2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 20: Growing Habits

Despite my concern that I’d end up with a productivity hangover, last week turned out to be relatively busy and productive.  I struggle not to be too hard on myself, though, because while I did get a lot done, I tend to overschedule myself and then feel bad for not being able to accomplish all of it.  But honestly, last week I did good.

Writing

I made a decent comeback in my goal to write most days.  I worked on my novel four out of seven days last week, maintaining a six-day streak.  I only let it slide when I was working a lot on other projects over the weekend.  I also posted once to my author Insta.

To review (because this was months ago and probably forgotten by now), my goals for 2025 were to write at least 80% of the days and to post to my author IG at least once a week.  I’ve struggled with the near-daily writing goal, unfortunately, and am currently sitting at only 42%.  I’ve had more success with posting to IG once a week, but I’d like to actually expand that and do more.

Decluttering and Organization

I worked a lot on the patio and garden this past weekend.  We’re currently working on the smaller flower bed, with the goal of getting everything planted within the next couple weeks.  This is the flower bed that’s right next to the patio, which we’ve been cleaning up and setting it up to be a space we can use.  I intend to use the garden as a backdrop for doll photos, and to sit out on the patio to work sometimes.

Once the patio and small flower bed are done, I want to focus on organizing my sale stuff and getting ready for the next sale, a small sale at the museum in about a month.  After that, my next priority is to clean up and organize my doll spaces, including organizing the projects I currently have in progress so that I can get back to working on them.

Dolls

I didn’t work on any dolls last week, but I did work a lot on planning for the museum’s Fall Show in early September.  Like last year, I’ve scheduled a couple of doll programs and a workshop.  It was a lot of work at the last minute, but I’m pleased with the programming!

On Thursday I also toured the hotel that is hosting our Fall Show along with several other people from the committee, and returned on Friday to get pictures for the Fall Show packet.  The pictures turned out great!

And I suppose also on the subject of pictures, I took some time around midweek to get some good doll pictures.  I was feeling in a bit of a slump at that time of the week, so it was good to get pictures and feel like I was doing something productive, even if it was something fun.

Taxes

I didn’t get anything done on this last week, but plan to get caught up this week

Lessons Learned

I went through a slump midweek last week and was very hard on myself for not getting enough done, so it’s kind of a surprise to look back and see how productive and busy the week actually was.  It’s a reminder that 1) a sluggish day does not mean I’m unproductive the rest of the time, and 2) I’m too hard on myself with my expectations.  I know these things, but it’s good to remind myself of them occasionally to balance out how hard I am on myself.

This week is going to be a rough one.  I am working long days outside of the house today and tomorrow, and while it’s the kind of job that gives me plenty of time to work on other things, it’s also mentally fatiguing to be up early and “always on” for so much of the day two days in a row.  So I’m planning Wednesday as a recovery day, and I’ll get to work on other things starting on Thursday.  This does mean I have fewer days available for things that require me to be at home (organizing, working on dolls, etc.).  I know this and yet the challenge will be remembering that and not being hard on myself when I inevitably don’t get as much of those things done this week!

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 19: Taking Shape

Last week started out on the strugglebus, as I mentioned when I didn't even publish my weekly post until Wednesday.  The weekend was extremely productive, though, as we got a lot done on the patio.  We're creating a space that I'm hoping to be able to use for work and relaxation, and I'm pretty pleased.

Next up will be inside projects.  There's a lot more to do there!

Writing

I'm trying to fight my way back to a daily writing habit, but it's not coming easily — which is frustrating, because I maintained a regular writing habit for the majority of last year.  But this is a different year, obviously, with very different struggles.

So last week, I wrote my weekly blog post and posted to my author IG — the bare minimum of my goals for the year — but I did not work on my novel at all until this weekend.  I wrote about 200 words on Saturday and worked on a little research last night.  That makes two days in a row, and I'm hoping to extend that streak out into this week as well.

