The Effective Author: Taking Control of Time

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author stress, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, time management, time stress

 

©2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Many of my clients are plagued by what can only be called time stress.  With deadlines approaching, they aren’t ready and they wonder where their time went.  Is this you?  How do you spend your time?  Do you even know?  Is your sense of your time as clear as the clock in this photo?

You’re not alone.  But there’s help!  Read on, and consider taking a whole new view of your time.  You may be amazed at how you can take control, of your week and your deadlines.

First, picture your week.  Literally.  Take a piece of paper at least 8 ½ x 11, and draw yourself a diagram of your week, with 7 rectangles in a row.  Label them with the days of your week, the way you visualize your week.  My rectangles start with Sunday on the left and Saturday on the right.  Each rectangle represents 24 hours of that day, from midnight to midnight.  Now block out time for sleep in each day’s rectangle.  I block out 8 hours, which includes tooth brushing, alarm setting and reading something irrelevant before bed.   That leaves me 16 hours for everything else each day. Now block out time for meals, showering, exercising, and grocery shopping.  For this example, let’s say that’s 2 hours per day.

At this point, in this example, there are 14 hours still left in the day.  Can you fit banking, work, exercise, church, meditation, getting gas, and relationships all into the rest of the day?  Sure you can!  Seven days times 14 hours per day is 98 hours every week!  Now, from this perspective, you’re absolutely rolling in time!  The timescape stretches out before you, bound only by your free choices as to how to allocate your hours.  Do you want to structure in certain blocks of time for writing?  Go ahead. Now you know there’s lots of time, and you control it with your choices.  The truth is,

You have more control than you think.

Now, consider that you can control your deadline agreements.   Even if you work for an organization, you regularly make agreements about what you will do and when you will have it done.  You have actually been doing this most of your life.  Being aware of the hours you have available can  make you more clear about what agreements you can make about writing projects, childcare and elder care, volunteering, and participating in blog challenges and contests.  So how much time does each would-be commitment take?  Remember, you have 98 hours to spend for commitments. Ask about the hours expected and look at your day blocks, to see if a certain project/contest/commitment will fit comfortably in your week or month.

Start taking control of your time and time stress. You ‘ll find your stepping  into a whole new level of living.  You’re stepping into becoming the Effective Author.  Questions?

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com .

The Effective Author: The Power of Smartphone Notes

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author stress, Effective Author, Kebba Buckley Button, Smartphone notes, stress

 

© 2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

At lectures, some of you have already been taking notes on your iPad mini or your laptop.  But then how do you organize the notes so you can retrieve them?  At last, I have developed a system.  Smartphone users, rejoice!  It’s time to cultivate your smartphone “Notes” app!  First, open that app.  Then create some categories.  I have about 20.  Now open different folders of notes with a word in capitals that is the category name: QUOTES, LIST, COLUMNS, NOTES (these are notes that don’t have their own folders), MYTOPMENTOR, MY UPCOMINGBOOK.   These first words in each NOTES folder will show as titles of the different Notes folders, when you first open the app.

Of course, substitute the actual name of your top mentor, for notes from their TV show, teleseminars, and such. And substitute the actual name of your upcoming book.  Now, every time you need to make notes, you’ll add them to that folder in Notes on your smartphone. At the end of each lecture or inspiration, use the “send it out” function and email that category of Notes to yourself.  Then, when QUOTES or LIST arrives in your laptop email, you’ll select the text and drop it into a Word document.  You can also select just a section of your QUOTES notes, for example, and drop it into an email to yourself for insertion in a column you’re writing.

Here’s a great example of the power of your smartphone.  Recently, during a power outage, I was on deadline and had run down my laptop’s power.  I just hated to revert to paper and pen by flashlight, because then I would have to keyboard in the whole article when the power came up.  But my smartphone had plenty of juice and a backup power unit.  So, I selected and copied sections of my COLUMNS Notes, created a new folder of Notes, and labeled it with the name of the column.  Then I wrote an entire column within that folder, yes, still on the smartphone.  (Apparently there is no limit, or there is a generous limit, on the number of words you can have in one Notes folder.)  Then I copied the column text, pasted it into an email, and emailed the column to myself.  Soon the power came back on, and I was able to use Word to format and post the column online.

