Day 10

Here I am at the half way point. There are still so many things I hope to accomplish with the blogging aspect of this.

The next 21 Day Challenge is already identifying itself and will hopefully begin after the new year. It has definitely helped to have this public accountability to do something every day.

Tonight marks the anniversary of the first date with the man who was to become my husband. This past year was our 25th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed dinner out tonight and now he is out raking snow off the roof and I am here, blogging, but not for long. It was nice to have a break, no matter how brief.

I have already done some general printer and cutter maintenance and some notepad cutting.  I have worked my promised hour and I am keeping it at that tonight. 

I am really enjoying the fish, too.

Visitors and Statistics

Numbers and Places
I love stats!  Who knew?  I must say that I do not get very many comments on this blog so my site counter and the stats from my blog tell me not only how many people have stopped by for a visit, but what country they live in.  That is so exciting to me.  So far I have people from 9 countries who have visited my blog and I have topped over 500 visits. Although, I believe at least half of those might be mine from checking in daily and doing general blog maintenance.

A Confession
Now, I believe when I began this blog I said it was for me to journal my process of redesigning my career and beginning a new business from scratch, along with the day to day of life.  And it is. That doesn't mean I don't want and enjoy having visitors stop in.  Truthfully, if I was writing totally just for me, I would journal in a notebook. I have realized that I was hoping for more visitors and feedback. I do, after all, have a full coffee pot on, figuratively speaking.   I was hoping for company.

Comments 
So, here it is.  Talk to me!  I know I am not the only person new to blogging or working on creating a new business-or who have ever been new to blogging or creating a new business.  I can't be the only 50something person in transition and trying to figure out what is next.  If you can relate to something I have said or have a suggestion for an idea or solution to a problem, I would love to hear from you. If you have had a similar situation/experience to something I might have written about, I would love to hear how you handled it.  I could really stand to hear some success stories....and even some struggle stories, especially if they ended successfully. 

Shameless Request
There you have it.  I really appreciate the comments that have been left.  I have wonderful friends.  I appreciate those I do not know who have stopped by and I am asking that those who do not know me, yet, also drop me a note to say "Hi" and tell me what you think about my blog, about something I have said, about something you would like me to talk about....   If you have a blog, let me know. I will stop by and say "Hi" to you.  I should really be visiting more blogs anyway to enrich and expand my knowledge of blogging. Come on! Let's support each other.

So until next time, talk with you later!
Lyn

Multitasking

How many things can one person do at the same time and still make any of them worthwhile? I intend to find out.

Well, that was fast.  Apparently I can not watch TV, visit with family, and blog at the same time.  Go figure.  I miss key points in the show-even a mindless one-I only half hear what someone sitting next to me says and I loose my train of thought while writing. TV watching, family time, and blog writing all become unsatisfying.

I do believe however, right or wrong, that this is a necessary skill that I must learn to master.  I don't mean specifically watching TV and blogging at the same time, but serious multiasking at home. I have recently added enough things to my daily 'to do' list that I would be up late into the night to get it all done.  I prefer sleep.  So, tonight I watch and write. The person sitting with me has already left the room.  :-(

Wait!  What just happened on TV?!

So far, mulitasking at home this evening has included feeding the dogs, letting them out, etc. while beginning to read a book, Problogger, and writing and visiting while watching TV.  I still need to get some time in with one of my online classes and I think it is only fair to get some downtime in, too. Isn't it?  Fair, I mean.

I have this dream, this goal, that keeps me moving. And multitaskaing isn't really as bad as all that, is it? (I just edited this the next day because my writing here was fragmented, maybe I should take a second look at serious multitasking)  After the dogs were taken care of and played with, after the dinner dishes were cleaned, after the dogs were taken care of, again, I was able to sit for 30 minutes to read my book undisturbed.  And what is on TV this evening is not really anything that needs much attention. And as soon as I finish this post, I will go and visit again.

Stella and Marley

In reality, I am not a big supporter of serious multitasking in life.  I think we all do it on a regular basis to some degree as a normal part of our life.  But I mean serious multitasking on a regular, long term, ongoing basis.  Some people may thrive on it, I do not. Nor do I want to.  However, there are times when I also believe that it is necessary.  This is one of those times and I actually welcome the challenge because of the passion I have for the end goal.  I also welcome the challenge to ensure that I do not loose touch with other important and essential parts (people) of my life.

