The Age of the Sticky Notes: How to Organize Life + IWSG

How do you measure productivity? How do you keep yourself productive?

My world has been...well, insanity, especially since we started chasing this musical full time. (Check out the website. Follow on social media. Sign up for the newsletter to experience our crazy journey with us -- all the way to Broadway.) In fact, we're elbow deep in video edits and making promotional reels and all that jazz...

But I digress. 

When I was a teen, I had WAY too many interests to be healthy. I was in theater, I sang in choirs and performed as a soloist weekly or more, I wrote stories, I read a lot, I was a sketch artist, I biked and hiked and arranged not only my social calendar, but pulled together group dates and events for a wide variety of friends regularly. And then there was school.

In navigating a crazy schedule, I had a system.

I'd make a list (long term goals broken into smaller parts) and keep it in my pocket. Every time I tucked my hands away, I'd come across the "to do"s, and then would focus on the next easiest one...or most important one, depending on how motivated I was.

This system worked until I quit putting my hands in my pockets. Or had no pockets. 

Then I moved to a planner. 

Everything went in the planner. Everything...

Until that was too bulky to carry around. We transitioned to a calendar -- full family mode -- with notes in ALL the margins AND scribbled over the full-page images.

In this is a new age, every little edit, every suggested change has become a sticky note. A physical presence. A bright colored reminder. Though I still have a calendar, I now keep lists on my phone, but  life looks like a lot like this:

Except in more colors -- yellow, pink, green, blue, orange, purple... All the colors. I try to keep tasks organized by color, but I'm too much of an artists and just grab the nearest thing when inspiration strikes.

This is a constantly evolving system. I think we often get frustrated when our efforts aren't working or fall short, not realizing that there is room for change. That change is good. Change is healthy. Change keeps us growing. So I hope if you're feeling that tension, you'll take a minute, breathe, and reexamine your process or world. Take control. Try again.

Because you're awesome and powerful and you've got this! 

What system have you discovered that works to keep you organized, motivated, and moving forward?

IWSG June 4 question: What were some books that impacted you as a child or young adult?

I'm going strictly little kid here because this is a BIG question.

• The Giving Tree. Loved it as a kid. Someone so selfless was amazing and should be emulated. (I hated it as a mom -- when my proverbial well was empty.) 

• Where the Wild Things Are. Keep that imagination alive, kiddoes! This was life for me as a kid and the book gave me permission to keep that creativity bubbling. 

• The Velveteen Rabbit taught me about compassion, about loving someone to the end.  

• It's Not Easy Being a Bunny really registered with me as one of eight kids and the black sheep of my family, interests wise and academically. It taught me it's okay to be an individual and STILL appreciate your unique family culture. 

• Alexander and the Terrible Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. Mom quoted this so often it would be hard NOT to have an impact. Bad days happen to everyone, even in Australia. 

And lastly, but most importantly, The Bible (especially the New Testament) and Book of Mormon. Most influential books of all time.

What books had a BIG impact in your life? What are you doing to be organized or motivated? How much cheese have you eaten this week?

How to Find Happiness A-Z: O

Are you the creative type who places your shoes where your hat should go, and your car keys where your cup usually sits?

I've always had a special way of arranging things. When I was a teen Mom used to come into my room, see my papers piled all over the floor, and start throwing things away. Eek! Those were my precious stories, notes, and idea prompt images! For years, I couldn't understand WHY she would do that. Didn't she get she was destroying my sense of order?

Now, many years later and as a mom, I get it.

Organization.

Picture courtesy of Carnivore Locavore

We can function with chaos in our home (empty milk jugs piled to go out for recycling, markers and pens scattered across the school table, scraps of paper from recent project littered across the floor, laundry piled in baskets in the corner), but I find my sense of cool goes "poof". I snap at the kids more. I freak out about the little things. I feel like a failure and start panicking about how behind I am.

Conversely, when my house is spotless, I'm an angel, the kids love each other, and we all breathe easy.

Have you had similar experiences? How do you establish order in your house?  

Organizing, Cleaning, Plotting, and other Strange Habits

Summer is here!

For many parents that means kids will be running around the house crazy and asking every five seconds, "I'm bored. What can I do?"

Welcome to our house all year round.

We home school, and despite the "loud" and "busy", it's a joy. So, how do we deal with the chaos?

We get organized. Yesterday we sat down as a family and put together a list of weekly chores, and of course, our new chore wheel. Yay!

That's great you say, but what does that have to do with PLOTTING?

By default, I'm a pantster. The idea of plotting used to make me laugh. Why did I need that? My stories were completely character driven, and when characters hijacked the story, I ran along side cheering and panting. It's not until I completed my first 140k word middle grade novel that the need for plotting really sank in. As an author I needed to know which scenes were absolutely paramount--so I could chop that 140 to its eventual 90k. Whew! Each scene had to build character or the story arc/tension to make the final cut. It would have been so much easier if I'd started with an outline of important scenes before typing a single word.

See my outline of responsibilities on the fridge? Less chaos, less trauma. =)

Pardon. Cheese break. Mmm...Jarlsburg...

So, how do we plot?

Recently I stumbled across a video series I'll recommend to anyone who struggles with plotting.



Even after years of practice I don't sit down (on novel #6 now) and map out every fine detail of who, what, where, when and why. There has to be some wiggle room. It's just like our chore assignments--structure is supplied, but every hour of every day isn't set in stone.

So, how do you write? By the seat of your pants, or plotting? Somewhere in between? Do YOU think plotting is necessary?