In just one example of the power of notes, my QUOTES collection has now grown to over 80 pages.  It’s a Word document filed under BOOKS.  I have it divided by topic, and each topic is highlighted in a box.  The topics are in alphabetical order, except GENERAL, at the top of the document, and UNSORTED, at the end.  When I want a quote for a column or book, I can easily find one in my own collection.  Or, I can do some research, find new cool quotes, and add to the collection.  I often add quotes from live events I’m attending.

So now, are your notes more organized?  Are you at least inspired?  If you still have a pile or some notes lost in your To Be Filed stacks, keep your spirits up!  The more you create notes in your smartphone or computer, the fewer pieces of paper you’ll have, and the easier it will be to pull a few, transcribe them, and file them in your computer.

Until next time, keep gathering your paper notes and practicing with your smartphone and laptop.  Those notes are still the lifeblood of your writing.  Next time we’ll talk about how to organize the notes in your computer, saving you hundreds of hours of frustration as you go along.  My goal is to show you how to reduce author stress and help you to become a completely Effective Author!  Questions?

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice.  Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br),and Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.   Want an appointment? Or to ask Kebba to speak for your group?  Just email Calendar@kebba.com.

The Effective Author: The Chaos and Creative Power of Your Notes

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author stress, Effective Author, Kebba Buckley Button, Organized notes, stress

© 2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

From the first article of this series, on The Effective Author, I have been urging you to take notes.  Notes are the lifeblood of your writing!  So in what form have you been taking them?  Did you email yourself, scribble on a napkin, or just hope you would remember?  It’s time to harness the chaos and creative power of your notes.

A famous psychiatrist once said that he wrote an entire book based on what he called “napkin notes”.  He said, for a year, every time he had an idea for his book, he would pen it on any nearby piece of paper.  When he got home, he would empty his pockets and dump all the notes in a drawer.  At the end of the ear, he duped the drawer and organized the notes into a book.

Notes on paper are still a wonderful way to take and keep notes, for some people.  Especially if you like to sketch out the order or relationships of concepts. However, paper notes can get spilled on, they can blow off your table or desk, and they can easily get lost.  Although you may like one single bound notebook.

John Varvatos said this:

A part of my kind of design and inspiration ethos is that I carry around a leather notebook and I sketch in it, doodle in it, write notes in it, and I put pictures in it.

If you are with Varvatos, by all means keep your system.  But remember, he has to manually insert the pictures and any clippings he will refer to.  Then he has to keyboard into the computer any text he wants to use in a document, then scan the pictures.  What a mess.

Paper notes are really hard to put in order, unless you date them and always write on the identical type and size of flat paper.  I used to have napkin notes, like the psychiatrist, and I relied on any of a dozen little spiral notepads, a few types of post-it pads, and quarter-sheets of printer paper.

Gradually, I got rid of every other size of paper, for notes, and started using only the printer scrap, cut in quarters with a paper cutter.  However, I still had notes on meditation, on car mileage, on Things to Do, and on various articles and books.  On the fly, when I had ideas on any of these, it wasn’t practical to keep the mileage records on blue paper, the book notes on pink, and meditation notes on purple.  So I was drowning in quarter sheets of paper.  At least I dated almost every little piece.

For a while, I started emailing myself from my phone to my laptop, with important information, books needed, dates of events, and so on.  That was helpful. But then, how to retrieve them so they can actually be used?  This has been my biggest challenge as a writer: notes are either organized or useless. NEXT TIME we cover my latest solution, which has saved my notes collection, my time, and my sanity.  Until next time, start gathering all your notes in a central place, and get rid of all the odd-sized notepads.  I want you to be a completely Effective Author!  Questions?

