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Category Archives: writing

Productivity tools from a part-time tarot reader


Yes, I have a full-time job (as a senior copy editor), and a part-time job reading tarot on weeknights and weekends.

Sometimes, people ask me how do I do it all? Sometimes the answer is, I don’t! Sometimes the answer is I make time for what is important to me. And other times, I think about the myriad of tools I use to get it all accomplished: whether it’s blogging, witching, editing, writing, teaching, creating new classes, and providing tarot readings one-on-one through client appointments and parties.

Here’s a list of all of the tools I use to “get it all done”. Note: I sure as shit don’t have it all figured out… but who does? These are the things that make me feel like, okay, I may not have it all figured out, but I feel reasonably and relatively grounded in doing these things… and keeping these habits up.

Please also note that some of the following tools are for free, while others are pay-to-play. These are things I REALLY use and really pay for. Why? Because for me, they work. Your mileage may vary. I’ll note which ones are free, and which ones I pay for.

Productivity

MyHours – suggested by Melissa Cassera in one of her wonderful newsletters/blog posts that begs the question “Are you really that busy?”

“Are you *really* that busy? Or does it just *feel* like you’re really, really busy? Do you actually know where your time is going each day?”

And if you think you don’t have time? Well, prove it by tracking your time using this site for a few days, and see where your time REALLY goes… And when you find it out? Start to make time for the things that really matter to you.Continue Reading

Day 10: Success! Challenge accepted and completed!

Me on top of Carrowkeel in Ireland, kissing the sky (photo taken by Shelley Leatherwood).

Me on top of Carrowkeel in Ireland, kissing the sky (photo taken by Shelley Leatherwood). Success!

 

Day 10 Challenge: I want you to think back to the journey you’ve been on in the last 10 days. I encourage you to read through all your posts to celebrate all that you’ve written, learned and experienced as part of this daily blog challenge. And in today’s blog post, I want you to write about:

  • What you enjoyed most about your experience of taking part in the blog challenge
  • Your favorite challenge day and why
  • The biggest takeaway you’ve had from it
  • The next step you’re going to take to make your freedom plan a reality

For all of the blog posts in the 10 Day Blog Challenge, and what I learned from them in summary:

Day 1: Blast you, Mercury in Retrograde! – you can have a shit day and still bounce back… because after all, those days will happen!

Day 2: Living the Freedom Lifestyle – when I let my little ego steer, it chooses wrong. Only my intuition and heart-centered decisions lead to the best results.

Day 3: Where I realize that some of the elements of my perfect day are already true… – what happens when you have a clear vision for yourself and what your day can look like? That perfect vision starts to become reality.

Day 4: Unlock your superpowers… you know you have them, right? – sometimes you don’t know just how much you know until you are asked!

Day 5: The success plan: it starts with nipping procrastination in the bud – The venue may change, but the habits do not, and that is how consistency is built. It finally clicked in my mind that THIS is how people keep up with what is important to them. (you know, like the blogging thing)

Day 6: Tarot Tribes and Business Besties – the magic of a business bestie can apply to entrepreneurship or working for “the man”… we all need support: why not find people walking along the same proverbial road?

Day 7: Take done over “perfect”, any day of the week – lots of aha moments found here, where I release perfectionism… an over-polished blog post once a month is no substitute for a good-enough blog once a week. The magic of the internet? Shine it up later! The world needs your words NOW.

Day 8: Mini-Adventures, and Rainbow Hair Really Trying NOT to Care – otherwise known as “What I Learned from Radically Changing My Hair”

Day 9: Tarot, on the go, anywhere! – What a working holiday would look like, if I were a full-time tarot reader… for now, vacation is vacation for me, through and through: though it would depend if I had clients local to the area I was vacationing in!

Day 10 (you’re on it right now!)

Favorite challenge and why: Day 3…. Visualizing the perfect day, because it made me realize since the 30 day blog challenge that visualization of big goals really does work, and my perfect workday is moving closer to being achieved than I thought possible before I wrote about it.

Biggest takeaway: I CAN blog consistently, if I try. If I make it a habit, I can do anything consistently. I am also learning to embrace my imperfections, and releasing the blog (and newsletters) before I think they’re ready (Day 5), because if I really released them when I thought they were ready, I would never release anything at all!

Next steps: Continue to blog once a week: and for real this time. No matter how undone I think a blog is, it will still go up… And I can tweak it whenever I want to. That’s the beauty of a website, right? It can change whenever you do, and as much or as little as you want it to.

Thanks for sticking with me as I started (and completed!) this blog challenge. Following through is a big sticking point with me, so as I pat myself on the back for writing the final blog post, I will also congratulate you if you read it all! Yay, we did it!

