Sydney Avey

Dynamic Woman — Changing Times

A Clean Start: The Seasonal Sort

Jan 1, 2014 | Family, Learning curve | 0 comments

I’m a seasonal sort, programmed for certain activities at specific times of the year. My Friends are posting about happy New Year’s Day traditions, parades and football games, gourmet breakfasts, birding walks. Not for us. Every January 1, we make a clean start by sorting through the Orchard Supply closet. It’s our tradition.

This year I told hubs to pretend we’re moving (we aren’t) and toss whatever we wouldn’t take with us, old electronics, unidentifiable power cords, half burned candles, manuals to appliances we no longer own, serviceable placemats the color of an avocado pit…do I have to explain why we call it the Orchard Supply closet?

It’s done. We feel good. Now it’s time to see if the New Year’s resolutions are going to take.

OSH1OSH2
His side of the closet
My side of the closet

I have a new productivity tool I downloaded from Storyline.  Donald Miller suggests that creative people like writers should manage their mental energy instead of their time. Instead of saying, “okay, 30 minutes on social media, 30 minutes on blogging, then write scenes for two hours,” do what drains your brain first. I can blog when I’m tired. I’m doing it now. I can’t write an intimate home wedding scene when my eyes are crossing. That’s not the big eye-opener though.

The ah ha moment was when I labored over the sections between projects titled Rest/Reward and the section Things I Get to Enjoy Today. Huh? So here is the big breakthrough. If I move something from the To Do list to my Enjoy list, my To Do list gets shorter and a task that takes my time becomes a refreshing moment. Example: I don’t have to go to choir practice, I get to go to choir practice, catch up my friends, fill my lungs with oxygen, sing melody and play with harmony.

Rest/Reward is harder. I tend to power through until I drop. What does rest look like, anyway? If I back away from the key board, fill my crystal tea mug with lemon ginger tea, and read an article in my new Poets and Writers Magazine, that’s a blissful moment. If I peel out of my pajamas and take a shower before noon that feels pretty good too. I’m open to other suggestions.

Now I think I will reward myself and go to bed.  

Hope your New Year’s Day was as restful, joyful, contemplative, or productive as you desired.

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Crafting a Novel Around a Real Person: An Interview with Sydney Avey – WRITE NOW!

Crafting a Novel Around a Real Person: An Interview with Sydney Avey – WRITE NOW!

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