Decluttering and Organization

This is where my week shone — not because I organized anything inside (unfortunately) but because I got so much work done on the patio.  All of our orders arrived, so we spent the weekend putting together furniture and storage bins and shelving.  I think I mentioned that I feel I need to get this done first, even though there are more important projects inside, because otherwise I'll lose my window.  Granted, the "window" is more about planting than putting together patio furniture, but I've been thinking of it as a whole unit.  I hope to get said planting done in the next couple of weekends, and to be able to start using the space this week.

Dolls

No progress here last week.  I do have at least one project that has to happen this week by necessity, and I'd like to get back into working on dolls on a weekly, if not daily, basis.  The museum and I have scheduled a doll sale for June 21, where another vendor and I will have a couple of tables of space to sell at alongside the museum's gift shop, so I need to start getting ready for that.

Taxes

I still need to call PayPal about my issues getting my transaction history, but that ended up on hold all last week.  I've set aside some time tomorrow to do it.  I'm also hoping to get back to sorting through emails this week.

Lessons Learned

Last week was an odd week that started out less-than-productive, but ramped up in the last few days.  I know why, too: The arrival of our orders got me excited about working on the patio, and I rode that excitement through the rest of the weekend.  It's probably going to carry over into the next couple days, too, as I still have a patio umbrella to put together, patio lights to hang, and a flower bed to prep for new plants.

There's also the possibility that the productivity of the week before impacted the first few days of last week.  I do tend to get what I've always called "productivity hangovers," which is where a period of extreme productivity or busyness tends to throw me into a period of paralysis, where I have a difficult time mustering the momentum and motivation to get anything done.

I'm a little worried that the busy, productive weekend I just had will have the same effect, but it may be delayed until later next week.  Right now I have a few more things to do on the patio today, plus I have a lot of busyness scheduled this week and early next week.  Perhaps I'll schedule a "recovery" day next week, and see if that helps me to get back to work post-recovery.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 18: Recovery, Interrupted

I started this post on Monday and now somehow it's Wednesday, if that gives you any idea of how this week is going.  I'm not even sure where the time has all gone!

Last week was, in short, chaos.  Coming off of an entire weekend of babysitting, I had two days of dog sitting for a different family, a day to ride, and then — on what was supposed to be my day to rest and recover -- my kitchen sink backed up and started leaking, and I spent Thursday and Friday dealing with that.

Somehow, despite all of this, the week looks very productive on paper.

Writing

I accomplished the bare minimum (my goal of one post) on social media.  I didn't work on my novel, except for jotting down an idea I had for a different novel, so I need to work on that this week.  But I did write a lot, with my politics newsletter going out near-daily (I took a couple days off over the weekend).

Decluttering and Organization

I worked on organizing the inventory I've accumulated (ordering before the de minimus exemption on small orders from China went away) for future doll shows and events.  This weekend we also did a lot of work in the garden and on the patio, cleaning up everything and starting to get it ready for this year.  I want to be able to write and take pictures out there this year.

Dolls

Working on doll projects is probably the only goal I did not make progress on this week, unless you count working on inventory.  Which... I suppose if I'm going to make this into a business, that probably does count.  After all, businesses often have a dedicated person to do purchasing for their stores.  So let's consider this one achieved for last week, too.

Taxes

I still need to catch up since filing the extension and I don't want to leave it all until the last minute, but I did work on it a little this week.  I need to get back to the email organization, but currently I'm working on getting all of my transaction records from PayPal.

Lessons Learned

It's funny how being under pressure sometimes makes me more productive.  It would seem like this might be my answer to everything, but unfortunately, it's not sustainable since I often develop what I affectionately call a "productivity hangover" afterward.

This week is already shaping up to be less productive than last week, but that's okay.  I've decided I'll just take it as it comes.  It's nice to be able to slow down a little this week, in any case.

We'll see what being able to slow down a little did to my goals when next week rolls around.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 17: Birthdays and Babysitting

As expected, last week was somewhat abbreviated by weekend babysitting.  All in all it wasn’t too bad, though.

This week I’ll be working today and tomorrow at a different family’s house, which will make this week an abbreviated week as well.  I also anticipate needing at least a day or two of down time after all this is done, so I’ve scheduled the rest of the week to be relatively light.

