Word of the Year

This time each year we Love Cats often talk about resolutions, hopes and plans for the new year. Knowing by now how limited my willpower is, I don't do resolutions, so for me it's all about the WORD OF THE YEAR.  

This year my word of the year is LIGHT.

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For oh how that word can mean so many good things such as fairy lights, chandeliers, joy, glitter, happiness, ease, starlight, sunshine, rainbows, glints, glimmers, shiny things, delight, warmth, fun, laughter, a child's smile, simplicity... Letting in every ounce of light is my plan for the year. Gorgeous right?

But today I'm going to talk about a word that came really close. 

Who here has heard the Danish word "hygge"? (Pronounced hue-guh.)  Well, if you haven’t I know you’ll be glad you now have.

Here is what it means:

How lovely does that sound?!

And in order to give yourself over to hygge, you need not adopt it as a lifestyle choice, buy any special outfits, there is no set menu or adjustments to your food intake required.

It’s much more of a feeling.

Hygge simply asks that you be more present, more conscious, and that you slow down so that you might recognise those things that make you feel cosy, warm, secure, reassured, simple and content.

It could be lighting a scented candle. Making a cup of coffee or tea. Choosing a beautiful china cup from which to drink it. Covering yourself in a blanket. Eating a home cooked meal. Settling into a nook with a book.

It’s found in ritual. In making the every day into an art form. In seeing domestic life as something beautiful.

This word is my bliss. My happy place. I am a natural. I literally get goosebumps every time I think about it. For I cannot imagine of a more perfect, comforting, warm, wondrous way of choosing to see those moments that over the course of our lives we discover give us the simplest joy.

So this year, as I endeavour to let there be light, by turning my face to the sun, soaking in every one of my children's smiles, and being a conscious hyggelist, who’s with me?

When you are a writer, you spend so much time sitting. I haven’t invested yet in a walking desk like Bronwyn Jameson (must look into it properly), but I do know that I have to pay attention to my health with all this sitting.

So, I run. People often ask, “Do you enjoy running?” Answer – only occasionally, but I do enjoy having run. It’s such an efficient way to get exercise done. Straight out my front door, down our undulating country lane past the cows and the farms, past the view to Lennox Head and back. Today I ran eight kilometers (each week I try for longer run on the weekends). I woke up late after a school trivia night (we came second and won a case of wine!) and it was so hot. I sooooooo wanted to walk instead but made myself hit my goal.

Image courtsey pixabay.com

It is the same with writing. When people find out I’m a writer, they often say, ‘I’m planning to write a book’. My university students too, have big dreams of writing novels. But dreams need plans. Need goals. And writing a book is hard work.  I find I’m so much more productive with a plan. Short-term daily plans and those longer term plans. I haven’t been so good with the longer term plans lately and it makes me feel a little lost, so I’m determined when this semester of teaching and marking is over, I plan to really take the time to plan. Should I do a PhD, for example, not a decision to take flippantly.

 

What about you? Are you a planner or just see where the day and life take you, or something else? I’d love to hear.

'Being Organised': One Writer's Life's Dream

My name is Ally Blake and I am a planner.

In fact, I honestly don't understand people who aren't!  How can you nutty non-planners possibly keep track of all that has to be done without writing it down?  Without a to-do list how do you wild and crazies live with that fluttery feeling that you might have forgotten something?!?!

I also adore symmetry.  And even numbers (petrol gauge, volume on the TV, even always).  I like stripes and spots. I love black and white. I adore renovation shows but would happily only watch the big reveal. All that neatness!  And tidiness!  And paint that's yet to be marred by a single dirty fingerprint!  The unclutter movement is my bliss.  I've done KonMari. The William Morris quote “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” gives me happy chills!

And yet - in the eternal dichotomy that is human existence - I don't see mess. It's comes part and parcel with my (diagnosed) 'Off With the Fairies' disorder. How can one possibly keep ones house tidy all the time when there are imaginings to be imagined? For example, I could walk over a bobby pin sitting on the stairs a dozen times and not notice it.  Or if I do I'll tell myself to pick it up later.  Just ask my husband - he's the one with the (undiagnosed) Just Pick It Up when You See It condition.  This also comes down to the fact that I have no willpower.  Am distracted by bright shiny things.  And happily lose great tracts of time to faffing.

And thus, in order to maintain a base level of sanity, my eternal pursuit for Being Organised is real.

Here are a few mantras and hacks that have helped me at least feel more organised:

DO IT NOW
Answer emails, texts and invitations the moment you read them!  The longer you leave them unanswered the more weight they place on your shoulders.  And it just keeps piling up.

WRITE IT DOWN
Think of something you need 'to do' write it down.  On a scrap, on your hand. Keep a master list somewhere - I use my Bullet Journal.

TICK IT OFF
Ticking things off you to do list is one of the best things you can do for yourself. It's been scientifically proven that you'll get a dopamine hit every time you make that tick. And you feel physically lighter!



@TheOrganisedWriter

CLEAR YOUR HEAD
Before getting to the meat of my day (the writing of the books) I now know I need to do a few things to clear my head first.  Admin things, preparation things, creative things. For me its a form of meditation.  Cleansing of the creative palette.

UNPLUG
Once the preparation is done - unplug.  Switch off.  Put your head down and work.  Distraction is the key to your undoing.

IF IT ISN'T BEAUTIFUL OR FUNCTIONAL, LOSE IT.
I'm a big one for finding your bliss and swimming in it till you're all pruney. So ditch the clutter and surround yourself with things that give you joy.  Lighter and brighter all the way, baby.

And if anyone has a magical piece of organisational advice to add, please share!  My learning on this score will never be done.

