On November 10, 2006, I published my first post on this blog. It was entitled, What is organized?. Not surprisingly, it received zero comments. I’m pretty tickled to report that reading it now doesn’t embarrass me!
Tagged with: accomplishments, anniversary reflections, blogging, blogs, habits, writing
As the year wraps up, I thought I’d take a look back at my favorite posts of 2021. I narrowed it down nine that I thought were particularly helpful. I hope you find them useful (or at least interesting)!
I started my Peace of Mind Organizing blog on November 10, 2006 with a post called What is organized? In the 15 years since, I’ve published 1532 posts (including my Worth Repeating posts, where I revisit favorite posts).
I can’t believe it. Today, I celebrate 14 years of blogging. I started my Peace of Mind Organizing blog on November 10, 2006. My first post was, What is organized?
On November 29, I finished writing a novel. Every five years since 2004, I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month and each of those years I’ve succeeded in writing a 50,000-word novel in 30 days or fewer. It felt great to finish. I was very busy with client work this November, so writing my novel required me to get up an hour early to squeeze in my words and I was ready to sleep in!
Tagged with: deadlines, goals, nanowrimo, productivity, writing
I first wrote this post on October 29, 2009, when I was about to embark on my second attempt to write a novel in a month as part of National Novel Writing Month. I repeated it on October 31, 2014, when I wrote a third novel. It’s clearly a pattern that every five years I write a novel (none of which have barely been re-read, let alone published), so I’m gearing up for my fourth attempt, starting next week.
Tagged with: deadlines, goals, nanowrimo, worth repeating, writing
On November 10, this blog turned 12. My first blog post, called What is organized?, was published November 10, 2006. I’m really grateful that my website designer, Nora Brown, suggested I start a blog. In the 12 years, I’ve written over 1200 posts, which at an average 450 words per post is a whole lot of words.
Tagged with: deadlines, goals, nanowrimo, productivity, worth repeating, writing
Ten years ago today, I published my first blog post, called What is organized? It feels like I’ve been blogging forever, but at the same time, those ten years went by quickly!
Today is a big day. I’m posting my 1000th post on this blog! I find it a little hard to believe. I’ve been blogging just over eight years, which averages to about 2.5 blog posts a week. Right now, I’m blogging twice a week, so it looks like I’m right on track!
Yesterday, I completed the novel I was writing for National Novel Writing Month. I had 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel. I had no doubt I would finish the novel in time—this is the 3rd one I’ve written over the last ten years, so I knew I had it in me. (I do it in five-year increments.) But it still feels really good.
Tagged with: deadlines, goals, nanowrimo, productivity, writing
As I wrote on Friday, I’m writing a novel this month. This is my third novel. I do it for the fun of the challenge.
When I was writing my 1700 words this morning, I found myself doubting the quality of my work. Was this plot stupid? Was the writing sophisticated enough? Is this a waste of time? Then I realized it didn’t matter. What’s important here is that I meet my goal and write 50,000 words in 30 days. The quality of the words is neither here nor there.
Tagged with: goals, perfectionism, writing
I published the post below on October 29, 2009, when I was about to start my second novel as part of National Novel Writing Month. I did complete that novel in a month (and have yet to read it again). I also wrote one in 2004. Since my first two were five years apart, and five years has elapsed since the second one, I decided to go for it again. I have my spreadsheet ready and I’ve been thinking about plot points. On Saturday, November 1, I’ll write my first 1667 words (or more).
Tagged with: deadlines, goals, nanowrimo, worth repeating, writing
I started my blog on November 10, 2006. I was in Barbados on my blog’s actual anniversary, so didn’t post about it that day. But today, I thought I’d do my annual blogiversary post.
Tagged with: blogging, blogs, rubbermaid, team organizing, writing
Today marks 30 days since I took on a 30-day blogging challenge with my friend and collaborator, Shannon Wilkinson. When she was in St. Louis to hold an in-person habits and routines workshop with me, we got to talking about blogging.
Tagged with: blogging, commitments, habits, shannon wilkinson, writing
As I posted a couple of weeks ago, I made a 30-day blogging commitment with my friend, Shannon Wilkinson. We each vowed to blog daily, Monday through Friday, for at least 30 days.
Tagged with: blogging, commitments, habits, shannon wilkinson, writing
My friend and collaborator, Shannon Wilkinson, was in St. Louis last week for a visit. We held the workshop, Create Freedom and Ease with Habits and Routines, did some great bargain shopping at the Scholarshop and had some great discussions about our businesses.
Tagged with: blogging, commitments, habits, shannon wilkinson, writing
Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of my blog. I can’t believe that I’ve been writing this blog for five years. In that time I’ve created 612 posts. (This is the 613th.) That’s quite a few words!
Today is the 4th anniversary of this blog. My first entry, on November 10, 2006, titled What is organized? was about everyone having personal standards for what they consider organized.
I’m happy to report that I’ve written every day this month on the 50,000-word novel I’m writing for National Novel Writing Month. I’m well on track to accomplish my goal of the completion of a short novel during the month of November.
Tagged with: deadlines, nanowrimo, shannon wilkinson, writing
…which explains why the blog writing has dropped off a little. I’m very excited that I’ve been able to work on my novel-in-a-month piece of fiction each day since November 1.
Tagged with: deadlines, declutter happy hour, decluttering, goals, nanowrimo, shannon wilkinson, writing
National Novel Writing Month is about to start and I’m on board. NaNoWriMo is a worldwide event where people commit to writing a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. (As a point of reference, Catcher in the Rye is about 50,000 words.)
Deadlines used to rule my life. When I was making my living as a writer, deadlines were absolutely everything. I didn’t start a story earlier than necessary to make my deadline. I don’t think in 12 years (and well over a hundred articles, along with eight books) I turned anything in early.
Tagged with: accountability, commitments, deadlines, don't break the chain, knitting olympics, writing
I love having a blog. The freedom to write whatever I want is wonderful. (Way, way back in the day I had a column in PetLife magazine in which I could write whatever I wanted. It was exhilarating.)
But that freedom is a two-edged sword. With little structure surrounding what to write, and no deadlines, it can be very difficult to (1) take the time to post to my blog and (2) come up with something remotely meaningful to write.
Tagged with: blogs, don't break the chain, michael neill, routines, steven pressfield, time management, writing
I earned my living as a freelance writer for ten years before starting my organizing business. Writing comes easy for me. So you’d think that having a blog would be a piece of cake. After all, I get to write whatever I want, whenever I want. So why haven’t I posted an entry in over two weeks?
Tagged with: accountability, coaching, deadlines, writing