Whitespace (and Pen Winners!)

There is no pretty picture this post, alas.  I’ve been busy with several exciting things, and a whole host of boring ones.  None of which are photogenic.

The exciting things are (frustratingly for you and me) top-secret at the moment.  I’m not being coy here, I’d love to tell you about them, but there’s this whole situation with publishing where you work like mad in private and then suddenly “taa-daa!” there’s a finished thing and it’s all shiny and new.

But talking about it beforehand kinda rubs off the new/shiny, and you want the full force of the shiny when it’s finally done, so you keep mum while working on it, although it’s really, really interesting and full of daily triumphs and challenges.  Which is why writers tend to seem quite boring and dull until that brief moment when the shiny thing emerges fully formed as if by magic.

Which is my rambling way of saying: the quieter I gets, the harder I’m likely working.

On to the host of boring things.  (Not my best blog-segue there, perhaps.)

I’ve spent the past two days working hard on getting organized.  I can see whole swaths of desktop now, and my inbox actually has whitespace at the bottom (a tip of the keyboard there to Mimi who recently described that concept to me.)  My current goal is to finish each day with that day’s emails fully taken care of and responded to, as well as 2-3 of my backlog emails until I’m fully caught up.

It’s part of my current push to do less, but do it better.

I’m seeking a balance between work I can achieve and the work I sign up for.  And I’m remembering to leave empty space in my schedule for chaos: the day the kid stays home sick from school, the car breaks, the warp goes hideously awry.  (Hopefully not all on the same day.)

Instead of trying to do it all and being crazy stressed.  I want to do a few things terrifically well with grace and aplomb.

This is part of an ongoing theme in my life.  Less can be better.  Whitespace is good, whether it’s a design, an inbox, a calendar, or a busy mind.

 

Today’s Non-Sequitor: LED Pen Give-Away, Part II

Thank you everyone who left a comment on the last blog post and was entered the LED pen give-away drawing.  It was so much fun reading all your comments!  I liked the ones that cheered for polyester, and the ones that remained skeptical.  I appreciated the encouraging comments about the site and podcast, an extra bonus for me from this bit of give-away whimsy.  I wish that I’d had 94 pens to give away instead of 5!

To pick the winners, I used random.org to select 5 numbers between 1 and 94 (the number of entries).  The winners are…   Sunny, Roadweaver, D. Ferguson,  A. Weaver (an anonymous entrant), and Aunt Janet.  Congratulations!

I’ve emailed the winners privately for their mailing addresses.  If you didn’t get yours yet, please check your spam folder.  (And everyone, adding editor@weavezine.com to your email address book helps make sure my emails and newsletters get to you.)

 

P.S.  For those who asked where I bought the LED pens, there are several sites online if you Google around.  The place I used was FlashingBlinkyLights.com (mostly, I confess, because I liked their domain name.) No affiliation, just a happy customer, etc.

Please share your thoughts: I enjoy your comments and feedback!