57 - A Place for Everything
57 - A Place for Everything
Does your brain automatically say the next part of that phrase like mine does? “A place for everything…and everything in its place.” This has been one of my guiding mantras for many years - although now often replaced by Gretchen Rubin’s slightly tighter phraseology of “Outer Order = Inner Calm”.
Lately, I’ve felt very little inner calm because it feels like nothing in the outer world is in order - at least not in my house. My main living areas are great but here is a simplified version of the list that runs through my head about 25 times every day right now:
I’m trying to sell the Peloton to get It out of the guest room
The sunroom - a main reason I bought this house - hardly ever gets used
It feels like I’m using every closet in this house wrong. (Please don’t ask me what “right” would be because I just don’t know.)
I need to get up in the attic over the garage and throw some stuff out and then either sell some other stuff that’s hanging out in the second bay of the garage or put it up in the attic.
Partly this list keeps running through my head because a lot of these things - other than maybe the closets - are things that require someone else to help me. When you live alone you have to plan the things that require other people to help you. This list also keeps running through my head because it’s spring (today in fact is the first day of spring if you’re reading this on Monday and you live in the Northern Hemisphere). As spring sets in, I always have the urge to do spring cleaning. I swear this has to be some sort of primitive programming in our brain because it happens every single year. And, finally, this list keeps running through my head because all of the outer disorder is causing me to feel less than calm about pretty much everything in general so my anxiety is a little higher than normal.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, my guess is I’m not alone. And, as action is the antidote to anxiety my challenge for you today is to do just one thing. One little tiny thing to manage the outer disorder and make your life just a little more calm. It won’t solve the problem but it’s a step in the right direction. I find sometimes when I start it either a) takes me less time than I think it will to finish a task or b) that once I start I feel invigorated to do a little more and then a little more and then a little more.
Photo(s) of the Week
Moving things around just a bit but don’t worry - photos of the week are still here. There were a LOT of photos of Kona this week as I continue to play around with the camera.
The second image is Kona “calling” grandpa - something we do almost every day.
I got some baby snuggles in on Friday with Gene and Clifton.
We got our (hopefully) final snowfall of this winter season on the last day of spring today. For some reason the line the sun made in Gayle’s back yard just made me chuckle. Glad most of the snow is now gone.
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!
April - A quick trip to Florida is on the horizon
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 - I’ll be releasing the Quarter 2 workbook later this week so this is the PERFECT time to sign up for the Quarterly Retreat All Access Pass or the Quarterly Retreat Workshop. Visit https://karamonroe.podia.com and check out all of the offerings. The new workbook will be up by this time next week!
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.
Tips and Tricks
A One Page Annual Calendar You Can Actually Read
I am slightly obsessed with calendars. So, when I saw this the other day, I knew I had to share it. It is a simple way to put a calendar for the entire year on a single page - and still be able to read it easily. You can find the full article here: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/one-page-calendar/
This is the sample version for 2023. You do have to remember how many days are in each month (30 days has September, April, June, and November…)
Let’s use it to figure out what day of the week a few days fall on this year.
Christmas: Find December in the columns and then find 25 in the rows over on the left. Move your fingers down the column and over in the rows until they meet and you’ll find that Christmas is on a Monday this year.
Kara’s Birthday: My birthday is October 8 so I’ll be celebrating on a Sunday this year.
The other beauty of this calendar is figuring out things like when are the Friday the 13ths this year: Find 13 and then go over to Friday and you’ll see we are already through one and the other one will be just after my birthday.
While I don’t think this will replace more traditional calendars for most people, I probably will start posting a copy of this on my digital bulletin board every year for handy reference.
A Podcast App for Notetakers and Notemakers
I listen to a LOT of podcasts. One of the highlights of my move to an all iOS existence is the ability to use the podcast app “Snipd" which allows you to easily “snip” sections of podcasts that you want to remember.
You subscribe to podcasts just like normal with Snipd. The difference happens when you listen. You press a little “Snip” button while listening (I can even do this from the display screen in my car) and a snip that is about a minute and 20 seconds is made. The software uses fancy algorithms to try to find the beginning and end of a specific thought or discussion. It’s not perfect but it’s also not bad. I listened to about six podcasts this weekend and easily got all my notes imported into my notes app of choice - Obsidian. I chose to use the Readwise sync option (that link will give you a free 60 day trial of Readwise - 30 days more than if you go through their website) but you can also export directly to several different notes apps. Here is a sample snip from a recent episode of the podcast “The Science of Happiness”. I’m going to develop some of the thoughts from this podcast into an article a bit down the road:
I've been feeling somewhat unsatisfied in my work. I'm satisfied when I pull up and look over the whole thing and think this podcast has been really generative for me. This is good stuff. But when I'm in it, when I'm at eye level with the work, I feel less satisfied. I've made five books, 290 podcasts, episodes, 43 PBS shows. And I probably do think I know how to do it. I'm just moving really fast and I'm trying to get so much done that I opt for efficient conversations and quick meetings with the fewest people there because we don't have time to engage to other people's ideas for how the interview could go and maybe disagree. And then maybe have that awkwardness of disagreeing. I'm never working with enough time and I'm never working with enough budget. And so I feel somewhat justified in blowing and going.
What I Published This Week
So excited that this section is finally back this week! Many of the technical issues that have been stalling me these last few weeks are finally getting worked out so it is time to get back to writing and publishing.
Add to an Obsidian Daily Log from Anywhere using Actions for Obsidian and Keyboard Maestro - Medium
My First Pass at a Mac/iOS only Software Stack - Medium
Hopefully next week the book notes section is back as well. My system is finally feeling pretty good again.
Diversion
I love the Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah. I’ve heard more covers of it than I can count and I’m often on the look out for new ones that are worthy of the song. I happened to just stumble upon one while browsing YouTube this week.
Shona McCarty is a British actor and singer who I hadn’t heard of before seeing this but I’ve now listened to it about 20 times and it gets better every time.
Did you see something in this newsletter that made you think of someone else? Share it with them and let then know you were thinking about them.