As for last week:

Writing

I started out strong and worked on my novel the first couple days of the week, but dropped the thread after that (unsurprisingly).  I did work on my politics newsletter every day except for yesterday, when I was too tired from babysitting all weekend and needed to be up early this morning for job #2.

I only posted to my author IG once last week, so I met my goal but would like to do better this week.

Decluttering and Organization

I need to start working in earnest on organizing the doll show stuff and my sales closet for future access, but I didn’t get any of that done last week before I had to go babysit.  I did, however, get a bunch of work done cleaning up the garden and patio and getting it ready for this year, and I’m counting that as an extension of the house.  The last few years I’ve neglected my garden and patio, so there are a lot of weeds to get rid of, plus a lot of clutter on my patio to clean up.  One of my goals for the year is to get that space in order so that I can use it.  I’d like to be able to sit out there sometimes in the summer, and would especially like to be able to take doll pictures with the garden as a backdrop.

Dolls

I didn’t have a chance to work on the dolls at all, even though I have a slew of projects that I’d been working on before the doll show and would like to finish.  I hope to get to those next week (being realistic about my need for recovery time later this week).  I did organize the projects a little (read: got them out of the way in the kitchen) so I guess that sorta counts.  I also started communicating with the museum again and working on some upcoming programming and other planning, which probably also should sorta count.

Taxes

About the best I did on this was to start putting together an Airtable for tracking income and expenses.  I’m very behind on tracking — all I’ve got right now is a massive collection of receipts — so I need to start working on getting those entered.

Lessons Learned

The lack of progress last week was more or less to be expected, as I knew my week would be abbreviated by babysitting and a few other interruptions (like my mom visiting, birthday dinners, and my birthday on Saturday).  However I think I managed pretty well, all things considered.  I don’t expect this week to be terribly productive either, given my almost guaranteed need for recovery time after today and tomorrow, plus my husband’s birthday is this upcoming Sunday.  So I’ll focus on celebrating that and giving myself some recovery time, and plan on buckling down next week.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 16: Recovery Time

Last week wasn’t the most productive week, unfortunately.  I took longer to recover from the doll show than I had hoped, even though if I were being honest with myself, I did expect it… I had just hoped (and made plans for) otherwise.

I think I have a good plan moving forward, but I’ll only get to play with it a little this week.  I have a busy nine days or so ahead of me: riding twice this week, followed by about five days of babysitting and pet care over the weekend and next week.  I might not have accepted the overnight babysitting Friday and Saturday nights if I’d remembered I was working Monday and Tuesday for another family, too — but then again, I might have.  It’ll be a lot of good money.

Here’s a quick rundown of the past week:

Writing

I had skipped working on my novel the day of the show and the last couple of days leading up to it, and I never got back to it this week.  As a result I have a 10-days streak of NOT writing, which I broke by working on my novel already today.

I did get the one social media post up last week, but that was it.  One goal met, though.

I did work on my politics newsletter every day last week.

Decluttering and Organization

After the show I left much of the stuff I’d brought home out so that I could go through it, reorganize, and work on my inventory.  I did work on that last week, and I’ve gotten maybe half of the show stuff put away.  I still have some reorganizing to do — I want to make sure certain things are more accessible for sales throughout the year (and not just for shows) — but it’s getting there.

Dolls

I worked on one doll project last week, a client doll I needed to finish up.  This week I need to finish the projects that didn’t get done in time for the show.  Once those are done, I’ll start on the rest of the project dolls.  One of the post-show organization goals is to get project dolls better organized to work on them going forward, so that should help as well.

Taxes

There was no time to get our return ready before the deadline, so I filed an extension.  I plan to get back to work on it at least a little every day this week.

Lessons Learned

One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is how to play to my strengths a little better.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I’ve come to suspect I have ADHD.  The suspicion has been brewing for years, and the more I learn and read and watch, the more sense it makes.  I’ve been seeing a lot of various apps, plans, and services geared toward those with ADHD, most of them claiming to help you “overcome” it.  But one of the things I’ve found most compelling is the suggestion that it can actually be a superpower if you learn to use it to your advantage.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to do this, and considering making some changes to my schedule in order to make the most of what I know about my strengths and weaknesses.  Discussing it here would make for a very long post, though, so I’ll write a separate post about this in the next day or two.  For now, suffice it to say that I have some things I want to try this week, but I’m not expecting to get a ton done because of how busy I’ll be (riding and babysitting, mainly).

