Today on Scoutie Girl: Get Out of Your Head...

I often get so caught up in my ideas and mental lists that it's easy for me to miss the present moment.

Today on Scoutie Girl, I offer some thoughts and tips on how to stop thinking so much. Because sometimes we need to give our brain a rest, and let our body & senses take centre stage.

Read more here.

Easing Into 2013

I am called to rest and putter, stepping away from creative work and play to sink into quiet time, books, hearth & home.

I'm tidying up my physical spaces, enjoying movies and documentaries like this one (if you're an artist, you'll love this insight into a painter's mind and process), this one and this one. I'm sleeping, reading, and doing a lot of research for a certain trip to PARIS. <giddy>

post-Christmas goodies from Amazon

It hasn't been all idle though.

I've been crafting a new website, feeling the time has come for a fresh look. Stay tuned for that and a bloggiversary giveaway (seven years!), the latter later this month.

a fresh new look for my website in progress - coming soon!

I also wrote this article for Scoutie Girl, about claiming our path into 2013 and honouring our transition pace into the new year. No one's keeping score on how quickly we make the switch.

My part time work is keeping me preoccupied and heading into a busy, challenging-to-me period.

All the while I'm reflecting on last year's accomplishments and lessons, dreaming of work and projects for 2013, still unsure of how I will convert my dreams to action and let it all unfold.

Life is uncertain. Life is good. Life is full.

~~~

How about you? What've you been up to?

Scoutie Girl Contributions - Roundup 2012

One of the things of which I'm the most proud from last year is becoming a regular contributor to ScoutieGirl.com.

Because I don't always post links to my bi-weekly contributions here, I thought I'd gather the lot of them for 2012 in an end-of-year roundup post.

I am proud of the work I did for Scoutie Girl. Often these posts were written because their message was exactly what I needed to hear or process at the time. I return to them regularly when I need to do so again.

They serve me well. It's my hope that some of them may serve you too.

~~~

What's Your Rhythm? (Dec. 2012) - Certain times of year bring certain types of energy. Discover your natural annual rhythm and let it serve you instead of fighting it.

Five Practices to Stay Grounded During a Busy Season (Dec. 2012) - Though written in the context of staying sane and healthy during the holiday rush, especially for creative business owners, these five practices more than apply to anyone, any time of the year.

Right Brain, Left Brain: It's All Complementary (Nov. 2012) - Reason, passion, left brain, right brain - it's all good and necessary. How could you use one to serve the other?

Productivity: Manage Your White Space (Nov. 2012) - Just like it factors in good design, deliberate white space in one's schedule factors heavily in the ability to be productive. It's up to us to figure out how to best use it.

Who Are Your Possibility Tracks? (Oct. 2012) - Possibility tracks - fictitious or real - offer inspiration or proof that through commitment, action and usually with a bit of serendipity thrown in, dreams and goals can be met. Whose path, behaviours and successes would you like to emulate?

What Are Your Success Factors? (Oct. 2012) - A clean desk, uninterrupted time, specific tools at your disposal... What could you - or do you - have in place to increase your chances of meeting your goals and minimize deterrents?

A Procrastinator's Guide to Procrastination (Sept. 2012) - I confess: I'm a planning & productivity geek who procrastinates. These six tips help me circumvent panic when I've left things to the last minute, and lead me as gracefully as possible to a finished product.

Defeating Resistance: The Magical First Draft (Sept. 2012) - A powerful tool to move forward and into action when deadlines loom: the innocuous first draft. It's helped me many times in submitting these very posts on time.

Push, or putter? (Aug. 2012) - When it comes to productivity, there's a time to push and a time to putter. This post offers thoughts on reconciling planned action and firm goals with intuitive action and letting things unfold.

Defeating Resistance: Make It A Game (Aug. 2012) - Three powerful and effective productivity tools I use games I play when procrastination or resistance stop me from doing what I want to do.

The Next Right Action (July 2012) - Get unstuck by figuring out your next right action, the crux of getting things done. The most basic, yet probably one of the most powerful tools in my productivity toolbox.

On Summer Slumber and Ambition (July 2012) - It's hard to find motivation to get things done when the hammock beckons. Here are six tips to help reconcile summer's slumber-filled nature with work and deadlines.

Productivity Toolbox: The Next Right Action

This was originally posted on Scoutie Girl earlier this year. I'm repeating it here because a) it's still relevant and b) I could bear to read it again. Feeling overwhelmed with a few tasks before me this morning, I pulled this tool out of my productivity toolbox and lo & behold, I got moving.

~~~

The other day someone asked me how I managed to accomplish what I’ve accomplished these past several months. My answer? One action at a time.

Of course I used planning and productivity tools along the way, it’s what I do, but at the crux of getting things done lies a simple, powerful tool: the next right action.

You have a goal; you may have several. You want to make them happen, but you feel scattered or stymied and don’t know where to start. Stop, take a deep breath, and ask yourself: "What am I trying to do here? What’s my next action?"

Is it sending the email? Researching your local craft fair options (15 minutes is all it takes to get started!)? Maybe it’s putting the finishing touches on that painting or writing up the listing description.

Or, maybe it’s a massive brainstorming session to get all of those ideas out of your head and onto paper.

You don’t need to figure it all out now, just figure out what needs to be done next. Then do it.

Keep taking that next right action and I swear, without your even noticing it, things will get done.

I dare you to try it and see for yourself.

Scoutie Girl Blog Post

It's time for another blog post on Scoutie Girl. This week I muse about success factors and what could be put in place to increase our chances of meeting our goals. I want to know: what are your success factors?

And if you missed my previous post there a few weeks ago, go check it out! Called A Procrastinator's Guide to Procrastination, it's where I finally come clean: I'm a planning geek who procrastinates. <gasp!>