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Friday Five: Writing Encouragement, the Visual Edition

5/15/2015

This week's Friday Five is devoted to some of my favorite visuals that include encouraging quotes. Share some of your own in the comments.

Have you entered the Pandemic giveaway for a chance to win a $75 Visa gift card, a signed hardcover, and some fun swag? Three days left!

Top priority: Get your writing done!

Use your pain and fear.

Beware of comparing your work and your results to others.

Make a plan, then make progress toward it.

Just for fun. :)

Teen Tuesday: Pandemic Giveaway, Essay Contest

5/12/2015

Pandemic Giveaway

My young adult novel, Pandemic, debuted a year ago. To celebrate, I'm giving away a signed Pandemic hardcover, a $75 Visa gift card, and a story-related necklace to one lucky winner in the US.

Pandemic (Sky Pony Press, 2014) is about an emotionally traumatized teenager struggling to survive a deadly bird flu outbreak. School Library Journal called Pandemic "an engrossing apocalyptic story” and Kirkus Reviews said “this realistic page-turner will keep most readers enthralled.”

You can enter the giveaway using the rafflecopter below. Thanks to JenHalliganPR for helping to coordinate this. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teen Tuesday: Teen Ink Community Service Essay

Teen Ink has several ongoing contests, including a
Community Service Award essay contest.

From the website: "What do you do to make your community a better place? How has volunteering changed you and the way you view the world? Write an essay describing your experiences and be recognized for all that you do." (150 to 1000 words)

Contest winners receive $100 for their favorite charity. There is no deadline--entries can be submitted throughout the year. See the community service writing tips and the Teen Ink submission guidelines for more information.

Friday Five: 5 Things I Learned as Published Novelist

5/8/2015

It's been a year since Pandemic, my debut novel, was published by Sky Pony Press. I have a guest post today about five things I've learned in my first year as a published novelist at UncommonYA.

I'll be celebrating Pandemic's first birthday next week with a giveaway. Bloggers and book lovers, you can sign up to take part in the giveaway promotion here. The prize includes a $75 gift card, a signed hard copy of Pandemic, and some fun swag.

Come back next week to enter the giveaway!

Teen Tuesday: Skipping Stones Contest

5/5/2015

Teen Tuesday is back! If you've been reading my blog during April, you'll know I focused on productivity, especially as it relates to creative people. I'm returning to my regular schedule, featuring blog posts for teen writers on Tuesdays and posts for writers/readers of all ages on Fridays. I may try to throw some productivity tips and quotes in as well. (Scroll down for today's quote.)

Writing Contest

"The Youth Honor Awards recognize creative and artistic works by young people that promote multicultural, international and nature awareness."

What: Essays, interviews, poems, short stories, photos, paintings, etc.
Who: Ages 7 to 17
When: By June 25th

"Winners will receive an Honor Award Certificate, a subscription to Skipping Stones magazine and five nature and/or multicultural books."
Complete guideline are available at the Skipping Stones website.

Productivity Thought of the Day

Blogging from A to Z: Reflection

5/4/2015

Part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge tradition is to write a “reflection” about the April experience. Participants can post a reflection on their blogs any time this week.

Reflection

Having survived last year’s challenge, this year I wrote all my posts ahead of time. What I lost in flexibility, I gained in peace of mind and preparedness. I don’t think I would have finished otherwise.

One of the nicest parts of the challenge is visiting other blogs and corresponding with other bloggers. I tried to be more organized this year in my approach to this, but I still didn’t have enough time to visit as many blogs as I wanted.

One thing I wished for: after the theme reveal, I would have liked a list of participating blogs along with their themes. Seeing the themes upfront would help me choose some of the other blogs to visit.

I helped with A to Z this year by being a minion on C. Lee McKenzie’s “Muffin Commando Squad.” It made me appreciate how much effort goes into running the A to Z Challenge, but it also added to the time I spent on A to Z this month. (A shout-out to my fellow muffins Carrie Butler, Patricia Lynne, Tyrean Martinson, Donna McDine, Tammy Theriault and Tara Tyler.)

I really enjoyed researching and writing about my productivity theme. If you’d like to read my A to Z productivity-themed blog posts, here they are. (I also gathered them on a Pinterest board.)