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 15: Crunch Time

Last week was a whirlwind of work.  What had once felt like so much time to get ready for the show quickly became not enough.  And then the show was almost here, it was happening, and then it was over.

It's all a blur, but it was a lucrative blur, I guess.

I didn't get nearly as much done for the show as I had wanted, but even so, I did a lot of business and pulled in a good amount of money.  I can't remember how much I made at the show last year, but this year's was similar.  Next year I could probably bring in more if I'm better prepared.

Here's a quick rundown:

Writing

I was doing really well with writing every day, even if it wasn't very much, but of course that fell apart in the last few days: Friday and Saturday nights, when I was working hard to complete my projects, and last night, when I was exhausted from essentially a 12-hour work day on 2 hours of sleep.  Still, I set a streak record for the year so far of 11 days, which I'm pleased about.  A break for a few days around the show seems justifiable.

I also succeeded in getting my social media post up last week, although it was only the one.  And of course, I wrote my politics newsletter every single day except for Saturday and Sunday — Saturday because I was too busy prepping for the show, and Sunday because I was too exhausted.  I was asleep before 11pm last night, which almost never happens!

Decluttering and Organization

I decluttered in the kitchen and garage a little as part of preparing for the show.  That counts, right?

Dolls

Obviously, I worked on my dolls plenty, probably making up for the entire year in just a few days.  I am hoping to keep it up, too, just at a less hectic pace.

Taxes

With all of the preparations for the doll show, I didn't work on taxes at all last week, so I need to get back on it!  I am likely going to file an extension as there's no way I can finish everything I need to by tomorrow.  The key will be continuing to work on this daily after filing the extension, rather than waiting until the last minute before the extended deadline.

Lessons Learned

While I managed to pull off a pretty decent show, it would have been much better if I'd started preparing much earlier in the year, as I'd originally planned.  Even a month in advance would have made the whole thing much better, instead of trying to cram it all in during the week before the show.  I finish out the show every single year vowing to prepare more in advance the next year, and I never do.  However I think I would have this year if it hadn't been for the upsetting and chronically distracting political climate.

Now that the show is over, I am taking it easy for a couple of days, since I'm showing signs of burnout and overwhelm today — I'm easily distracted and taking a long time to do simple tasks.  But this week and next, I intend to establish a weekly rhythm where I'm balancing my time a little better between the things that matter.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 14: Deadline Looming

Last week was a relatively productive week, which doesn't surprise me because I know how my brain works.  I have a new project and I have a deadline looming, both of which are motivating factors for me.

Writing

I actually managed to work on my novel every single day last week.

Of course, many days I only wrote 100 or 200 words (one day I wrote 13!), but what I am pleased about is that every single day, I made myself at least open up my project and add to it.  Even if it was only 13 words.  I kept it fresh in my mind and kept moving forward every day, and that's a massive win for me.

I only posted to my blog and my author Instagram twice.

Decluttering and Organization

I cleaned my counter space in the kitchen where I tend to let stuff pile up again (it's already accumulating more — must do something about that) and started organizing show stuff and assessing what I already have and still need for Sunday.  I'm still behind on what I wanted to get done, but it's a major step forward.

Dolls

I started organizing dolls to work on for the show, but haven't worked on any yet.  YET.  Today I'm going to go through project dolls, see what I can get done before the show and what each needs, and get to work.  I expect the rest of the week to be a rehab frenzy.

Taxes

Somehow I managed not to get anything done on this (except for I think like a dozen emails I sorted one night but didn't record since I didn't work on it very long).  I definitely need to ramp up my efforts this week.

Lessons Learned

It was a busy week, but I've got an even busier one ahead!  I think we're solidly in the "hang on for dear life and it'll be over soon" stage.  I know I was talking about taking a break to recover after the show, but I'll have a lot of deferred things that aren't going to get done this week, so I don't know if I'll be able to.