#31 - Make Time for Maintenance
Welcome to the five new subscribers who joined us since last week. Thanks for joining our little community. Speaking of community - I’m launching my first online course into the world for sale by the end of this week and as a subscriber, I’m giving you a first peak into it - and the best price possible for the course.
Photo of the Week
If you’ve been around here long, you know the smiling face in a perfect sit is my Kona. The other pooch is his cousin Stevie (a.k.a. my brother’s dog). They had to share everyone’s attention - and the dino bone you see to the left - this weekend at my dad’s house. (Thanks to Stevie that dino bone is destroyed!)
It was a fabulous week that included meals with friends, a photo shoot with my friend Diana and her pup Brimley as well as lots of family time so there were lots of photos to choose from but a lot of those have some other purposes forthcoming. So for now, you just get two dogs who completely wore each other out this weekend. Kona honestly may sleep all week.
Make Time for Maintenance
Fun fact. I was the Wayne County Indiana Spelling Bee champion as a sixth grader. Second generation fun fact - my dad was also on the team that won the Wayne County Spelling Bee when he was in sixth grade.
What does this have to do with making time for maintenance? Well, in the seventh grade, when I tried to repeat my county championship, I was in a spell off at the end - just me and the girl who actually won that year. I went out on the word maintenance. (I tried to make it maintainance - whomp whomp)
I think of that memory every time I use the word maintenance - and I check to make sure I haven't repeated my spelling error.
When I started Monarch Strategies LLC in February, I believed I'd be awash with time. Time to volunteer, time to spend on writing and creating, time to spend with my family. And, to a large degree all of those things are true. I'm no longer the first one to leave family gatherings - coated in a deep anxiety about all the work awaiting me at the office in the coming week. In fact, I pleasurably sat through a three year old's soccer game on Saturday hearing all about the dating life of my seven year old great niece - and not once did my mind wander to "what else do I need to be doing." I was fully present. It was glorious.
And yet, my dishes still pile up and I might as well get rid of the dresser in my room and just call the laundry room my dresser for how often I actually put all my clothes away.
I'll be completely honest and say that part of the reason for this is I just don't enjoy housework. But another part of the reason is I don't schedule time for maintenance. If I put "housework" time in my calendar the same way I put appointments in my calendar, it would get done.
The same is true with exercise - which I wish was a maintenance activity instead of a - "ya gotta get some of this weight off activity". But, when I schedule it - and even better when that schedule includes a collection of habits that I can just call my morning routine - it gets done.
So, your action item for this week - what task or activity do you chronically avoid that you need to simply try scheduling in your calendar to see if that helps you overcome avoidance and move towards actions that help you live out your values.
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
Want to work on your Facts of Life Book? Join my newly launched created course and community
If you follow along with the What I’m Publishing section, you’ve seen that I’ve been developing a whole series called the Facts of Life Book. I'm refining and enhancing that series into an ongoing course and community that will officially launch on January 1, 2023. The course will feature special bonus challenges in each season of the year (at least in year 1), some coworking sessions to give you dedicated time to work on your Facts of Life book and a few other ideas I've got cooking. Additionally, it will include LOADS of tutorials, templates, and more for building and maintaining your Facts of Life Book.
The course launches officially on January 1, 2023 but I'm starting pre-sales now - and providing a few special surprises to those who buy early. The course price will go up and for now it's only $25 for lifetime access to the course and community.
Now a break from my commercial for the actual tip and too. I tried something new to get the site up and running for it. I bought the domain name https://www.factsoflifebook.com on Google Domains and connected it to a website made at no additional cost with Google Sites. So, essentially for $12/year I have a fully functional web site.
I run my personal and business sites on Wix.com - and I love the power it has but since this site really only needs to be a pointer to the actual course site (provided through Podia which is also working great for me so far) then running it through Google Sites was a good choice to get started. All the functionality I need and no significant cost.
Okay - back to my commercial. I'm announcing the course and community launch here to my newsletter subscribers because you're my most loyal fans. I fully acknowledge neither the website nor the course are fully fleshed out yet but if you want it on the fun of the first of what will be many online courses - please consider joining in by following the Blue sign up button at the bottom of the site - https://www.factsoflifebook.com. And, because you’re also the folks I trust the most to give me honest feedback - please feel free to send me feedback all along the way about what you like, think, don’t like, don’t see, etc.