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Anyone coming to the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Brisbane this month, I'm holding a workshop entitled The Organised Writer in which I'll share hints and hacks to help others like me to organise their space, their time and their heads in order to write more, write clean, write better.  Head over to The Organised Writer facebook page for more.https://www.facebook.com/theOrganisedWriter/

All About The Planning

by Bronwyn Jameson

I am a planner by nature.  I believe I’ve admitted before that this should have been my career. Planning in some guise or other, whether as an EA running someone else’s life, or a travel planner, or an events planner, or a book planner (I wish this were a real job -- can I admit that I love planning a story about 1000% more than actually writing it?)

This extends beyond writing to other areas of my life. Perhaps I should say, to ALL areas of my life.

I have a spreadsheet for pretty much everything.  Books read, books bought and unread, books wishlisted.  Finances, macro and micro.  Shares.  Frequent flyer points.  Credit card spending.  I do a weekly meal plan and shopping list according to the menu. (Full disclosure: I don’t always stick to the plan, but that’s another story!)

My greatest enjoyment of all comes from travel planning.  My family cannot believe how much time and effort I put into the process, but here’s the thing: I do it because I love it.  The googling, the reading, the budgeting.  The shuffling of options.  If only we could stay at ALL the hotels on my carefully curated list!  If only we could do ALL the day-trips!  If only we had more days, more nights, more weeks! 

Afternoon tea with a view: Aqua Shard

Our big trip this year is to London, primarily to visit our son and daughter-in-law, but with a side-trip or three.  Hence my wish for more time than we can afford to take!

I've decided in recent years that every trip should include at least one bucket-list item and special treat. The treat is likely to be food and beverage related,  something I would usually reject as ridiculously overpriced or unhealthily calorific (or both!)  A starred restaurant or cocktails with a view or an afternoon tea somewhere iconic.  That kind of thing.

A room with a view: Hotel Endsleigh

As for the bucket-list, I'm tossing up between staying in a castle or a grand country house which, come to think of it, would also be a special treat.  But, oh, the fun of the research.  The choices! The rooms! The history! The countryside views! THE FOOD!

Decisions must be made at some stage in the next few months, and then bookings. But for now we’ve locked in the flights (a big bucket-list tick) and booked accommodation for our London stay.  The rest I’m dragging out while loving every day of anticipation.   

How about you...  Do you love the planning almost as much as (or even more than) the doing?  

What do you like to plan, and what areas of your life do you prefer to wing?

Bullet Journal Bliss

My name is Ally Blake and I'm a stationery addict.

No surprises there. I've been self-confessed for a long time.  I only mention it here as it was the jumping off point for my topic of the day - the glory of the Bullet Journal.

Heard of it?  Then you surely understand my excitement.  If not...welcome to the jungle.

I have a calendar in my phone, sure. And I use it. Religiously.  But I also buy a calendar every year (see confession above). And a planner/diary.  Or two.  (They're just so pretty - how can I not?!?!)  The calendar gets a good work out, sitting as it does on my kitchen bench.  In it I scribble birthdays, colour in school days, note any appointments or events, though its mostly for my husband's benefit as this is the kind of stuff a woman has floating in her head all the time - am I right? Though it often gets hidden beneath school notes, grocery lists, and to do lists. Oh the to do lists!!  So many scraps of paper begun in earnest and ending up covered in coffee rings, with torn corners and half-hearted ticks and crosses.  As for the planners - I'm lucky to get past February.  Why?  Because they are never quite set out just right. They simply don't suit my needs.

Still with me?

Because this is where the Bullet Journal comes in.

The Bullet Journal was a paper notebook journaling system created by a digital product designer (ironic, right) named  Ryder Carroll as a way of creating a planner that works for you. That's right.  You create the planner yourself!  From scratch!  No static, built-in days/dates/layouts but an adaptable, evolving planner that is shaped as you go.

Making it a calendar, a planner and to do list compilation all in one.   Oh my...

Basically, you begin with a notebook.  Any notebook. (I use the Leuchtturm1917 A5 dot point - in case you were wondering :) ).  Then you google - Pinterest and Instagram are your serious go to spots - to get ideas on where to go from there!

Ryder suggests creating a key at the start of your journal so as to encourage consistency - circles for tasks, squares for events, or whatever kind of bullet points you please - also drawing a calendar each month, breaking it down into weekly layouts, and including to-do-lists as you go.  But as you'll see down the page, its truly up to you.

 

I've added layouts in which to write every book I read over the course of the year.  Every movie I see.  Funny lines the kids say that I don't want to forget. This year I've made a detailed list of every section of the house as I plan to declutter the lot and watching those little circles turn into black dots as I cross things off the list is bliss!

Ryder's original Bullet journal design is very simple.  Spare.  Black and white and uber tidy.  I have friends who claim theirs look like chicken scratches.  Half the reason I adore the system is the chance to stretch my creative muscles whenever I get the chance so mine is full of doodles, pretty banners and colour.

The main point being it can look however YOU want it to look!  It can function however YOU want it to function.

But the real beauty of the thing is that if this week's layout doesn't work for you, next week you turn the page and try something different!  Use the bits that work for you, ditch the bits that don't, and add the bits that you feel are missing. Miss a week and it doesn't matter. The Bullet Journal is forgiving. It is always fresh.  And it can be whatever you want it to be!!!

As for stationery, I may only get one planner a year now but oh the pretty Post Its, and colouring pencils, and writing pens, and washi tape, and...

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Find out all about the evolution of the Bullet journal here: http://bulletjournal.com/.  and trawl through Ally's Instagram follows for lots more wonderful #bujoaddicts and inspiration on how you might set up one of your own.