Today’s reblog represents how the best of intentions doesn’t always pan out. For instance, I had high hopes for all the ground I would cover while working with my youngest child on developing his writing skills last year. It would be a summer-long project geared toward getting his writing juices flowing by allowing him to write about topics of interest to him.
Needless to say, we managed to plow right through last summer break without getting much accomplished on this front. And now that I think about it, what in the world were we doing during this break instead of carrying out my plan? Well, it’s too long ago to recall, so my mind has moved on to other plans of action for “Life Writing” and they currently involve yours truly.
The update to the original post (below), dated May 15, 2019, will center in on daily journaling I’ll complete Sunday through Friday each week. I’ll journal about 5 goals, known as “My Daily Top 5”, consisting of 3 content creative goals and 2 home/family goals for the day.
The objective of creating “My Daily Top 5” is to get me focused for the day and to provide an agenda for the major tasks that should be completed throughout the course of the day. It’s a physical and psychological motivational technique that I’ll try out to see how it works for me. The thought is that “if I put my top to-dos down in writing, then my mind tells me that I have to get them done so I can physically cross them off as “completed” in my journal. And therefore, I’ll have something visible that represents my productivity for the day. I know it’s totally a mind trick, but I’m okay with it. There’s no shame in the game.
Anyway, I’ve noted a consequential benefit of journaling “My Daily Top 5” that I just can’t pass up. Journaling will lead to an ongoing chronicle of projects worked on and progress made throughout the year. And, this documentation will make a great resource to refer back to for all the major work-related happenings in my life.
So, the “Life Writing” series has been reborn and will feature my best intentions for GETTING THINGS DONE this year. However, Little Man, my son, is not off the hook by any means. You better believe I’ll be game for reintroducing “Life Writing” to him next summer, hopefully without fail this time around.
ENJOY THE FOLLOWING REPLAY . . .
Happy Wednesday, everybody! I woke up early today with some writing on my mind and some new info to share with you. Nine months or so ago, if you’d have asked me about writing becoming my predominant activity of choice in the course of a day, I’d probably have said that writing is enjoyable but I don’t think I could make a living out of it. Fast forward to May 2019 and ask me now. I must say that writing pretty much preoccupies all the other hours outside of my family and spiritual devotion time, household responsibilities, and rest and relaxation (not getting much of this at the moment). So, it’s fair to say that writing has somehow organically interwoven itself into the very fabric of my being. I’m living while writing.
And here’s the news… inspired by another school year coming to an end: I will be starting a summer series of blog posts featuring writing (of course) and how it can naturally be incorporated into your daily routine. Now, let me bring in what the “end of the school year” has to do with my new-found revelation. Without question, my summer schedule will naturally change because I’ll have human companionship with me continuously throughout the day. Although my grown children will either be working outside or inside of the home during the summer (and don’t need much of mom’s time anyway), I’ll have Little Man (my youngest child) with me throughout the day and some attention is required for him. Little Man would also claim that he’s pretty self-sufficient as well and won’t need as much of my time if I’d just let him play video games, watch tv, and play outside all day. But, that ain’t gonna happen. Hence, the commencement of the summer routine is soon-to-be in effect and will, undoubtedly, involve a lot of writing on Little Man’s part (unbeknownst to him). He’s headed for a rude awakening, indeed.
It’s not that Little Man doesn’t write (because he does a lot of writing for school). It’s that he has other activities that are higher on his list of “desirables” and priorities than writing. And come on, we’re talking about summertime. What young child wholeheartedly looks forward to doing anything that slightly resembles school work during his or her downtime in the summer? Well, I can only answer for my household and my answer is “not my child”. So, I’ll have my work cut out for me, because Little Man will have some homeschooling going on this summer and writing will be one of the focus areas. My mother-in-law reminded me the other day that making learning fun is important for child development. Children like entertainment and Little Man is no exception to this no-brainer. Therefore, my challenge is to make writing fun for him and I’ve actually come up with a few ideas for writing topics to break the ice (guess you can call this my summer ice bucket challenge… without involving the cold and wet stuff). Little Man can write about…
- his favorite activity (inside or outside of the home)
- his best day ever
- what his most delicious meal is or would look like
- his favorite superhero or someone who he admires
- if he could have any super power, what would it be and how would he use it
- what motivates/inspires him
- where he would like to go on vacation or his favorite vacation memory (a classic writing activity)
- what he wants to be when he grows up (another classic writing activity)
- what he would do with his money if he was rich
- a day in the life of Little Man (journaling)
You know I’m wordy and could go on, but I just listed 10 writing topics to give you an idea of what kinds of engaging discussions we (parents) can use to get our youngsters to write. Maybe you could even try some of them (or your own creative ideas) in your household and let me know how it goes. Furthermore, I have some great ideas on how to motivate youngsters to get to writing in the first place. (It can be quite the process for those children who really have no interest in writing at all). But, I’ll save those little nuggets for the upcoming series, entitled “Life Writing”. Not only will I house my writing experiences with Little Man at this location, but I’ll also share with you what things I‘m personally doing to incorporate writing into my everyday living. Of course, one of those things is writing my book, and the journey continues. I’m shooting for a tentative book launch date of the end of June or early July. You know I’ll keep you posted; but until then, please keep trekking with me as I take you along with me on The Road to Authorship. If you haven’t had a chance to see my list of the writing lessons I’ve learned thus far on this journey, you’ll want to take a look at the prior post. And I can say with a fair amount of certainty that this list will continue to grow. Stay tuned…
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