re curious enough to stay.

I know one of you is at least AS paralyzed as I am by the thought, much less the activity, of packing for even the shortest trip. You may benefit from this.

Also my mom asked about it.

This just so happens to be the perfect time to write about my packing system because I am planning short term (2 days) and medium term (7 days) trips at the same time. I’m using the system for very different visits and the details are fresh in my mind. 

So now you’re wondering, why 4 days? Am I right?

Let me say first it doesn’t always take me 4 days. I’ve proven to myself I can do it quicker if I need to, but that’s because I have this system in place.

My system is really only 4 steps that can be completed in any amount of time you have.

As I said before, I used to be completely paralyzed by the packing process (it still makes me super anxious). It took hours or days for me to pack for even an overnight trip. I was horribly inefficient.

The problem was this: I couldn’t focus on the task itself (packing) without trying to do all kinds of other related but currently unnecessary jobs instead. Things like:

cleaning my house
waxing my eyebrows
re-organizing all my projects
doing. ALL. the laundry
painting my nails

Usually these things need to get done. Sometimes they need to get done before I leave. They do not need to get done while I am packing, especially not if it’s the day of or day before I’m supposed to leave. Giving myself at least four days cuts down on the distractions from packing, and I am also able to accomplish those other things on my mind before leaving.

Not to mention the fact of my exhaustion from all these extra tasks, anxiety about their various levels of completion, and supreme anxiety about all the things I was invariably forgetting or messing up because I couldn’t keep my mind on the task at hand. I was never sure about taking the right or enough or too many things. I would be sure I had forgotten something important and believe nothing could undo any kind of mistake I made.

See? Even after I’d done the dreaded packing part, my mind would not let it go and call it done. I would chide myself on taking so much time, doing so many unnecessary things, wasting my resources and energy. Pretty heavy stuff, huh?

So basically everything having to do with travel and packing had me an anxious mess of conflicting negative emotions instead of anticipation and excitement or ENJOYMENT of the trip itself. Plus I did usually forget something.

I devised this 4-part system that does two things for me:

1. allows me to focus on only one part of the packing process at a time so I don’t get overwhelmed

2. allows time to get all those other tasks on my mind taken care of

I’ve recently been reminded that anticipation or excitement and anxiety are really the same emotion. Our thoughts surrounding whatever it is influence how we feel. In other words, I can choose to replace my anxiety with anticipation for the fun I’m going to have and the people I’m going to see or meet. I can choose to keep myself calm about the packing process and direct my anxiety into energy.

Without further ado, here is my 4-part packing system:

PLANNING: (I’ve also called this PREPACKING in the past, so feel free to use that term) This is where I plan what to take, do any laundry I need to do, and plan my dogs’ care: I  make lists and send texts about the dogs and plan my finances.  This is the area that’s seen the most growth, if not improvement. Now I know it’s crucial to my mental health and anxiety level to know ahead of time what is going where and when. I may complete this step up to a week before I leave or longer if I need to plan a longer trip.

I dispensed with the term ‘prepacking’ because I put my PREPACKING list in my bullet journal.

That’s a fancy way of saying I have a list of things I take on every trip and a list of things I might need for this trip.

Here’s my list for EVERY TRIP:

MEDS

PJS

TOILETRIES

UNDERS

BOOKS

SHOES

ACCESSORIES

TRAVEL OUTFITS

I have a separate list for THIS TRIP:

#OF OUTFITS

SPECIAL OUTFITS/ACCESSORIES/SHOES

SWIM/COLD

ACTIVITY

WORK

PACKING 1: Now I have a general outline of what I want to take. If not, or it’s a short trip, the PLANNING happens at this stage. By this time I definitely know WHEN I’m going and WHERE, so I know what kind of weather to expect and what events I’m going to be attending. Ideally, I have a bunch of clean clothes and a list of anything special that’s going with me.  I can go ahead and pack the special outfits/accessories/shoes for those events, any swim or cold weather gear I might need for the climate, and workout/activity clothes. I should know how many outfits I need, including travel outfits, so I can pack the clean things and wash anything that’s not laundered. I can also pack the appropriate amount of underwear, any extra shoes, and my travel toiletries.