A is for Analyze: How Do You Spend Your Time?
B is for Beginning: Wisdom from Newton, Hemingway, and Others about the Power of Getting Started
C is for Ciotti: Interview with Sparring Mind's Gregory Ciotti
D is for Digital Procrastination and the Illusion of Productivity
E is for Exercise
F is for Focus and Flow
G is for Getting Things Done
H is for How to Procrastinate
I is for Important Things First: Prioritizing Tasks
J is for Julie: A Calendar Trick from Author Julie Lindsey
K is for Killing Time: An Unscientific List of the Best 5 Ways
L is for Lifehacks and Links
M is for Myths about Productivity
N is for "No"
O is for Open Loops (Unfinished Business)
P is for Pomodoro Technique
Q is for Quit Bad Habits
R is for Routines and Rituals
S is for Sleep
T is for Technology Tools
U is for Unclutter: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
V is for Vanderkam: Interview with Productivity Author Laura Vanderkam
W is for Will Power (Which Isn't Enough)
X is for Xeriscape
Y is for Yours Truly: Productivity Advice from Yvonne
Z is for Zig Ziglar Quote

What were the best parts of the challenge for you? Will you participate in the challenge next year? Share a link to your own reflections in the comments if you’d like.

Z is for Zig Ziglar Quote

4/30/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Hooray for Z! I've enjoyed providing this alphabetical guide of productivity strategies and techniques. I hope you found the blog posts helpful. I'm creating a Pinterest board of all the A to Z posts here.

In case you missed my W is for Will Power post, be sure to read about another Z idea, the Zeigarnik Effect.

In May, I will (slowly) get back to my regular schedule, blogging for teen writers on Teen Tuesday and writers of all ages with the Friday Five.

I'll end this challenge with a quote from "Zig" Ziglar (Hilary Hinton Ziglar), a motivational speaker:

Make the most of your time!

I love motivational quotes. Please share your own favorites in the comments.

Y is for Yours Truly: Productivity Advice from Yvonne

4/29/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

I've really enjoyed reading books, researching articles, and interviewing experts for these productivity-themed blog posts. Since the end of the alphabet is near, I'd like to share a few bits of my own advice.

Keep an accomplishments list.

To-do lists keep track of what needs to get done. But to balance that, it's helpful to keep a list of major items that have been completed. For example, when my novel was about to launch, the days were filled with activity, yet at the end of the week I couldn't always remember what I was so busy doing. I started tracking my accomplishments each month and the habit stuck. Over time, these monthly lists can be a boost to morale--look at everything that is getting taken care of!

Group difficult tasks together.

Reduce grumpiness!

One thing I dread doing is calling or emailing people to ask for interviews. I have to psyche myself up to do this. If I have three requests to make, I could do one a day for three different days, or I can group them together and just "ruin" one morning. This is a very specific example, but I think you can see what I mean. If certain tasks make you grumpy, group them together and do them all at one time. Then you can be cheerfully efficient the rest of the week.

Keep a kindness list.

So many people have done kind things for me during my writing and publication journey that I decided to jot them down. It's a simple list with a name and a few words that remind me of the niceness in the world. An author takes the time to blurb my book. A teen reader emails me about how much he enjoyed Pandemic. A friend tells me about an upcoming book festival I can apply to. Is there a scientific link to productivity and tracking these kindnesses? I have no idea. But it creates happiness and that has to be a good thing!

Do you have any favorite or unique approaches to productivity?

X is for Xeriscape

4/28/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

X is my favorite letter of the A to Z Challenge, because it really forces creative thinking. I scoured the X section of my dictionary, looking for something related to productivity. . . and so I give you Xeriscape!

Not my yard

According to the New Oxford-American Dictionary, xeriscape is a "style of landscape design requiring little or no irrigation or other maintenance, used in arid regions."

To relate this to productivity, let's focus on the "little or no other maintenance" part. If you've been reading my other blog posts, there are a lot of ideas about improving productivity. But at the end of the day (and the challenge!) the idea is not to worry about how much you're getting done, but to set up habits that work and require little maintenance.

For example, maybe you'll use the Pomodoro technique whenever you have a large task that needs broken down into concentrated times of focus. Maybe you've set up a ritual to help trigger success and reduce transition time when you start a new project. You can add in Julie Lindsey's calendar trick for whenever you have an especially busy week. And you can practice closing "open loops" to reduce mental clutter.

