The new year and new goals also lead lots of us to start re-evaluating our spaces. It's no wonder Marie Kondo's Netflix series is getting so much watch time.

Seeing people tackle large spaces and getting tips on how we can declutter and organize is like crack to me. Also, there might be that little bit of "at least I'm not THAT bad" pinging around in my head, making the decluttering and cleaning I have to do seem more possible.

I'm re-doing my #Roxys7DayChallenge for the next 7 days (You can follow along with me and keep me honest over on Instagram @RoxyMews). Being that I wrote the challenge, I know I have some cleaning coming up. So I've been snooping around YouTube for some inspiration. Especially no and low cost inspiration, because xmas kind of killed the budget.

This was one that gave me the happy organized vibe. And started me down the rabbit hole.

Do you get the urge to organize and update your spaces in the new year too? Or is this just a me thing? Do you have any favorite organization/cleaning videos you watch to get your moving? Or are you going to play along with my #Roxys7DayChallenge? Send me a link or tag me in a pic on Instagram if you're doing my schedule challenge along with me. I'd love an accountability buddy.

~Roxy

No, I'm not talking about those chain letters that tell you to pass a sparkly .GIF on to five people to get good luck. Anyone who has sent me one of those...they always die with me. Sorry, not sorry. So you might as well stop. Please.

The chain I'm talking about today has to do with habits, or resolutions. Whatever you want to call them, I'm talking about something you want to start doing every day. This doesn't include cutting out sugar or chocolate, unless you're going for a shorter chain. 

What I want to accomplish this year is to integrate habits into my morning routine. Every morning. The Miracle Morning I posted about isn't something that would ever be bad for me. Even if I'm sick or turn up injured, every one of my SAVERS could be modified to fit new restrictions or breakthroughs. 

The phrase, "Don't Break the Chain", has been simmering in the back of my brain for a long time. I'm sure I've heard it in many self-help or productivity guides, but lately it's been resonating with me. Because it takes something shiny and techy to get my attention, the first place I really started to think about this was with Simone Giertz's kickstarter for the everyday calendar. She wanted to mediate everyday, and made a gadget to help her keep track visually for an entire year. 

While I love the idea, I'm not in a position to drop $400 on a calendar. Do you know how many planner stickers I could buy with that?!?!

If you've never heard of the "Don't Break the Chain" idea, below is a short video about why it works.

This idea for me, is like the red car phenomenon. You know how you buy a car that's red, and suddenly you see red cars everywhere? That's what the chain method has been for me over the past few days. I know I'd heard the idea before, but it seems to be everywhere I turn now. I've seriously run across it at least once a day for the past week. 

Maybe that has to do with the New Year and resolution content being so prevalent, but either way, I took notice.

Since I want to start doing my SAVERS everyday, it's the perfect time for me to get in on the chain action. I bought myself a cheap but pretty calendar from Dollar Tree, and I'm going to be marking off each day with a big pen slash. I would use a red marker, but I bought this shit at the Dollar Tree, and that paper isn't thick enough for marker. ;)

I'm also testing out HabitBull on my phone. I was thinking about writing out all the SAVERS individually for separate habit arcs, but that's too much effort. I already mark off the acronym in my planner as I go. So I only get to click the little button on the day when I complete all six aspects of my Miracle Morning. I'm also going to play around with the writing/blogging aspect of my goals. I'd like a way to differentiate between fiction writing and blogging without technically breaking my streak. So I've combined them for now, and I'm going to count each blog as only 250 words. That way, on days when I only have 250, I'll know it was a blog day. We'll see if I find value in the app. If not, I'll just stick to the calendar. 

What do you think about the idea of doing something EVERY DAY no matter what? Do you think it's a good idea? Or are you in the camp I used to occupy where you think it's too much pressure? I'd love to hear what you think.

~Roxy

I'm writing this from a place where I'm pretty sure people get lost in the woods and murdered. I had to drive...in the dark...down to a much more southern part of Indiana. On roads without lines on them. It was fucking scary for this suburb dweller. 

So you might be asking yourself, why I did such a thing. Because my local RWA chapter decided to have a writer's retreat. Welp. I needed a kick in the pants, and I signed up. 

I'm sitting here typing this while the sun is rising over a field with a fresh dusting of snow and horses are eating hay just outside the window. Sure it's pretty, but there are also axes on the property that are available to use. Like I said...we're going to be murdered.

