Early in the day, I like to write a To-Do List in my personal journal. As I get things done throughout the day, I’ll cross them off using the strikethrough tool at the top of all my Word documents. Every time I do this, I think of my mother because she was the first person who told me to add the things I had finished but hadn't thought to include when I originally created the list. I remember once complaining to her that I’d gotten nothing done on my To-Do List that day, yet I’d been busy all day.
Most of the items on the list are writing-related, but occasionally I’ll have more housekeeping to do. I am writing
this piece on the 30th of June and am also updating all my Tables of
Contents across all my sites. There were four sites to update today: Substack,
Talking
to Spirit, Pauline
Evanosky.com (my author’s site), and Medium.
Generally, about halfway through each month, if I remember, I’ll update
whatever I’ve written and published. It keeps the task manageable.
The thing is, with all the things I like to get done each
day, if I don’t give myself a plan, I get lost. Especially if I settle in to
watch television, which these days includes YouTube, Netflix, and whatever
other subscriptions a person has.
Sometimes, if I really want to push it, I will set a kitchen timer on a rope around my neck and keep putting it at 20 minutes. It actually works pretty well.
If I don’t finish something on the list, I carry it over to
the next day, which is also useful if I’ve got something to do I’m not looking
forward to. Those things would involve organizing or cleaning.
Here is my list for today (6/30/26)
Before I was retired, it was pretty easy to get most
everything done. Most of my day was at work, and all I had to do was put my
catcher’s mitt on to be ready for whatever came my way. I could plan all I
wanted to, but if I didn’t get those things done in the first hour of each day,
all the plans I’d made went right out the window. Sometimes, it was like I was
a mother to a bunch of middle-aged men. It was during these years that I began
to learn about patience. Interesting how that happens.
Another interesting thing that happened this morning was that
I got three Substack Notes written. It was like they fell out of the sky for
me. I didn’t even think to myself, “Oh, I think I’ll write some Substack Notes.”
There was the blank piece of paper, and the words started flowing. The thing
about Notes for Substack
is I try to make them shorter than my articles. Usually, my articles for all
the places I write range from a minimum of 500 words to close to 2,000. It
varies and just depends on what I’ve got to say. But the Substack Notes I like
to keep short, though some can edge toward 300 words or so. Scheduling them is
easy, and I never put a picture in with them. I’d have to read other people’s
notes to see how they do theirs. I’ve noticed we’ve got two sorts of readers.
The kind who don’t want to read very much and others who like to read the
longer stuff. So, I do both.
With Medium, Substack, and Vocal.Media, writers can take
advantage of Unsplash for illustrating what they write. I also use Canva.com,
which costs about $120 a year if you pay for the whole thing in one payment,
and those are the pictures I use on the websites I have on Blogger.com. Over
time, it’s become easier for me to create those illustrations, but Canva really
got a workout when I was making YouTube Videos. Good stuff.
Yes, I know I could use Adobe Acrobat, and years ago I used
Illustrator and Photoshop, but I never got proficient with them, and they are
expensive programs. My husband uses Adobe Creative Cloud and has access to all
the programs. I could avail myself of his membership, but I’ve never quite
gotten the hang of keeping my own files separate from his. Also, I didn’t want
to mess up his files. Where I would like to use the program is if I ever got
back into making videos. I do know that writing is one thing. Translating
whatever you’ve written into videos? That is a whole other ball of wax. Time
will tell.
Today, the last day of June, is me closing the door on a
month where I will have written some 76,000 words. I’d say my writing stamina is improving, and I might plan to write another book soon.
Thanks for reading.
🌺Pauline Evanosky
Where I am Online
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