Weird to see a blank square on our calendar, given that our calendar is scrawled over with meetings, play dates, appointments and other reminders. Yes, I’m writing this at over a month’s distance. (I’ve changed the date using WordPress wizardry.) The last few days before the summer holidays (especially as the summer holidays involved camping) are a bit of a blur. I know the wife went to work. That’s the only thing on the calendar. Plus, she complains about the trains on WhatsApp. The only way I could tell what I did on Day Thirteen was to look at the dates on the files on my computer and at my emails. I published a blog post on using whiteboards (although I still haven’t worked out how to get the images at the optimum size on my Small Steps blog) and I looked into getting print versions of my self-published books done, because I bought some ISBN numbers. I also altered the Jutoh files for my How to Write a Novel ebook, so maybe I noticed some typos. This is only about a month ago and I can’t really remember what I did, for a whole 24 hours, 1140 minutes, 86400 seconds. What’s more, I was on my own for the day – that’s precious time.
Then I remembered I could look on Facebook. Sometimes a social media addiction can come in handy. Plus, the wife’s birthday was coming up – which gave me an inkling. Turns out I went baking mad on 19th and made three cakes and some cheese scones! One cake for camping, one for her birthday and one for the Pilates summer gathering (see also scones) – which was also that day. AND because it was end of term, there was no dance club after school, so I did school pick up at mid-afternoon – meaning that looking into the print version of my books, buying ISBNs, baking like mad, and going to a Pilates social was all that I could be reasonably expect to do on a Wednesday in July. One of my friends actually wrote on the FB share of the above cake pic “So is this writing?” and I wrote in reply “No it’s recovery.” That was a bit defensive, because I felt guilty about not writing. To be honest, the jury is out on that one. Should I have made three chocolate cakes and some cheese scones on Wed 19th July 2017? Should I have written from 8am until school pick up with no interruptions – no baking, no Pilates social? The thing is, the creative bit of the writing process takes time to get into. 19 days after leaving work, I should probably have been sitting with my feet up somewhere, getting my mojo back by relaxing, especially given the summer holidays / camping / Bournemouth-ing that was to come. So, in retrospect, I learnt three things on Wed 19th July, that blank (ish) day on the calendar:
If you’re interested in taking small steps towards your goals everyday, check out the Small Steps blog where I write about such things 🙂