I am not sure how long I can, or should, sustain a serious level of multitasking in the weeks or months to come. I know there will be a lot of it.  I also know from experience in other endeavors that I will, in time, work into a pattern of activity which will allow me to do less serious multitasking.  I welcome that time.  Until then, I am grateful for the understanding and support of my family.

Now, go back to my question at the beginning of this post.  What are some ways you multitask? When is it too much? How do you keep your multitasking from being too much?  I welcome your comments. 

Time to go visit.
Lyn

Progress Is Good

Do something every day.

This is what I keep telling myself if my business of the heart, and learning how to be an awesome blogger, is to succeed.  It doesn't matter right now if it is big or little, takes all day or only moments. What matters is that I keep the momentum going.  I feel the pull of that momentum, the passion for the task, the excitement that keeps me moving forward. 

However, I know from past experience that with so many other aspects of life tugging at me for my energy, once the ball stops rolling, the energy stops with it. My dreams and heart are put on hold, by choice, to attend to other things I also hold in high value. Now, I am also choosing to make room and time to give voice to my dreams, my heart. So I do something every day to keep the energy moving forward.

So, what have I been doing since I last wrote? In no particular order (because I don't think I could remember), I have;

1. registered, downloaded and begun two online classes about Internet writing and using my photoshop elements.
2. jotted down many notes, resources, and websites-ordered a few new books (I love books!)
3. continued to try and figure out affiliates
4. researched and read other blogs and businesses similar to my vision of what I plan to create
5.thought, what seems to be 24/7, about various aspects of my business and how it should harmonize with the rest of my life.This is probably the deepest stuff for me. 
6. tried to come up with some sort of financial plan for the transition from full time to hopeful new business
7. decided on my next blog, I think, though I am still not ready to begin it until I have work through some other things-like html codes and customizing pages and affiliates.


Of course, each of those things leads to more things. One of the biggest things I feel I need to do right now is organize and get all this into some sort of working order. I would like to be able to come home from work at my FT job, transition for 30 minutes, make dinner etc, then sometime each evening sit in "my space" and dig into where my passion lies.  Currently, I have been fitting it in here and there and it feels disjointed.

So I think before I proceed with anything new, it is time to recap where I am and establish a working order that gives value to my dream.  This is a hands-on, offline, sort of task.  I'll let you know how it goes.

As always, any ideas and thoughts are welcome.  I would be interested, in particular, on ideas related to successful blogging and home office organization.

I need a coffee refill.  How about you?

Live and Learn

One lesson I have learned in life, over and over, is whenever I begin to take myself too seriously, something happens or the universe sends me a message reminding me to knock it off.

The other day when I was thinking about naming my blog(s), future website and/or e-store, I was getting quite stressed. They have to be just right to convey the right meaning or idea, or at least I want them to be. Anyway, two things happened in short order. The first was that I drove by a sign (oh, I didn't mention this was consuming my thinking even as I was driving and hauling a trailer with 6 canoes, not a good thing, I know). I can't quote it exactly and I'm not going to go look up chapter and verse right now, but the quote is a familiar one, 'I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.' Ah, I began to relax. I am not alone. Then, just moments down the road, I noticed a coyote out in broad daylight along the side of the road. He was standing there watching the cars go by, head moving side to side as he watched. His mouth was open in a pant and I swear he was smiling, or laughing, as coyotes are known to do. Alright, enough already! Comforted and cajoled at the same time, I put my worries aside, laughed at myself and focused more keenly on my task at hand, driving.

I also learned a couple things from my first blog and both are things I should have already known. First, double check spelling. I hope I have fixed my typos. Secondly, nothing is as easy as someone says it should be. A few friends tried to post comments, but couldn't. Thanks to the "Help" button I figured out I had to change some settings and am still not sure they are where I want them. I also changed my URL to something a little easier to remember and type in. My original ideas were not available and I had to come up with something last minute, so now it is done. Another joke on me, after all my worries about a name.

Now I am working on learning about widgets and gadgets and adding pages and links. Some other things I am considering for my blog(s) are whether to have one blog and several tabs or several blogs with few, or no, tabs. I am leaning toward several blogs. I am also wondering and learning about webhosts and e-stores. I am sure there will be more mistakes, no...opportunities for learning, as I go along. I will try to remember I am not alone and to keep laughing.

Once again, I invite your feedback. Share a lesson learned or a helpful how-to about blogging.
It's late, too late for coffee, think I'll go pour some iced lemonaide.