The Thursday! Newsletter 1-13: I'm Getting Organized!
Volume 1, Issue 13
There is no delicate way to say this: I am a disorganized mess.
I'm also aware I use the word "I" a lot in this newsletter. That causes me some real discomfort. One of the things drilled into my head over and over in my life is it isn't all about me. I'm not put on this Earth to be a superstar. My best work is getting behind other people and giving them the biggest boost possible. Don't get me wrong, I like that work. I feel like encouraging people is one of my very few superpowers. Dennis Prager said something years ago in a podcast that stuck with me so hard, I transcribed it and kept it on my desk:
I think the world is sort of divided between those who want to be stars and those who want to be on an all-star team. And I have the second temperament. I have no desire to be a star but I have a great desire to be on an all-star team.
Yeah. That makes my heart ring like a perfectly-cast silver bell on a mountaintop struck on a clear winter's night. Of course, that's no real secret to anyone who knows me. I'm a helper person and it's been a mixed bag as far as being good for me, my career, and my life. I've gotten myself into deep holes before helping folks because I've not always been very good at figuring out who I should not help or at what point I should stop helping someone.
The thing is, I've always been absolute rubbish at helping me. As a rule, I stand up for myself about as well as an oyster cracker stands up to a stuff sandblasting. That's started to change lately. But as that's changed, so has my need to get better organized.
See, I like routines. I like knowing when I have to be at work and when I have to be out with my friends for Saturday Game Night and when I need to take my wife to work and when my favorite show comes on and when church starts. I get things locked into a routine so I don't have to think about them all the time. I hate uncertainty. It makes me afraid, fires all my anxiety cylinders at once, which causes a heck of a mess. I get twitchy and jittery and irritable. I am unpleasant and I never like to be unpleasant.
When I stand up more for myself, though, I lose a lot of the certain routines of my life. If I get a new job (which I would very much like, so if you know someone looking for an experienced support person who will make their team better within days of joining up, I'm your guy) the settled routines of many years disappear. I may get to start my workday at a different time each day. I can't run on "auto schedule" nor are my tasks pretty much set up for me to knock down on certain days of the week or the month. They may be later on, but for the first while? Nope. Have to figure that out. Same for my writing career. I'll have to juggle deadlines and projects seriously -- more than one at a time. I won't be able to keep that all in my head. Already, I'm having difficulties keeping a consistent writing schedule where I can work on the new poetry picture books and write short stories. And I've not even gotten going on that career.
So I need a system. I need to be organized. I need to write things down somewhere -- in a place where I can find it all later. I need to plan out my projects so that when dates firm up, I can add that date to the rolling calendar of my life. so I won't have unpleasant surprises. So I'll feel more in control again, because right now? Ehhhhhh. Things are starting to feel just a teensy bit loose and I know if I take on more, I'll drop something important. Unless I get things in hand.
That process starts this week, thanks to a paragraph in this post from Austin Kleon. Here's the core of my new organizational process"
I carry the pocket notebook all day, scribble stuff in it, take notes. It’s basically a scratch pad. Then, every morning after breakfast, I open up the pocket notebook, check my notes, then I fill out my logbook, which is sort of like an index of my days and a memory refresher. Then, I write and draw 3-10 pages in my diary, based on my notes and my log. I cross off things in my pocket notebook after I write about them. The diary then becomes a place I go to when I need new writing and blog posts. It might sound like a lot of work, but using this method I am never lost for something to write about. Also, my job is to write, so, there you have it.
Kleon says he swiped this from David Sedaris. That's cool. I won't feel guilty about swiping it from him. I have a pocket notebook. I have what I'm calling my Commonplace Book, which will be a bit different from Kleon's logbook in that instead of keeping track of what I did each day, I'll pull the stuff from my pocket notebook that I want to keep and re-write it in the Commonplace Book. That will become my Book of Inspirations and Other Thoughts. It is where I'll sketch out broad project plans, where story ideas will ripen, and where my thoughts about life and faith and such will sit for me to review as needed. I'll put good quotes here and topics for the newsletter, too.
The third book of my Notebook Turducken is my writing book, which is a cashier-sized notebook in which I'll work on stories and poems and whatnot until I can get them to my computer and type them in. Oh, and I have a planner where I can put all my appointments and such. That'll pretty much live on my desk so that I know where to find it.
That's the current plan. It seems sound and has a couple advantages aside from getting things out of my head, where they're likely to get lost. For one, writing things down is a better way to seat them in your memory. If I write something in my pocket notebook then write it again in my Commonplace Book, I have an even better chance of remembering it. At the very least, some part of it will kick around in my subconscious, where it might surface later as a different, exciting idea I didn't even know I had!
I think that's about it. It's possible I might have bored you this week and for that I'm sorry. The whole matter of being organized and about helping myself has been banging around in my head all week, which pretty much guarantees it's going to show up here. That's how Thursday! works. My brain chews on something for a few days and then I sit down and it tells me what I should write.
That sounds disorganized, I know. But I did warn you, didn't I?
Book Notes: Only one note is necessary this week, really. The book is here! You can get it in e-book format for your Kindle device, as a regular book with paper and ink and some pages even suitable for coloring if you get bored or artistic, or (dare I say) both! As of the moment I wrote this, the Kindle version was #3 among all new "Children's Scary Stories" and I don't mind telling you, that top spot would make me feel pretty warm and happy.
Autographed copies are in the works! My copies are soon on the way and I don't expect they'll take long. When they get here, I'll ask you for $15 through PayPal along with your address and anything special you may want me to put (within reason, of course and I get the veto!). If you don't put anything, I'll come up with something nice myself. I'll ship your book Media Mail and even draw a smiley face on the envelope! Cool? You'll be the envy of your neighborhood when that smiley-faced envelope of spooky delight shows up in your mailbox!
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Here Are the Arts and/or Letters I Promised...
You'll need to be fluent in either German or Italian to get the most from these alphabet floorplan books, but the pictures are fun to ponder!
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Here Are Links, either Useful or Fun!
I love this this old film from 1956 about how to harmonize your how interior with color. Seriously. The decor here is exquisite. I'd take a house full of it.
Legal Bigfoot hunting in Oklahoma? Yeah, I'd be on board with that and I don't care what the scoffers say!
The difference between "nice" and "kind" is not easy to remember but worth the effort.
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One Last Thing.
To paraphrase another smart author, though Thursday! is free, it is not cheap. To show your support, forward it to someone who'd like it or order my book (and leave an honest review, if you're so inclined). Is this your first time seeing my newsletter? You can read previous issues and subscribe right here.
If you'd like to talk back to me, encourage me, suggest something you'd like to see or you'd like me to write about, you can always hit the reply button! I can't promise I'll always answer back, because I'm quite forgetful, but I'll read everything you send.