I’ve gotten into this purging habit. Around the middle of February, I clear out my filing cabinet, and shred any papers that are useless or I don’t need anymore. Bills, sales receipts, accounting documents, and manuscripts that should have never seen the light of day. This got me to thinking how I could apply shredding to my writing career. What am I doing that isn’t working anymore? What book marketing strategies need to be purged? What type of book promotions are a waste of time? Is blogging worth the effort?
Does any of these questions sound familiar?
March is the month I revise my business and life plan. So I thought, what better way to shred the old from my life (things that aren’t working), keep what’s working, and start up with new ideas. I love it when I’ve gone through the filing cabinet, cleaned out the files, then either shred any bills older than 2 years, or file the rest in a plastic container for a period of one year. The exception being our taxes, which I keep for the recommended seven years. The filing cabinet seems so much lighter after this task is done. And for some reason, so do I.
Sitting down to revise my business and life plan this year, I went through the document page by page, striking what I’ve accomplished under the WORKS IN PROGRESS subtitle (and feeling good about it), to eliminating what I thought were time wasters (blog hops, certain social media groups, dropping Tumblr) under AUTHOR BRAND AND PLATFORM. Blogging is time consuming, but I believe my name (BRAND) is getting enough weekly Google Alerts and views to continue creating posts. When it came to the subtitle PROMOTION AND MARKETING STRATEGY I added a few new ideas, and kept the old tried and true. Goodreads Giveaways and Book Blog Tours (only for new releases) seem to work well for me. I’ve recently joined Pinterest, so I’ll see how this pans out for me in the future, creating boards based on my characters, time travel historical settings, and personal interests. Wink.
I’m also very happy with the freedom I have with my new publishers, Mirror World Publishing, who have promised to keep a yearly slot open for my ongoing time travel series The Last Timekeepers. This year, I will have Book #2: The Last Timekeepers and the Dark Secret out sometime in the fall. I’ve already started gathering research for Book #3, and I'm looking forward to delving into a fresh story. I know the key is to focus on what I enjoy, and build for the long term. That’s what a lot of writers forget—they’re building a career, and careers take time.
So shred what’s not working for you, and lighten up your load. Remember: slowly but surely wins the race. Do you have a yearly shredding ritual? Have you removed what isn’t working for you in your life or career? Would love to hear your comments. Cheers and thank you for reading my blog!
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Sarah -- I couldn't help but laugh. Your children are adorable, the play room looks like a kid's dream place. I'm jealous of them!
I wish you and your kids the best of luck as school rolls around. I can't believe you start so early! I go back the second week of September.
Thanks for sharing, and I hope you're having a great week.
Looks like you're setting up for a bonfire! |:~)
Will you come design a playroom for me??? I promise not to mess it up!
Oh, ha ha! Good luck!
I love seeing that even perfect magazine like playrooms end up looking like that. Seriously. This makes my heart happy.
And I just did a monumental toy purge last week. Two HUGE garbage bags full of plastic crap all given to charity. It felt good on so many levels.
Good luck with all of that. It looks like my garage. I think we filled an entire dumpster with stuff. Seriously.
My van is full of stuff to donate--I mean FULL!!
Plus, I filled up a couple of huge garbage cans.
The large men (my husband and his business partner) moved the large furniture today. Things are looking better, but we're a good ways away from the "after" picture.
I'm trying to figure out how to raise the table with some sort of leg extensions. It's a great table for games, etc.--we're just all getting to the point of needing to sit in real chairs instead of the kid-sized ones.
Anyway, it's good to purge. I was going to wait until the kids went to school to do the deed, but I want to be WORKING when they hit the books. Not crawling on my belly looking for marbles and barbie shoes.
sf
Purge, sister!
Glad to see you back!
We have all our computers downstairs, in the open (except for the college student.....her laptop goes everywhere.) I can't recommend it enough!
When my oldest two were little, we had a sunroom which became the toy room. Oh those were the days! The great thing was that no matter how big of a mess they made in the toy room, they always had a nice, clean room to sleep in.
No sun room in this house=toys EVERYWHERE (youngest child).
Good Luck!
shelley
I'm so glad to see that I'm not the only one being overwhelmed by childhood peraphenalia! Those magazine shots always make me feel so inadequate, so thank you for keeping it real!
Yes! The purge is so good, Miss J. !! I think I needed a little cleaning out time--kind of like starting the new year fresh.
Shelley, I love having the "toy" room. When we bought our house, it had been cut into three one-bedroom apartments (I'll post those "before" pix sometime), so we had three kitchens. This room was one of the kitchens. It looks big in pictures because of all of the windows, but the room is actually barely 9 x 10 feet. It is right off of our family room, and I let the girls do whatever they want in there (spill paint, play do, etc.). And, I can shut the door!!! Sorry you lost your toy room. All that STUFF can make a girl crazy.
Ha Solvang! I wish you could have seen my house when the photographers arrived -- SIX HOURS EARLY!! There was literally an entire box of lucky charms spewed all over my kitchen which was the room that they actually came to photograph. They thought it was funny, and while I was cleaning up the cheerios they photographed other rooms saying, "Don't worry, we'll just photoshop out the dirt and stuff."
The girls had been playing in the playroom all day, and they thought they were so cute. So, we raked out the room (what you can't see is the huge mess just behind the picture), and the girls posed for pix.
sf
Well it may be messy but it's absolutely adorable! I'd love to have a room like that in my house...messy or not!
Beautiful words include here i like this information, good ..............
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Christena
Getting a Payday advance is just a few steps away
I wish we had a playroom! Lovely. I have a corner of my living room that looks like that where the boys pile stuff on their train table!
Great pics and nice information to us........
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Richard
One Stop shop for all your Email Marketing Solutions
love the before and after photos!