But the reason I'm here is because I need to get some writing done. I need to get some motivation, and I need to get a kick in the ass to get myself back out in the publishing world again.

Like I've said in past blogs, (You can check out my 2017 review here), I like to try something new each year. And this year I'm trying a retreat. The fact that it happens right in the dreaded week 2, seemed perfect. 

I'll have to take some pictures to show all of you, but frankly, I plan to spend this time writing. I'm hoping for a 10k weekend. Lofty goals when I'm surrounded by such great women who like to chat as much as I do. But I can do this...right? RIGHT?!?!?

If you're looking for a little buddy writing, you can try something I did for years. Check online for write-ins. I'll even post one from one of my favorite YouTubers to get you started.

Tell me...do you write better alone or with others? What are your tips to getting words in with other people. I'd love to hear about it.

​~Roxy

There is nothing like the feeling of checking off every single thing on your to do list. Maybe you got your errands done early and were able to squeeze in something you'd been putting off, or maybe you had an awesome word count day (like I did yesterday), or you just ended up cleaning your house more than you thought because it REALLY needed it.

One of the things I battle with is always trying to improve on the day before. Sometimes the stars align, the muse shows up with extra coffee, and all the lights you hit are green. But that won't happen every day. The fact that I might not hit the same stride as I did the day before is one of the hardest mental blocks I have to battle in my every day life.

So here are a few things I do, the day after I've kicked ass.

1. Express Gratitude

I have a little block in my planner, where I can write down something I'm grateful for every day. This is the perfect spot to brag on myself. And when I've kicked extra ass, I break out my stash of favorite pricey stickers and give myself a Kiss Cut pat on the back. If it was a really great day, I might also talk about it in my journal. Evaluate why it was so good, remind myself of what I've accomplished and make note of anything that might have been different from your average day. But mostly, I'm just writing down why I'm so happy it happened.

2. Make a Plan Based in Reality

Not every day is going to look the same. I had yesterday off to devote to NaNo and all things writing. I kicked wordcount ass. But today, there are a lot of other things that are going to take priority. Like bill paying, and filling up the empty fridge and pantry, and getting food for the animals, and a million other little things that weren't on my "Have To" list yesterday.  So trying to write as much as I did when I didn't have to get out of my PJs until 6pm is not realistic. So it's time to break out the time block sheet and get to work. (I go over time-blocking basics in Day 2 of my #Roxys7DayChallenge)

3. Get Started Right Away

When I'm going to be busy, the only time I'm going to be sitting down is when I've scheduled in a break. (Hint: Those are important too!) So if the clock has ticked over and it is time to get started, I set a timer and move. Sometimes I have to give myself a little pep talk, bargain with my tired body, or even do a count down to convince myself to get my ass in gear, but I do it. Now. Figure out how to pull a no-nonsense attitude with your inner Procrastination Patty, and kick that bitch to the curb.

4. Adjust For Fires

You'll inevitably get stuck in traffic behind an accident, or open up that box of leftovers you were going to eat for lunch and realize you're going to have to go to the store, because food poisoning is not worth it. Something will throw a wrench in. But don't throw everything out the window. Prioritize. There is something on your schedule that isn't vital. One thing that's lower on the list than the rest. Push it off until tomorrow. Now look at your time block and move things around. Things you aren't allowed to kick off your list...food, water, and sleep. You need to take care of yourself. You're top of the list even if you don't want to be.

5. Breathe

If the overwhelm or pressure starts to build, stop what you're doing and take a deep breath. You're in a brand new day, and you're doing the absolute best you can in this exact moment. If you meditate, make sure not to miss your practice. If you don't, turn up some tunes and dance through a chore, or plug in an audio book and listen while you tackle some of your mindless tasks. Listen to something uplifting or funny. Take the moment to appreciate what you're about to get done and remind yourself why it's awesome to do so.

I hate doing laundry, but when I get backed up and overwhelmed I try to remind myself that being able to go into my closet and see the clean clothes means I can pick my cutest or most comfy clothes, and that's a gift to myself. I deserve to be pampered. Even if it's me doing it. 


Today is a brand new day, and we all can take what we've accomplished in the past as a guide, but it's never going to be quite the same feel. It's never going to be the same circumstances. It's never going to be the same day. And that's okay. We're going to tackle the challenges and get shit done. Let's head off and write the next chapter. I'm hoping mine has bacon and coffee in it.

