Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Last year I followed Christine Kane’s lead in choosing one word to guide me through the year. Focus was my word for 2008. What I discovered about finding focus was interesting and quite helpful.

While 2008 was drawing to a close, I began thinking about my word for 2009. Should I stay focused to truly master it or should I move onto a new word?

I went about my daily stuff: checking my email, tweeting, responding to Facebook comments received via email, deleting email notifications of invitations to Kiss the Frog or Toss the Vampire and then declining them on Facebook. I remember screaming in my head, “This is bullshit! There has to be a better way.”

Being in these communities and using these tools is great. Friends, readers and even stalkers can reach me via the method they are most comfortable with: a Facebook comment or message, a tweet or DM on Twitter, a blog comment, or a good, old-fashioned email. Talk about accessibility!

I love being this connected and interacting with people from everywhere. However, there is only one of me; only one left thumb! I find it impossible to keep up, plus do the work that I actually do. I don’t like having 1376 emails in my inbox alone (of which 620 are unread), many of which deserve some kind of response; another 447 Twitter followers yet to follow and Facebook messages in my Bacn “emails I want but not right now” folder; and the list goes on.

There has to be a better way, I say!
A way to mash together
Facebook, Linkedln, Flickr,
YouTube, Viddler, and Twitter.
Please say its so!

This year I will search every
Megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte
On blogs, wikis and tweets,
I’ll be emailing, DMing and PMing
My people, peeps, and tweeps
For wazoodles, widgets and gidgets
To follow, connect and friend
Friends, readers, robots too!

To be the best connector,
Inter-actor and communicator
With one left thumb
I will, I must streamline,
I say, in 2009!

With snow piled up outside, making it impossible for Darrell and I get beyond the front gate, this afternoon was a great time to reflect upon this past year. 2008 was quite a year. I feel like I didn’t have a chance to slow down at all!

Here’s a brief review of my goals for 2008:

My Contribution to the Blogosphere

The blogosphere is all about building relationships. One great way to build those relationships and to contribute back to the blogosphere is to comment on other blogs. My goal was to comment on ten blogs per week – five comments on blogs I had previously commented on to further strengthen those relationships, and five comments on new-to-me blogs to expand my network by forming new relationships.

This year I left 153 comments (make that 154) in the blogosphere, excluding the ones I left during Liz Strauss’ Open Mic Nights and the ones left on various Disaboom blogs. The result wasn’t what I had envisioned. However, part way through the year, I realized leaving comments isn’t the only way to contribute to the blogosphere (or the only measure of success of a blog post). Using Twitter has become a major tool in contributing to the blogging community – and I did my fair share of tweeting this year!

My Word for the Year

I chose FOCUS as my word for 2008. To me, FOCUS entails minimizing my technologically-induced ADHD, decluttering and simplifying my surroundings, multi-tasking only when appropriate – tasks requiring my full attention will receive it.

During my year’s journey, I found being able to focus means setting up the right environment, externally and internally. Having the right tools to complete a task made the single

most difference. I also discovered eight other strategies for finding focus.

My Bucket List

Let’s see what I cross off of my bucket list for 2008:

• Spend more time with my kitty purring in my ear. – That is one of the most soothing sounds I know.
• Listen more to my husband’s beating heart. – His beating heart is the other most soothing and reassuring sound I know.
• Write love letters to him. – Oops! I would like to say right here that Darrell is one of the wisest and most patient people I know. I am honoured to be his wife. 
• Find a way to get to the north shore to watch the eagles soar. – I didn’t get to the north shore. But, I did receive a most spectacular framed photo of an eagle as a surprise birthday gift. (Thanks so much Nance and Damien!)
• Meet more of my invisible friends. – Yes! 
• Be in the ‘real’ world more. – This really depends on the season. At the moment, Darrell and I are unable to get beyond the front gate. We have been cooped up inside for more than two weeks now due to snow. 
• Connect with more of my invisible friends in a real way, if I can’t meet them in person yet. – An ongoing effort. 
• Become more physically active. – Again, depends on the season. 
• Finish selling the first print run of my autobiography. – Autographed copies are still available!
• Continue searching for a cp-friendly bra. – Why the heck did I include this here!
• See Anne Murray in concert, finally! – She was fabulous!
• Get organized for when I do kick the bucket. – It’s a good thing I haven’t kicked the bucket yet!
• Make a positive difference or impact on people’s lives. – I hope I have. You, my readers, can decide.
• Reconnect with my penpal Paivi and my Brownie friend Karen. – Yes! I have made initial contact with both of them. Now to follow up and fill in one another about our lives and such. 

