This is me, thinking… Or a pose I use when in deep thought that matches the garden gnome my daughter gave to me.
Every day, I think about priorities, make that list or check the list I made the previous day–this to help jump-start my priorities.
Let’s make a list, shall we? It’s my list and you’ll make your own, right?
I admit I can’t do everything I plan. But it’s a plan, anyway.
Yup. I’m a list-maker, a notebook-maker, a digital note-maker. But first, after working many years at a “day-job” and writing (Check out my BOOKLIST?) I decide that sitting in a favorite chair and debating the list with my first cup of coffee/tea, is the very first thing on my list.
I’m a morning person. I write from 4a on. But first, in the quiet of the morning, I check my calendar and my list and see what’s up for the day. And the Small Thing that matters to me and not on the list, is my indoor plants: Are they watered? Are they happy? Any dead leaves have to go. If my plants are happy, life moves on, calming me for the day ahead. And yes, I do talk to them. “Calm” isn’t that easy to find, people. You can’t write good copy when life keeps prodding you to do more.
Here’s a tip for writers (you’ll find a lot of them here as we go along, so you might want to Subscribe?): Once you’re in that writing zone and that story is rolling, Do Not Stop. If there is a storyline choice to be made and it’s on popping up, that is the time to take a break and talk to your plants, or better yet get away by yourself and think. I’m a driver, cross-country, so I do lots of plotting and story-tending during those rides. Put cleaning back on the list, if you can think of your story while cleaning.
Exercise or walking is also on my list. Writers and Painters, of which I am both, get so tied up in their work that time zooms to the end of the day and our energy. I hope you are better at scheduling exercise than I am. But it does calm some people.
Please revisit and share your thoughts? What calms you? And now have a great day!
Cait London 