Reading, journaling and photo challenges, oh my!

Clouds provide plenty of photo ops

It’s the last day of a long weekend, the longest of the year for most, and we now have another holiday under our belts and will soon be celebrating the next. 

But for now, it's a good day to stay in, so I’m enjoying this last non-busy, non-stressful, no-need-to-drive-anywhere-if-I-don’t-want-to kind of day. Yesterday I spent a full afternoon working on my novel and felt incredibly accomplished by the end of the day. Today, I am leaving what I do to the moment or mood and right now, I feel like blogging, while listening to Christmas music. Yes, I'm one of those people this year.  J

As we’re about to move on to the last month of the year, I’ve been thinking about where I am with regard to the goals and mindful intentions I made early this year. Will I have made good use of the 365 days as we close out another year? I’ll be posting my end-of-the-year update next month; some goals I completed, others I’m still working on or maybe haven’t even begun, but I’ll share more about what tools I’m using to reach my goals (or work toward reaching them) with regard to my specific mindful intentions for 2017.

In the meantime, the month of November was about spending time with family, focusing on health (there’s so much crud going around!), and writing.Oh, and reading, of course. And journaling. And taking in the moment to capture photos here and there when the mood strikes me. 

While I’m always reading one or two fiction novels at a time, I’m also reading the non-fiction book, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’ve already read the book, but I decided to join an online book club challenge and it’s the book they proposed. I decided I liked the idea of reading the book again along with other creative women and hearing how they interpret or relate to it. In the process I may have also found an online writing community, so that’s a plus.

I’ve also been working on a journal that is probably the most difficult one yet…I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to start a bullet (or dot) journal. Not what you expected me to say when you think of difficult journaling? Well, it is. I use paper planners. I love them…I’m a paper planner fanatic, sad to say. But I also make tons of to-do lists or lists in general, constantly, and not always in my planner because the planners don’t accommodate me in that regard. Which means my planner is usually full of loose pages of lists. So, I’ve been looking at the idea of bullet journaling, and began a “test” project for these last three months of 2017 to see whether I’d like it, or stick with it, before I decide to commit to a whole year. So far, the jury is still out. I like the idea, and I know it could probably be the best fit for me with everything I need to keep track of, but it’s a huge change from what I’ve been use to. Either way, I have another month to go; we’ll see what happens.

This time of year can be really stressful for many and lately I’ve felt an aversion to anything that has too much negativity, raging opinions or commercialization. I’m “this close” to unsubscribing from a number of people who clog my inbox with buy-my-latest-item emails and when it comes to social media, I’m more in love with Instagram since I first began using it. Rarely does a post on Instagram make me frown or cringe and I like using it to share my own photos. I enjoy taking photographs because it’s a great way to get caught in the moment, find the beauty where you are and enjoy time to yourself while you capture what draws your attention away from this noisy life. December is the time when we reflect on the year as a whole and I look forward to taking part in another December Reflections challenge by author/blogger/photographer Susannah Conway. This month-long challenge is a mixture of photography and journaling…so, of course, I love it. It’s also a great way to look back on the year, whether in photos or with journal prompts, in preparation for how I’m going to approach the coming New Year.

But now I’m getting ahead of myself – I’ll enjoy these last few days in November before diving into the month of December. 

Whether you read, write, journal, take photos or all of the above, I hope you’re able to find time during this busy season to let the moment or mood strike you in order to enjoy some extra quality time to yourself.

An extra hour with snow is my kind of day!

An extra hour in the day – it can feel like a gift, those extra sixty minutes. If I have to admit to how I used my extra hour today, it’s probably the time I spent going outdoors to take photos of the snow we were treated to this morning and sharing those photos on social media with my friends and family. October treated us to some very nice weather, but November appears to have other ideas, having shown its hand with a dusting of snow as early as the second day of the month and a good amount today. 

1st good snow of 2017

If I had to pick one of my favorite weekends of the year, this is one of them, because I love the idea of getting an extra hour in my day. Sometimes I use it wisely, other times I don’t, but I like the idea of it, just the same. Of course, six months from now when we turn our clocks back, I often wonder why the heck we still take part in daylight savings because I thoroughly dislike the idea of actually losing a whole hour of my day.

But do we have to wait for daylight savings to gain that extra hour? Or can we easily find an extra hour or more every week depending on how we use our time? 

Well, of course it depends on whether we use our time wisely; it’s just not always that simple.

I’ve come to recognize that the concept of time management is going to be a lifelong work in progress; there’s just no getting around that. Not because it’s a difficult concept to learn, but because life happens. Things change. You may get to a place where you have it all figured out but then discover you have to adjust your schedule around new obligations, other people, different schedules. What you learn is how to adjust your expectations of how to manage your time depending on what you currently need to account for.

As we move into this new month, I’m preparing myself so that I can stay on task. October had a lot going on, and I don’t expect November to be any different. What I have always liked about November is that it can be a good month to find the extra time to stay in and write and is also the reason taking part in NaNoWriMo can work for me. However, with many things to focus on currently, both personally and professionally, I had to admit to myself that I just wouldn’t be able to find the extra time needed to join and commit to NaNoWriMo this month. 

Sometimes you just have to acknowledge that while you may be able to find extra time in the day, you might not be able to find time for everything you’d like to do. I gave up joining NaNoWriMo for that reason. I feel good about my decision and I know there’s always next November, or even Camp Nano in the spring or summer before that if I so choose.

Instead, I’ll be completing the tasks necessary to publish the fourth book in the Jorja Matthews’ mystery series, as well as other to-do’s I need to focus on in order to prepare for the end of the year. This upcoming New Year will include many changes for me, leaving me with a lot to complete in order to accommodate these changes. As those who know me are aware, I’m not one to nonchalantly take on change, so I’m making good use of the time I have to prepare myself. Regardless of the fact that change is coming and my time management skills will again be put to the test, it is all positive and exciting and I am eager to see what this next year has in store.

In the meantime, I think I’ll make more use of my extra time today to enjoy taking more photographs. 

Have a great week!