Blog for a Year

In 2007, I was vying for first place in the Blog for a Year contest and the opportunity to be paid to blog for one year. Although I didn’t win the contest, I did land a contract to blog at Disaboom.

I have enjoyed my year at Disaboom and have formed a few more relationships. Learning the Community Server blogging platform was definitely challenging. To be honest, I much prefer WordPress – a lot less frustrating to use.

However, yesterday I was notified my contract was being terminated due to budget reallocation. Not the best news for beginning the New Year. I will miss that bit of income. But, strangely, the contract turned out to be for one year and I made slightly more than I would have had I won the contest. Hmm, a universe thing?

Onto to the next opportunity!

Let’s Feed 100 People Christmas Dinner

This was definitely a moving highlight for me! Thank you to everyone who made this happen.

And thank you for making this a wonderful year! I’d like to wish you health, happiness and love in 2009!

At the opening of 2008, I chose FOCUS as my one word for the year. 

To me, FOCUS entails minimizing my technologically-induced ADHD, de-cluttering and simplifying my surroundings, multi-tasking only when appropriate – tasks requiring my full attention will receive it. With FOCUS, I feel I can accomplish more of why I was put on this earth, and that will create inner peace because I’m doing what I’m meant to do. In turn, that will create a variety of wealth. I’m sensing FOCUS will be quite a powerful mantra for 2008.

I confess that I spent much of the year faltering and beating up myself for not focusing. I didn’t know why I had the attention span of a two-year-old. Occasionally I would find my groove, only to falter again. Telling myself to sit down and focus didn’t cut it for me.

With 2008 nearing the end, I think I have finally figured it out! It’s not about imagining my Mom saying "Now, sit down and get to work" like she would instruct her Grade One students. It’s not about repeating FOCUS a million times in my head.

For me, being able to focus means setting up the right environment, externally and internally, so that I can focus. This means: 