TRAVEL TOILETRIES is another area I’ve significantly improved. Basically I have an extra set of everything necessary (toothbrush, deodorant, bodywash, etc.) that I keep in a separate bag and use only for travel. Having the extra toiletries and bag has reduced the anxiety of packing, using, or forgetting these important items by 150% or more. All I have to pack is the toiletry bag, with modifications for flying.

PACKING 2: This is where I pack my reading books and work materials and anything else I don’t need before leaving. I take a reasonable amount of work I can expect to complete, then I usually take a little more as productivity encouragement. Depending on the length of the trip, I take an extra reading book in addition to the one I’m currently reading (which goes in last). Next is all the laundry items that weren’t clean before. If it’s the night before then I can usually pack my medicine and reading book

PACKING 3: This is all the necessaries in the bags, bags zipped, and everything ready to go. It’s bags in the car and things in the house settled. Like the dishwasher loaded and running or empty and the water turned off. Turning on the right lights and the gas off and the alarm on. All these things I have down to DEPARTURE.

That’s it. It’s as simple and as complicated as that. This system has made my life easier and travel more fun, and I’m happy for the opportunity to pass it along.

Happy trails.

 

What is a Bullet Journal?

an analog planner system. a work of art. a time capsule.

Any discussion of the bullet journal has to start with this guy and his method:

Frankly, I think that video is about as fascinating as watching paint dry, but you have to cover the basics first.

The Bullet Journal is a fast and flexible way to:
Track the Past.
Organize the Present.
Plan for the Future.

The Bullet Journal System Includes:
an Index
a Future Log
Monthly Logs
Daily Logs
Collections

You asked how I use mine, and the answer is something of a mix of methods.

Basics first.  Here’s why I choose to spend my time on a Bullet Journal:

• it’s fun.
• it’s handy
• it’s a way to organize my life the way I need it organized.
• it’s the opportunity to plan or create my life one day at a time
• it’s one place I can keep all my appointments, to dos, and lists so I’m not forever hunting down where a thing is written. It’s all in one spot. at least that’s the goal.

Here’s a peek into my process…

It’s very easy to get overwhelmed in the bullet journaling world, especially if you’re a creative. If you Google or Pinterest Bullet Journal or BUJO, you will see all kinds of amazing art coming out of these journals and their creators.

I fell prey to this overload when I first started trying to craft the perfect bullet journal. You may have noticed some things about it: First, it’s way too big to be practical and it’s completely unused.  Those things are not unrelated. Not all the spreads are blank, it’s true, but the majority are. Second, and what you can’t see: all the time it took to set up these spreads exhausted me too much to use them. I was constantly ‘behind’ with very little motivation to ‘catch up.’ I ended up with a book full of pretty spreads that never got used.

Let’s look at my second go. It went a lot better.

Just as there are creatives, there are purists and/or minimalists who only use their journals for productivity and planning. They dispense with the doodles and decorations and only use the bullet point system.

This is a spread from my birthday week several years ago and you can see it’s pretty straightforward. It’s not even colorful. For reference, this is not me trying to do the BUJO system ‘right.’ I never tried that because I recognized from the beginning its limitations for me. These are examples of how I used the BUJO as I was working out systems that serve me.

Fast forward a year or two and you get this one:

Same but different. Not a lot of detail or consistency, but it is color coded and has tasks and migration. You can see in both examples how I was moving into weekly spreads instead of daily logs. Like many people, I prefer the weekly log to a monthly and daily, though I definitely have the monthly task list and I’m now considering moving daily pages into my BUJO.

Fast forward another year or two…and a lot of time dedicated to how I wanted to spend my time money and effort…and we get the current process [let me know if you’d like to see more of these pages]:

This week when I set up my BUJO I really paid attention to what I do. here’s what I learned:

• I need to know the day of the week and the date. Example: Tuesday, February 25th. Or I am lost.
• It needs to be pretty. Pretty means color coordinated. and Stickers. I’m not a doodler or hand letterer. I like themes but also don’t like to spend a lot of time decorating any one thing.
• It needs to be colorful. Colorful often means pink
• Otherwise, it needs to be largely blank. Every week is different and I never know how much space a given day will take up. I use post its for overages.