What do you do after you've hit a productivity goal? Does it motivate you to keep pushing? Or are you easily discouraged like me? I'd love to hear about it.

~Roxy

I had planned to get the book I'm drafting right now finished up before NaNoWriMo begins. But we all know how best laid plans go, right?

Damn familial responsibilities and adulting. They tend to show up at the most inconvenient time.

So after waxing poetic to myself about the difference between failing and falling, I decided to cut myself some slack and start fresh. No worrying about the past, because there's no changing it.

I wasn't going to let the day get away from me. Sure...it was already 3pm, but let's ignore that fact. I set my timer and got my daily blog post knocked out. Then it was time to do all the things I'd been stressing about all day.

Between a blast of dry shampoo and putting on real pants, I was scrambling to figure out how the writing was going to happen. I was heading to a place that wasn't very computer friendly. There's always the old "grab a notebook and go" method, but then I'd still have to type it out when I eventually got home. And as a lefty, I didn't want smears all over my hand.

I ran through my office to stare at my computer and think real hard about taking my baby out where there would be tons of kids, and having to hide the middle finger stickers on it. That's when I saw this bad boy propped in the magazine rack I keep him on in my office.

​I bought my AlphaSmart3000 on Ebay a few years back. I'd heard tons of NaNoWriMo folks raving about the device for fast drafting. 

It's low tech writing at it's finest, because it only shows four short lines of text, and there's no notifications, or shiny internet to tempt you away. This bad boy also has the wonderful auto-save feature. So as soon as a keyboard click leaves your fingers, it's captured by the device's onboard memory.

I can only save files by number, not name, and while there is a spell check and a few other features, I only use it to draft, and send the words onto whatever I'm working on. 

It takes three double A batteries that seem to last damn near forever, but of course, since I hadn't picked it up in a long time, I had to change them.

Last night, with only a few minutes to spare, I tucked it under my arm, sent my latest update of my draft to my drive, and took off.

I had the tightest schedule ever to keep, but I knew I'd arrive at the second stop of four fifteen minutes before the event started. I knew I had time.

I got 504 words down in those fifteen minutes, and that is even with people getting up and walking past me in a movie-theater-style seating arrangement. Seriously, folks. Get your shit done before you sit down.

I got home, hours later, and still had to get my words onto my document, but seriously, all that meant was plugging in an old-school USB port and hitting send.

I haven't set up a NaNoWriMo "survival kit" per se, but I do have some of my favorite tools coming into play for the current draft I'm working on, and I'm happy to dig this bad boy out of retirement.

There's something to be said about typing on a mechanical keyboard, and sitting with your words with no formatting and no italics. I find when I'm just thinking about the next sentence, and that's it, that I can write faster than I do on my computer. Because if I don't go fast on my AlphaSmart, I'll forget where I just was and trust me when I say, you don't want to attempt a read-thru on this thing. Using an arrow key to maneuver through a document on a teeny tiny screen is torture.

So I decided to write this blog on it today too. I'm getting ready for Halloween. And there are tons of things to wrap up before the trick-or-treaters start knocking on our door. 

It's time to grab my coffee and start my day. I'm starting it with my blog and morning routine out of the way first.

And my little AlphaSmart is doing its part in keeping me productive. I love this thing.

Do you have any old-school gadgets you love? Maybe it's not even a writing tool. I'd love to hear about it.

~Roxy

"This isn't crap!"

The words we all shoot for when reviewing our WIP, am I right, writers? I heard my CP say those words the other night, and my first thought was, "Of course your book isn't crap. You're awesome! Now, my book? My book is crap."

We're our own worst critics. And while we might fall in love with our books by the end of the final round of line edits, the majority of us are constantly living in fear that people will find out we're faking this whole shebang, and are really just frauds.

Yes. We really all think that. 

There's even a term for it. "Imposter Syndrome."

Here's a quick video about it.
​

There are all kinds of videos and blog posts about Imposter Syndrome out there. 

In the end. We all think we suck. And when we try to combat our negative thoughts with positive reinforcement that we're not alone, all that comes out of it is our brain will tell us..."Yeah. Totally true for other people. But I actually suck."

We all think we're that one schlub in dirty sweatpants at the gala. 

Then someone, at some point tells us that we're not complete trash. They might compliment our work, or in a writer's case, leave a glowing review. 