1. Having the right tools for the job! This sounds so simple, yet this has made an unbelievably huge difference for me. Instructional posts were taking me hours to create, with minimal reward. Similarly, for the Do It Myself Blog, I was writing the posts in Microsoft Word and then hand-coding in WordPress, which meant I wasn’t  writing as many spontaneous posts as I would have liked. Since discovering SnagIt and then Windows Live Writer, blogging has become fun again and I am able to write an entire post before my attention span and patience expires. Even my new wide screen monitor has meant I can have two applications open side-by-side, which saves flipping back and forth.
2. Turning off noise. I have discovered that, even though I receive close to 100 emails per day (most of which are spam), only a few of them are addressed to me personally and even less require an immediate, if any, response. Although it is a tough habit to break (one I’m still working on ), I do not need to check my email constantly. I can close Outlook and know that the world will continue without me for a few hours.
3. Limiting networking tools. Even though it is easy to get distracted by shiny new objects, I have resisted the temptation of Plurk, identi.ca and countless others. Rather, I have purposefully chosen to stick with Twitter and StumbeUpon, and, to a lesser extent, Facebook and Linkedln. This summer’s online course helped me to master StumbleUpon and to use it more effectively. I would like to find a similar course for Linkedln. Finding ways integrate these tools, such as feeding my Twitter tweets and my blog posts into my Facebook page allows me to streamline my networking.
4. Working on one task at a time. Contrary to popular belief, multi-tasking does not work or, at least, it doesn’t work for me. I am finding working on one task at a time, either until the task or a particular step is finished or for a specific amount of time, is more effective and allows me to focus all of my attention and energy on the one task on hand.
5. De-cluttering my space. For the last two Saturdays, I have been purging and organizing my office. It has been so liberating. Seeing the organized bookcase with space to spare gives me an energy boost and feels like a weight has been lifted; a weight that no longer requires my attention and focus, freeing them up for other more important things. I plan on continuing this office makeover, one step at a a time, one Saturday at a time.
6. Prioritizing what is most important and committing time to doing it. Right now, I have 510 unread emails and 1080 items in my Inbox alone. One day getting my Inbox back down to 0 yet again will be a priority and I will set aside to do it. For now, the number of emails in my Inbox or zombie invitations in Facebook is not important. For now, for today, I am going to focus on what is most important.
7. Taking a break away from my computer.  Spending time away from my computer doing something physical, whether its exercising, washing the dishes, organizing my office (with my monitor turned off!) or getting out of the house, enables me to return refreshed and re-energized and able to concentrate on one task until it is completed.
8. Allowing empty space in time. Like the empty space on my bookcase, I have realized it is okay to have empty space in time to think. When I am writing and am unsure of the next word, the next sentence, the next thought, it is okay to stop and to listen for that voice that guides my writing, rather than filling that void with distractions from email or Twitter. Stopping to be still, to wait and to listen is perfectly okay.
9. Not being too busy. In September’s O Magazine (p. 166-7), Norman Fischer shares: "Being too busy or not being busy is an interpretation of our activity. Busyness is a state of mind, not a fact. No matter how much or how little we’re doing, we’re always just doing what we’re doing, simply living this one moment of our lives." When too busy or overwhelmed, stop and connect, in Zen Buddhist tradition, with "the one who is not too busy".

Inspire:

• to influence, move, or guide; 
• to breathe or blow into or upon;
• to be in spirit.

During my lifetime, the statement "You’re such an inspiration" has been uttered in my direction too many times to count. Feeling the weight and responsibility of such an honour, I have never known how to respond and often brushed it off with "I’m just me" or "No big deal" because I didn’t want others minimizing their struggles against mine; or, what are assumed to be my struggles.

Recently, and with the wisdom of a good friend, I have come to realize that "You’re an inspiration" isn’t about me, but rather about the giver. By dismissing their compliments, I am discounting something they valued; something they may have needed in that moment to them going, to keep them breathing.

My wise friend has helped me to see that when someone says, "You’re inspiring," he is saying, "You’ve motivated me not feel sorry for myself."

To all of you, I would like to say, "Thank you. I hear you and I appreciate your kind words."

After living in this home for nearly 7.5 years, I have finally figured out how to keep this kitchen fairly clean and tidy. Don’t use the dishwasher!

Allow me to explain:

With only the two of us, it takes us a few days to fill the dishwasher. Unless it is then emptied right after the cycle is done, the clean dishes sit in there for a day or two — something else seemingly more important needs doing. Meanwhile, dirty dishes stack up in the sink and on the counter; a fact I’m not proud of, but how things are.

However, I have discovered by washing the dishes myself each evening, that bottleneck of a dishwasher is avoided. By spending 15-20 minutes cleaning up after supper, the next morning I wake up to a tidy kitchen. What a way to greet the day!

And, standing at the sink, washing the dishes gives me some standing time, which makes my legs much happier. They no longer hurt and jump around while I’m trying to fall sleep.

No doubt, I’m saving a bit of hydro, too!

Almost out of dishwashing soap, yesterday I splurged and bought a bottle of Ultra Palmolive Aromatherapy with lavender and ylang ylang essences to try. I figured if I am washing dishes, it might as well make it as pleasurable as possible. Besides, the stuff is purple – my favourite colour!

Which time-saving device is causing you stress?