However you combine these ideas, create a Productivity Xeriscape with the "little maintenance" concept in mind. Spend your time doing real work, not managing your productivity.

If you've written an X post for the A to Z challenge, include your link below. (Last year I used Xenocryst for my Writing Inspiration theme.) Or share your favorite "X" word, but nothing X-rated, please!

W is for Will Power (Which Isn't Enough)

4/27/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

In just over three minutes, the short video (below) manages to inspire and educate us about productivity. It helps explain why will power is not enough to reach our goals, because "some studies suggest that will power is an exhaustible source that can be entirely used up." Instead of relying on will power to improve productivity, a few other simple methods are offered.

I love the concept of the Zeigarnik Effect and almost saved it for my "Z" post. In case you didn't watch the video, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines this effect as "the psychological tendency to remember an uncompleted task rather than a completed one." This makes intuitive sense to me, because I find that unfinished items tend to rattle around in my brain, clamoring to either be completed or written on my to-do list.

Does the Zeigarnik Effect (or another concept from the video) resonate with you?

V is for Vanderkam: Interview with Productivity Author Laura Vanderkam

4/25/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Laura Vanderkam is the author of some of my favorite productivity-related books, including What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast and 168 Hours. I was thrilled that she made time for an interview to be shared on my blog. Here's what Vanderkam had to say when I asked if she had any life-changing advice, and what tips she could offer people who work in creative fields.

Advice from Laura Vanderkam

Keep track of your time for a week. Many of us think we know where our time goes, and we may even have a pretty good handle on this with work, but the rest of the 168 hours that make up the week can be quite surprising. I’ve done this exercise multiple times over the years and I learn something new every time. If you want to spend your time better, you need to know how you’re spending it now. So get a notebook, or download a time-tracking spreadsheet, or get a time tracking app, and record what you’re doing, as often as you remember, in as much detail as you think will be helpful. You can start whenever. Monday morning is good. Wednesday at 2 a.m. is fine as well, as long as you keep going for 7 straight days. And remember, there are no typical weeks. Labeling weeks as “typical” and “atypical” contributes to faulty impressions of our lives.

Kept your time log? Great. Here’s how to use this knowledge to be more productive.

First, one of the upsides of self-employment is having control over your time. So use it! Figure out when you work best, and protect this time for your most important work. For many of us, we’re most productive in the mornings after that first cup of coffee, but if you do your best work late at night, that’s fine. Just make sure you figure out what work requires your most intense concentration, and schedule this work during these peak blocks. Schedule phone calls, meetings, and marketing work at other times.

Make sure to work enough. We can all be more efficient. We should be more efficient! But creative work, like all work, takes time to execute. Make sure you’re scheduling enough time for it, and not getting distracted by other things, just because your work might be flexible.

That said, don’t view creative work as all-consuming, either. I always laugh at those lines in book acknowledgments when the author laments all his missed dinners. If you’re chronically missing dinner to complete your projects, don’t blame the artistic life. You’re better off looking at your own time management instead. Don’t wait for the muse to strike. The muse can be trained to strike between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. if you’re disciplined. The muse can then disappear for a few hours while you hang out with your family, and revisit after the kids go to bed.

Thank you for taking the time to share your advice with us! I like the idea of scheduling work time during peak periods. Blog readers, let us know in the comments if you've tracked your time yet or if this type of scheduling is something you do.

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. She's also the author of a novel, The Cortlandt Boys. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and four children, and blogs at www.lauravanderkam.com.

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Friday Five: Writing Encouragement, the Visual Edition

Teen Tuesday: Pandemic Giveaway, Essay Contest

Pandemic Giveaway

Teen Tuesday: Teen Ink Community Service Essay

Friday Five: 5 Things I Learned as Published Novelist

Teen Tuesday: Skipping Stones Contest

Writing Contest

Blogging from A to Z: Reflection

Reflection

Z is for Zig Ziglar Quote

Y is for Yours Truly: Productivity Advice from Yvonne

Keep an accomplishments list.

Group difficult tasks together.

Keep a kindness list.

X is for Xeriscape

W is for Will Power (Which Isn't Enough)

V is for Vanderkam: Interview with Productivity Author Laura Vanderkam

Advice from Laura Vanderkam

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