If anyone has bookmarked my calendar link, please update that link to https://book.morgen.so/kara. I’m leaving calendly for a less expensive and more full-featured tool - a part of a series of moves to make my small business efforts more sustainable. I have full plans to write more about all of those moves over the next few weeks.
Photos of the Week
What a week!
I was Kona-less to kick off the week as he was with my dad and sister while I headed off to Chicago. In a new adventure, Gayle went and got him from their house and took him to Muncie for us to hang out together after I returned from Chicago.
Chicago was mostly business but also a great time to reconnect with friends from across the country at the Achieving the Dream conference. My friend Chuck and I got to enjoy some deep dish together and I got my favorite Chicago treat - Garrett popcorn. It was my first time staying out at McCormick Place. The hotel (Marriot Marquis) was great but I hated staying that far outside “the Loop”.
We wrapped up the week by celebrating miss Lauren’s 8th birthday with a “girls only” tea party. It was a lot of fun to eat sugary things and hang with the girls (and baby Gene) for a few hours.
Clean As You Go
If my mom were still with us, she’d tell you that she was not a good housekeeper. I get my housekeeping skills from her very naturally. I enjoy cleaning about as much as I enjoy exercising. The difference is I do still clean even though I don’t enjoy it. Apparently, I like the feeling of my feet sticking to a dirty floor far less than I like the feeling of my pants getting too tight.
While my mom wasn’t a great house keeper, she did have a mantra when she was working in the kitchen and that was to clean as you go. This is a tried and true kitchen and catering rule and one my mom brought home from years of catering and professional cooking experiences.
I’ve been thinking about this phrase a lot lately - mostly inspired by working on my taxes for 2022. As I started my small business, I thought a spreadsheet would do to track expenses and invoices. I soon found that was not going to be adequate so I switched to Quickbooks which had an already high monthly cost and now has an even higher monthly cost. Finally, I’ve found a great tool called WaveApps that works well for me and is free. While 2023 is set up to be cleaned as I go financially, I have things spread out in a few different places for 2022 which has been a little bit of a hassle as I pull it all together for taxes.
This mantra applies in so many places though - from how you handle the mail each day (take care of it all at one time no matter how many different contexts you have to move between to finish all of it) to cleaning out your car every time you exit it. Which, by the way, is something I’m also terrible at.
I’m trying to adopt the process of a maintenance hour each day - an hour of time each day to take care of all of these types of maintenance tasks that can otherwise pile up and which are not all that productive in the grand scheme of things. The maintenance hour can be a good time to batch all those cleaning things together to make the more palatable.
What ways do you use to make undesirable tasks more palatable and easier to do?
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)
June or July - I am (still) waiting on all the signatures but I may get to North Carolina later in the summer
July/August - A Northern European Cruise!
Around the Virtual World
The Facts of Life LIVE Cohort - You will often find me hanging out in the course and community for my course “Facts of Life Book” that launched on January 1! I know some of you were waiting for the first ever live cohort - and that is now available. From April 7 - June 23 I’ll be running a live cohort including virtual sessions every Friday afternoon during that time period. What is the Facts of Life Book? 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. Join now and you’ll get access to all future updates as well as any additional future live cohorts I run. Use coupon code FRIEND to get 50% off of the cost of the course.
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.
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. Another new cohort starts soon.
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
Free books, movies and more with Open Culture
When I’m preparing for a trip - like our upcoming cruise to Northern Europe - I like read and watch things set in that place. One of my favorite tools for finding free resources for this is http://www.openculture.com. The site includes links to free movies, books, audio books, and more.
A travel spork
A few years ago, I grabbed some reusable sporks (one plastic and a couple of stainless steel options) to keep in my car, at my office, and in my travel bag. I got to make good use of my spork again this past week in Chicago for everything from stirring up my morning coffee and evening tea to eating a cup of yogurt I got from a local marketplace to eat before I headed to the airport on Friday morning. When I have to replace my current spork - which may last forever since it’s stainless steel, I will go with this version since it also includes a built in bottle opener.
What I Published This Week
This was a busy travel week so no publishing other than my newsletter.
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
What I’m Reading, Watching and Listening To
I’m changing up this section a bit again. Some weeks it will be a general collection of things like this and other weeks I’ll be a little more focused.
Books
I finished listening to the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin - reading and/or listening to it is at least an annual occurrence
I am currently listening to Spare by Prince Harry. I’ll reserve any thoughts until I’m completely done with it.
The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey. I’ll have more to share about this in coming weeks.
Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. This is my book club book for this month.
Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap. I was number 1 on the library request for this book.
Podcasts
I finished Rachel Maddow’s Ultra. I don’t recommend it.
I am enjoying the new series in a podcast - I Kid You Not from The Bible Binge.
The 30 for 30 podcast is doing a series called “The Pink Card” about women’s soccer in Iran. Very interesting.
TV and Movies
Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions is kicking back off on Food Network - love this show.
Gayle and I finished off Brother vs. Brother No Rules - it ended exactly the way both of us thought it should!
Diversion
It’s time to go see another Marvel movie! Taking advantage of Tuesday matinee movie pricing meant tickets were only $5.50 per person! I’ll give you some thoughts next week perhaps after we see it.
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
https://karamonroe.podia.com
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