47 - Keep Up, Don't Catch Up
Photo of the Week
First work week of the year meant a lot less play and a lot more work.
Our dear neighbor Allyson got Kona an adorable rope toy for Christmas and we finally got to visit with her a bit. Kona has had a good time playing with his new “rudolph” all week.
I’m doing “23 23’s in 2023” and one of those is to do 23 new to me recipes. So, this week, I finally crossed cacio e pepe - one of the four classic Italian pasta dishes - off my list. This was Rachael Ray’s Toasted Cacio recipe. It was good - and will be even more delicious on my second try. What fun challenges are you undertaking this year?
Keep Up, Don’t Catch Up
Gretchen Rubin strikes again. If you’ve been around here for long you know that I am a devoted reader of her books and listener to her podcast. I’m not sure when she first said the title of this week’s essay - Keep Up, Don’t Catch Up - but it took root in my soul in mid to late December and it’s my January theme - but in reverse. Catch Up So I Can Keep Up
One of the things that easily gets behind in my house is digitizing documents. I get everything digitally that I possibly can but I still feel like I’m drowning in paper. The scanner app on my phone is amazing for keeping some of this at bay. Receipts, one off utility bills, and my daily journal writing are easily processed into their respective digital files and then shredded/recycled. However, I had accumulated a pretty decent pile of multi-page documents that are more efficiently scanned - and scanned in better quality with my multi-functional printer/scanner. Over the weekend, I knocked out the scanning of these documents and was even able to find two of them as native digital documents via Google search so I didn’t have to scan them - better quality and smaller file size. About 90 minutes later, I was all caught up with all the documents scanned, renamed, and moved to their proper digital home.
After getting caught up, I added a task into my task list to clear my scanning folder every Saturday. While I might not be able to do it every weekend - at least it’s a reminder that will keep it top of mind for me each week and hopefully keep this little area of my office prone to growing stacks of paper clean and caught up.
What is/are areas where you’d be better off keeping up rather than catching up? Can you put some time on your calendar now to get caught up? How could you run a little experiment for yourself to test a new method of staying caught up like my reminder task?
Where’s Kara?
A quick summary of where I’m going to be hanging out online and IRL over the next few weeks. Join me, and if I’m visiting near you, hit reply and let’s meet up!
In Real Life (IRL)
Nothing on the books at the moment except lots of time with friends and family around Indiana.
Around the Virtual World
Quarterly Retreat - It’s still a great time to prepare for an awesome 2023 by signing up for the Quarterly Retreat All Access Pass or the Quarterly Retreat Workshop. Visit https://karamonroe.podia.com and download the workbook for free and check out all of the offerings.
Join My Course and Community - You will often find me hanging out in the course and community for my course “Facts of Life Book” that launched on January 1! Do you need to organize your most important stuff for life’s most important moments? If so, then the Facts of Life Book course is just for you. With loads of templates, tools, and guides I’ll help you get your most important information organized. Newsletter readers - get in now for the low cost of only $25 for life! This price will be going up on February 1 so act fast to get in on the lowest price ever and be a founding member giving you access to every update, every live cohort, and every new feature I ever launch of this course.
Creative Work Hour - Every single day of the week, at 10 a.m. eastern, a group gathers online in Zoom to do a quick check in, a brief meditation, work for about 50 minutes on whatever they want to do, and then check out with one another for 5 minutes. Creative Work Hour is one of my favorite places to hang out online and I’ve been there every single day that I could be there since about March of 2022. Come as often or as little as you need to get projects done. To register for the sessions (they are free but you have to sign up to get the zoom link) and to learn more, visit https://lu.ma/CreativeWork.
AP Productivity - I’m once again joining my friend R.J. Nestor as a mentor in his exceptional course AP Productivity. The next cohort starts January 13.
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
Define Your Guiding Principles
I love all things values, missions, and manifestos. This new tool by the Clearer Thinking team will allow you to develop your own guiding principles. Your principles are what guides you when making decisions and if you know what they are, you can have less anxiety surrounding decisions and make them faster. This is a great step if you are either just trying to discover your values or if you want to expand your values by putting them into the form of specific behaviors.
Alt-Tab Moves Between Apps Without Touching the Mouse
A coaching client is preparing a presentation where they want to switch between their PowerPoint and a web app. I asked if they know how to use Alt-Tab to make the switch as seamless as possible. Holding down Alt and Tab and then using the tab key lets you move through all the open windows on your computer. When you land on the application you want, just take your hands off of the keyboard and the new application opens up. It’s an awesome option for keeping your hands on the keyboard and off the mouse.
What I Published This Week
David Foster - Off The Record - How David Foster has Produced the Soundtrack of My Life - Hive
My Reading Life Plan for 2023 - Medium
Three Key Areas All Leaders Must Consider in 2023 - Medium or Website
Podcast Episode
My Digital “Garden”
As a part of the Obsidian Vault Rebuild Series that I wrote on Medium and YouTube, I began using Obsidian Publish. This add on tool for Obsidian allows you to easily publish your “in progress” notes to the web. If you want to see what I’m thinking about, this is a great place to see inside my head. It’s always available at https://publish.obsidian.md/iwannabeme
This Week’s Featured Book Note
Each week, I’m featuring one book note from a book I’m currently reading. Click the image to view this week’s note as a PDF file.
I’ve been reading a TON this week but I didn’t mind-map. I am pleased to recommend Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry. I adored her first book, Becoming. I listened to it on audio which was the perfect choice. However, I wish I’d read The Light on paper as there were some noteowrthy moments in the book. I tried to bookmark them but I know I missed a few so I may give it another listen just to capture more of the goodness.
Diversion
I know my invitation to David Foster’s New Year’s Eve Party just got lost in the mail.
Ways You Can Support Me
Purchase one of my digital courses and/or products
I offer courses and digital products focused on organization, planning, productivity, technology, and personal development. Check out all of the offerings currently available at
.
Subscribe to and Share My Newsletter
If someone forwarded this to you or if you’re reading online, hit subscribe so you get every issue delivered right to your inbox every Monday morning at 8 a.m. eastern time.
And, remember to share this with a friend and/or on social media if you read something in here think someone else might find it valuable.
Buy Me A Coffee
You can buy me a virtual coffee if you feel my work has added monetary value to your life in some way. Just visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/iwannabeme and follow the on screen instructions.
Subscribe to Medium
I publish much of my writing on Medium. To read all of the content there, you need to have a subscription which gives you access to the entire library of Medium content. It’s a great place where I start nearly every day. If you want to subscribe, consider doing so through my referral link: https://iwannabemewhenigrowup.medium.com/membership
Subscribe to Readwise
Readwise is an incredible service that takes all of the highlights you take on Kindle, on various web sites, and in so many other places and stores and organizes them for you. It generates a daily (or more often/less often as you prefer) set of highlights for you to review so that you can better remember what you read. Readwise also syncs with all kinds of apps including Evernote, Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research, Log Seq and more. If you’d like an extended 60 day trial, use my link https://readwise.io/kara
Affiliate Links
I do use affiliate links (a link that you click on and then if you purchase the tool, I may receive a little money or service in return) for products that I use and recommend.