This is as far as I’ve come and I’m proud to be where I am. This spread also looks perfect and unused…because it’s this week (and it’s not blank anymore). I’ve actually found enough of a system to be able to plan ahead!

I had fun coordinating and putting together the month. Future me is already thankful for all the hard work I put in. On the other hand, it took me maybe one whole morning to put the month together, so I’m not spending gobs of time on the thing either. I’ve found a good mix, but I’m not done learning about the process…

I’m still a keeper of several notebooks. I have not yet found a way for the bullet journal to satisfy all my needs. I am working on it and I still have hope.

• I think I will always keep a personal journal for, you know, journaling.
• I think I will always keep a larger monthly calendar that I can lay out and see every day [though I do keep a monthly version in my bullet journal].
• I’m still trying to decide if I need a daily book or if my weekly spreads are enough.
• I’m still a planner-holic and journal junkie, but I spend far less money on those things now that I have a system that works for me. At least a system that’s working toward a system.

I’m by no means an expert Bullet Journaler, but I have picked up several tips over the years and don’t mind passing along conventional wisdom.

• start today: yes, today…
• with what you have: all you need is a pen and a blank book. You can acquire all the fancy stuff after you know how you work and how you actually use your BUJO.
• have fun: I found a bunch of free printables online and made my own stickers using mailing labels. That’s probably not a lot of fun for everyone, but maybe you’re a doodler….or maybe like me you like color coding things. Find a way to make it fun and you’ll use it. If it’s just another task, you’re not getting good use out of it.

And here are some things I’ve learned along the way that I can again say are pretty universal:

• it takes time to get your groove: if you already knew what works for you, you’d be doing it already. I’m on my fourth bullet journal and still only have the vaguest idea of what I’m doing with it.
• if you wait to start you never will: it’s true. you have to start with what you have in the middle of your life. If you wait for the beginning of the year or even the beginning of the week you’ll lose momentum and the fun of starting.
• don’t try to get it perfect: in fact, maybe you should practice first like I did. Grab that pen and notebook that you have and start putting down pages you want to have. Then when you don’t like what you’ve done you can correct your mistakes when you move to the big journal.  Go on a YouTube binge and write down all the things you do and don’t want to include. It’s fun. However, I also encourage you to  embrace imperfection as part of bullet journaling and roll with whatever you get going.

So there’s the progression. From wanting perfection to being happy with my pretty imperfection

It’s still very important to me to put my hands on things. It’s one of the ways I learn. If you’re like me and you need to handle a thing to truly understand it, bullet journaling might just be for you. I’d also recommend this system for:

• anyone with a daily to do list
• anyone who needs to jot things down to remember them
• anyone who has too many journals and planners and not enough to fill them

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

This was fun. Let me know what other questions you have or anything else you’d like to see regarding my process or style. I’d love to share it. Thanks for your interest.

Thought I’d stick with the theme…

What will you do with your extra day this year?

I want to introduce you to a couple of other people who make a huge difference in my life. I thought long and hard on how to do this because I want to protect people’s privacy but they are part of my life and I want to talk about them. Selfish? Maybe.

The things people say to me and the interactions I have with them are part of my story, so I have the right to tell it. I have experience with being outed on the internet before I was ready, so I never want to do that to anyone else. My solution: composites.

It’s also a way to show the many different voices in my head who influence what I do and who I am. It’s shown me that I can categorize those people which is both handy and makes me wonder if i should broaden my horizons.

J   Boyfriends past and present. The Voice of Reason. Men whose opinions I respect.

M  Besties.Women who legitimately care about my well being.

R  My better half. My partner. People I trust. My sisters.

A  Counsellor, relative, neighbor, or friend.

Zed. Everyone else.

This is just a fun post. I’m still working on those serious business ones. Let me know what else y’all would like to hear about.