The thing is, most of us don't know how to handle it. I've gone back to just a simple "Thank you" like I talked about a while back, but I'm still left feeling like I need to go lie down, because my brain can't wrap it's head around the praise.

Many of you are probably nodding your head right now. Because you feel the same way. And you know what? 

You're just as wrong about yourself as I am about myself. We can't can't get it through our own skulls how awesome we are. 

So maybe we aim toward the middle. Let's aim for "Not Crap" first. Then we can scale our thought ladders and work towards praising our own accomplishments. 

At the end of the day we need to be able to walk up to a reader and honk our own horns. I'm off to get a few words in while the rain is pouring down outside. 

Are you writing today? Or doing something else your evil brain is telling you you can't do? Do it anyway. And just in case you need a soundtrack, here's a song to add to your playlist. Let's sing it together and get shit done.

​~Roxy

​

While I was waxing poetic about my critique partner yesterday, I mentioned that we learned a new technology to connect with for our sprints. 

After watching my friendly neighborhood teen connect through Discord, I was intrigued by the app for use with writing partners. It could do video, audio, and text chat on both a computer, and a phone app. And the ability to separate convos by chat room made it very appealing to me. 

Skype may do all of these things too, I'm honestly not sure, but I've had so damn many skype calls dropped that I wanted to check into something else. While I and my critique partner stumbled around on the site until we figured out how to make it work for us, here is a video that walks you through the basics quickly.

Now that I've been using the platform for a couple weeks, I can tell you there are a few things I love about it.

1. Ease of connecting and disconnecting voice chat.

During our writing sprints, my CP and I can pop on and off with a mouse click. We report in on what we did. Decide on a time to start the next sprint and click back off. There's no weird dialing or waiting for someone to answer to connect. We pop on when we're done and we can see if the other person is there with us.

2. Integrated chat and voice. 

We can send each other links, pictures, and although we haven't used the feature yet, we can share our screens. All of this we can do with the audio live. We did video too, but honestly, we're writing at the end of the day, and no one wants to see me sans makeup glaring down at the computer.

3. The ability to shut off social media. 

​I already turned off most notification pushes to help me with my productivity. And this extra step allows me to completely shut down my browser and focus on the task at hand. No more little red numbers telling me there's been activity on my Twitter or Facebook to pull me away from what I'm doing.


I'm not going to jinx what's been an awesome run so far, so I'm saying this knocking on wood, but this has made voice chat as easy as texting for me, and I'm excited about all the different ways I can use this platform in the future. 

Usually I have a Facebook group to do my cheerleading on during NaNoWriMo, but I'm thinking this year, we might also have a Discord server. In fact...I'm gonna go ahead and start one just to see if anyone wants to pop on there. So if you want to give it a try and connect with me come November use this Invite

https://discord.gg/ftZE94x​

I'm super excited about using this platform for connecting with writers and readers. If you're on Discord, do you use it just for gaming? Or are you using it for something else as well? Are there any servers you spend all your time on? Tell me how you use the app.

I'd love to hear all about it.

~Roxy

I've spent the last week binge listening to the Unf*ck Your Brain Podcast. And I have been shocked by how different Kara's take on self-improvement is from the rest of the world. Most of the self-help tomes I've devoured, even the ones I've loved, are all about working with "The Universe" to put out the proper energy and attract the good things you want into your life.

Well that's all well and good, and having the positive attitude goes a long way. But Kara's approach is all about making changes in yourself. And while listening to this particular episode, I literally pulled my car off the road and sat there saying "Wow" to myself like a female Owen Wilson meme.

This particular episode is about asking yourself better questions. Instead of "Why can't I do anything right?" you should be asking yourself, "What would my next step be if I knew I'd succeed?"

Seriously. Just typing that last question again made my head explode in the best way possible.

There is a reason people are successful in this world. And while some luck and right-place-right-time is helpful, the truly successful people seem to find that same luck over and over again. So maybe it's not luck...

I've still been thinking about the question, "What would my next step be if I knew I'd succeed?" It falls right in line with where I was stumbling toward on my own. But puts me directly in the let's-get-started mode.

If you've never listened to this podcast, I highly recommend it. The first few episodes are directed toward lawyers, but she's rebranded to help everyone. This is a feminist bent. I happen to be a woman, and I get a lot out of that fact. If you're a dude, you'll have to tell me  how you feel about her episodes, but I'd still tell you to give them a try.

Start with this one.

~Roxy