On Productivity and Ongoing Creative Growth

Last month, I gave an interview to a fellow writer who's working on an ongoing series about productivity. He was very nice, not to mention very thorough. He asked me about everything from my morning routine, to my favorite productivity tools, to what advice I'd give to anyone struggling to make progress on projects of their own. I am proud to say I had a good answer to give on every front.

I'm also a little surprised at myself. I've been yelling into the void that is the internet for a long time at this point, and if you've been following me around for long, you know exactly how much progress I've made over the years on that front. The part of me that still remembers being that scattered, disorganized mess can't believe I've grown into someone with an actual system. 

And let me tell you, that system makes every bit as much difference as the productivity experts have always said that it does. I keep a schedule now, and it's vitally important to me to the point where I actually get pissed off if something disrupts it. I have a calendar that I consult every single day, and it's color-coded. I'm journaling again. And I'm doing it for the sake of actual mindfulness, as opposed to simply wanting a place to vent my many frustrations with life. 

No wonder I'm doing so much better these days. I never thought of myself as a system person before, but I now feel confident in saying systems are for everyone. And if you're having trouble meeting goals you set for yourself or making time for everything you want to do, implementing a system that works for you will help you turn things around, guaranteed. 

........

That said, I've officially begun scheduling all of my writing tasks on my calendar, as opposed to just deadlines for clients. I've made up my mind that I'll be posting on Medium a minimum of twice a week now, and I've done an excellent job of keeping up with that through the last half of August and all of September. 

I've also started a Medium pub of my own to post to. It's called Elevated Living, and I've been using it as a landing pad for a lot of my self-improvement themed content lately. I do still submit content to other pubs, as well as self-publish anything that's very personal in nature, but it's been nice to have a pub of my own. I'm also sending out a monthly newsletter via Elevated. The first issue went out last night and future editions will go out at the end of subsequent months.

After realizing that my most recent post here before this one was over a month old, I decided to commit to at least one new post here weekly, as well. So, if you've been reading this blog or looking at it as a possible resource for the future, know that new content will be coming a lot more regularly. Bear with me! I'm definitely working on it.

I still get a lot of questions via email about writing -- how to get started as a freelancer, specifics about Medium, and so forth. I'm now on Quora, and I answer an abundance of questions about writing there. That would be a great place to check for that sort of information or send me any additional questions you might have. I do my best to add new answers at least a couple of times a week, so definitely add me there if you also use the platform.

Beyond that, stay tuned. I've been working on some cool things that should be launching or otherwise surfacing very soon here. No one can say I'm not making the most of quarantine!