____________________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br),and Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.  

 

The Effective Author: In What Form to Write?

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author stress, Effective Author, In what form do I write, stress, The Effective Author, What do I write

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS,OM.  World Rights Reserved.

This is the fourth in a series of 35 articles I call “The Effective Author”.  Since I have found that my writing life is over 80% non-writing activities, I am offering this series to save other writers a lot of frustration. If you have just dropped in on this series, get out your notes and start processing along.

We have talked about finding your delight in writing: your passion topics, past/present/future, fiction/nonfiction/blends/both.  I’m recommending that everyone notice what excites and absorbs them, in reading or in their own writing.  These are the topics and formats that will pull you forward and energize you as you write.  Notice I say “these”.  You may have multiple areas and formats.  A number of authors do, and they actually write under different names for the different series or areas.

Some people love to have a marketing name and perhaps an avatar (cartoon-type image of themselves) to go with the marketing character.  Some like to write under their own name, no matter what they are writing; I’m one of those.  In the academic environment, sometimes faculty are expected to be very serious.  Sometimes, they are expected to publish only scholarly works.  In 1970, a professor of Greek and Latin literature, at Harvard University, learned a hard lesson in this area.  He wrote the blockbuster best-selling novel, A Love Story, and then he wrote the screenplay for the blockbuster movie.  Erich Segal might have had better politics with his academic community, had he written his popular works under a pseudonym. Segal wrote not only scholarly works, but a variety of screenplays (e.g. Yellow Submarine) and novels.

And this brings us back to the question of what formats will be best for your writing.  If current life interests you, blogging (300-800 word articles) or articles for news media may be for you.  Write a variety of articles on timely topics, and submit them to newspapers, the Huffington Post, The Observer, and any other online news outlets that your topics seem to fit.  Submit your articles in the style and length(s) you see in each publication.  Do you want to write about lifestyle, prominent people, fashion, skincare, or financial management? Do you write humor? These topics may fit best in magazines, trade publications, or in the Lifestyle sections of newspapers, online or in print.  Any of your short articles can be linked together to become books.  Let your imagination run wild at the countless combinations that are possible.

If you like characters, actions, and story development, either biography or fiction may be for you. Major biographers can make a lot of money.  And some people’s lives have been at least as exciting as fiction.

In fiction, first try writing microstories (around 300-500 words) such as One Minute Mysteries.  You can write short stories of, say, up to 20 pages, or novellas of perhaps 40-75 pages.  Full novels can run up to 600 pages, continuing in trilogies (e.g., Lord of the Rings) and even prequels. Novelist Jeffrey Archer also writes short stories, which he publishes in collections (e.g.,Twelve Red Herrings).  If you start with short stories, you may fall in love with some of your characters, and you may find them informing full-length novels.

Stephen King said,

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials,no batteries,hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent.  What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”

The Effective Author wants to create that perfect entertainment, in any number of lengths and forms.  Are you making notes on your passion areas and your possibilities?  Are you checking the Best Sellers lists?  I want you to become that Effective Author.  Questions welcome.

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.

The Effective Author: What to Write About?

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Effective Author, stress, The Effective Author, what to write, Writing a book

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS,OM.  World Rights Reserved.

This is the third in a series of 35 articles I call “The Effective Author”.  In my professional writing life, I have been astonished that so much of my “job” is not-the-writing (http://wp.me/pw4HM-pa).  So this series is being shared to encourage other writers, who may be frustrated by the huge set of non-writing processes that are necessary for the professional writer.

In yesterday’s article, I began asking whether your writing delights you, and who you want to delight with your writing. I also argued that you don’t have to choose between fiction and nonfiction; many successful writers have published both.   I hope you started making notes, or sketching out what came to mind with those questions and examples.