Blessings,
~*~Hilary~*~
www.tarotbyhilary.com

This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 10.

I’m doing the 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge from Natalie Sisson! Want to join me? It ends today!

Day 5: The Success Plan (hint: it starts with nipping procrastination in the bud)

Distraction-free is the way to success!

Distraction-free is the way to success!

 

Day 5 Challenge: Create a daily success plan for yourself that takes only 15–20 minutes and schedule a time in the day where you can squeeze it in. Write a blog post about what you will do, when you will do it, and how it will get you closer to your dreams.


First of all, I’d just like to say how very important ommwriter is to the process of turning off the distractions and focusing in on what I really need to do (and what I really need to write), as well as 750words.com.

As I listened to today’s video, I laughed as Natalie said “do not work from your living room!” Where was I sitting, of course, when I was listening and getting ready to write? And where am I sitting now, jotting down some thoughts before the real writing begins? Of course, my living room! Though as soon as she said it, I started walking around with my iPad and clearing off the kitchen table and getting my writing space ready to really get to work after the video was over.

The venue may change, but the habits do not, and that is how consistency is built. It finally clicked in my mind that THIS is how people keep up with what is important to them. I always marveled at the people who would work out in the fitness rooms at hotels while I was on vacation… Because vacation, to me, was always about taking a break from the daily life, especially those routines that hold daily life together. But I guess now I know that small daily goals produce consistent habits that you don’t mind doing daily, even when on vacation… In fact, you come to enjoy cultivation of those habits! And speaking of those daily habits… this is my 23rd day of writing every day!

In my daily planner from the desire map, there is room each day for three top priorities, the things that must get done each day, followed by lesser priorities. Now I understand why there isn’t more than three as top priorities…. Otherwise, it causes complete overwhelm, and if you can’t get all X number of priorities done in one day, even if there are a ridiculous amount, like ten, then why complete any at all, right? Manageable goals brings manageable success. If you don’t set yourself up for success, then you probably won’t be successful.

Finally, the pomodoro technique: wow, what a breakthrough I had when I first learned about it from Racheal Cook during her Fired Up and Focused Challenge. The pomodoro technique teaches us the lesson of anything you want to do magically expands depending on the amount of time you are given to complete said task. For example, I’ve known all evening that I’ve needed to do two things: watch today’s video and write the blog post you are reading now (thing 1) and write my newsletter to be blasted out tomorrow morning (thing 2). Yet I knew I had all evening to do these things. So did I go for it right away? No, of course I didn’t. I sat and watched tv and ate a sandwich then an ice cream cone and watched more tv and played bejeweled stars and candy crush soda saga while watching yet more tv and a movie that I’ve already seen before. I looked at the clock and realized that the evening had slipped away, and now I had less time to do the work that I could have had done already!

So, enough behind the scenes blather about why and how I stall. Here’s the good stuff, the real point of today’s challenge: creating a success plan that works for me, daily.

7am-8am: morning spirit/writing stuff, broken down into 20 minute increments: 10–20 minutes of meditation, 10–20 minutes of writing, 10–20 minutes on offerings/magickal work/divination. In that order. Where? Meditation and writing at kitchen table/office, offerings/magickal work/divination at altar.

Evenings: One hour of steady work, broken down into 2 pomodoro sessions, of whatever writing I need to do that week. Where? Either the bedroom with the door shut until the session is done, or my kitchen office. With an announcement to my husband that I am doing work for the next hour.

And any time I’m writing, I’m doing it in one of the following two places: ommwriter or 750words.com, with headphones in, and absolutely no social media or online distractions interrupting. If I need to do research, I can leave a placeholder and do it later, but not while writing. No need to tempt myself into falling down the rabbit hole.

The success plan itself is knowing what I need to do the day before, so that I’m not floundering and stalling the day of with the question of “what should I be focusing on?” The key is to have a “must do today” list and the last thing I do before finishing my work for the day is writing out a “must do tomorrow” list. That way, no floundering or stalling… Just straight to work, because my list is right there to work from and tick off!

Bottom line: the truth is I can write from anywhere, and I can read and teach tarot anywhere in the world for/to anyone. But in order to do the big things, I need to start with where I am and with what I have. And if I can’t manage my time now while living in one place, how in the world do I expect to travel the world with my tarot cards in tow and manage my time then? Like I said before… The venue may change, but the habits do not!

Blessings,
~*~Hilary~*~
www.tarotbyhilary.com

This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 5.

I’m doing the 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge from Natalie Sisson! Want to join me? It’s going on until September 19th, so hop right in, the water’s fine!

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Tarot Beginners