Give your hands a break - use voice dictation
I've been using the text to speech on my phone for narrative writing a LOT more lately. I'll open up a new file on my phone - usually in my favorite notes app - Obsidian. Then I'll press the microphone and start talking. Five or six of the articles I've written as well as nearly all of my long form journaling in the past two weeks has happened this way. I have even done some long form journaling WHILE I walked Kona.
The long form journaling is basically done only in the dictation phase. I don’t go back and read it or edit it. It’s just there to get my mind clear. The essays and articles I do a LOAD of editing on but at least I’m not staring at a blank page when I start writing.
If you want a purpose built app for this, try https://otter.ai but honestly, Google Docs works great for this - as does Obsidian. The only added benefit with otter is that if you're trying to figure out what the heck some combination of letters on the screen is about you can still listen to the recording. The recording is NOT saved with Google Docs - just your words. So, if anything gets lost or garbled it can be lost forever but you have to edit it anyway so hopefully just seeing the context on the screen will be enough to help you recover anything that might be lost.
What I Published This Week
It was a VERY busy publishing week. Nearly all of my systems for publishing content worked exactly as they should. Which means - loads of content out in the world.
Tuesday - Readwise Reader Getting Started Guide on YouTube
Wednesday - I did a bit of creative writing in response to the the prompt “distant” - a poem entitled Where are you Going?
Wednesday - A Wednesday Walk prompt post on Hive - my visit to the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.
Thursday - Making Plans for Next Year’s Garden on Hive
Friday - New blog post on https://www.monarchstrategiesllc.com - 5 Things to Do for a Successful Informational Interview
Saturday - Published the next of a four article series about Obsidian - Using Mind Maps with Obsidian. (And, big win, another of my articles got picked up in the Obsidian Roundup so it blew up with activity this weekend - YAY!)
Sunday - Published draft website at https://www.factsoflifebook.com. I might also put up a Hive post in Sublime Sunday. You can see if I did at https://ecency.com/@iwannabeme.
Facts of Life Book Series
As I mentioned above, I’ve just launched https://www.factsoflifebook.com - and I’ll be publishing the next article in the series that inspired this course and community sometime later today (Monday, September 12). Here are the index posts for that series on both Medium and Hive if you want to check them out.
What I’m Reading This Week
I’ve been doing a lot of reading this week. While I am continuing to make my way through many of the books I’ve listed in previous weeks, I also read several chapters in each of these three:
The Seeker and the Monk: Every Day Conversations with Thomas Merton by Sophfronia Scott
I got the privilege of sitting in on my Sunday School class in Richmond - and they are reading this book. It’s been a delightful and thoughtful read.
The Crypto Book: How to Invest Safely in Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies by Siam Kid
I still have only the most surface level understanding of Crypto. This book has been a good source of info on crypto.
Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secretes of the World’s Top Minds by Carmine Gallo
I’m starting to get booked for some talks in 2023 and I want to make the most of those opportunities - and deliver the very best that I can for my clients. This has been fun to read and I am trying to fit in a few TED talks here and there as well which is always fun.
Diversion
It’s been a tough week in world news (although go Ukranian forces pushing back Russia!)
I do try to leave you with something uplifting here so you get two options in honor of Queen Elizabeth. The second is the full length Paddington Bear video from the Diamond Jubilee which, if you haven’t watched it, is adorable.
The first two videos are from my video vault. In 2009, Gayle and I visited Paris and London. We set out towards Buckingham Palace on a gorgeous day. We decided to walk down Birdcage Walk which is a lovely tree lined street that runs at an angle to the iconic The Mall - which Buckingham Palace sits at the end of.
Our timing was perfect as we got to hear the Royal Guard warming up before we were able to essentially follow them the rest of the way up Birdcage Walk for the Changing of the Guard. We had the best seats in the house as they warmed up which was a perfect tradeoff for having the worst seats in the house for the changing of the guard.
Ways You Can Support Me
Join my online course and community
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