Today I ask you to consider what you want to write about.  With your pen poised at your notes, consider this: What are you passionate about?  What are the burning issues to you?  Love, crime, social justice, politics, interpersonal problem solving, religion/spirituality, humor, leadership? What do you spend most of your time thinking, puzzling, or feeling about? What is most of your conversation about?  Is your mind often on some other country or time period, or both?  Or are you often thinking about the future and imagineering what it may become?  Are you fascinated by lives of the prominent, past or present?

If you are already writing, is it easy and satisfying for you?  If so, maybe you are already in your best groove, or one of them.  Is your research and writing hard work, but you love that and love the pieces you write?  Does your writing take place in the present, but you would really like to see what those characters would do in an earlier era?  What writers or writings do you most admire, and what is it about them that fills or fuels you?  With your answers to these passion questions sketched out in your notes, take a trip to a large bookstore and start prospecting. What sections are you most drawn to? What authors capture you?  In the bookstore, add your reactions to your notes.

William H. Gass said,

The true alchemists do not change lead into gold.  They change the world into words.

Guess what?  You may have just frameworked your future writing genre/s!  But wait!  Before you commit firmly—and you need never do that—consider the example of author James Redfield.  Never heard of him?  No cheating.  Don’t look him up yet.  Redfield wanted to write about spiritual principles that some would call “New Age”.  He wrote a handbook, and a friend recommended that he write it as a novel.  So he did. And it is a very exciting adventure novel.  Since 1993, over 20 million copies of The Celestine Prophecy have sold worldwide, as well as a number of spinoff books.  And here is the possible punchline for you as a writer: James Redfield now gets to live as he wishes, entirely centered in his favorite subject, spiritual living.  He gets to do radio, TV, workshops, magazine interviews, and more writings, all because he wrote from his passion, first as nonfiction, and then as fiction.  What passion of yours would you like to live as a lifestyle?

See if your notes are now showing some patterns. Consider that your writing will be most likely to excite others—and sell—if it excites you.  So draw a line, start a new section of notes, and start brainstorming about kinds of articles/posts/books you might write, in your passion areas. And feel free to write me with any questions.  I want you to become a truly Effective Author.

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.

Deadline Stress: Three Brain Boosters to Beat It!

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author stress, brain boosts, chocolate, Coffee benefits, Deadline Stress, meditation, peace within, stress

©Berc-Fotolia

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 It’s the dread Deadline Stress again!  With your deadline looming, you’re sitting at your computer or iPad or with your yellow pad, and the words aren’t coming.  You know your topic and everything about the piece.  But the moments are slipping away, and still the words aren’t getting into the article.  You’re really stuck!

Most advice about writers’ block is all about using your thoughts to control your thoughts. But that won’t work when your brain is stuck, and you can’t grasp your thoughts in order to control your thoughts!  Your brain is depleted right now.

So don’t use your mind!  Use these physical brain boosts to get yourself going.  Here are three of my favorites:

 

• The Shoulder Shift. Roll your shoulders up and forward, then around, slowly, stretching, for one minute.  Watch the clock.  No cheating.  Now roll the shoulders up and back and around, slowly, stretching, for one minute.  Notice the warming in your ankles and feet.  You have now opened up the circulation to the whole body, and you’ll feel it in the brain in one minute.  Notice a warming sensation flowing up the back of your neck.  This is energy, and it’s recharging your energy-starved brain.  You may notice your mood changing already, with positive emotions rising.  Cool, huh?
• The Chocolate Churnover. Earlier, were you craving chocolate?  Now is a great time to munch an ounce of dark chocolate to help your brain. The antioxidants and theobromine in the chocolate will lift your energy and metabolism.  Stimulating the tongue and mouth, by eating, lifts the energy of both the Fire- and Earth Meridians.  The bitter flavor in the chocolate stimulates the Fire Meridian, and the sweetness energizes the Earth Meridian.  If you heat your chocolate in almond- or dairy milk, the warm drink will raise the energy of the entire digestive system, which stimulates brain function, increasing clarity.  Also, the potassium in either form of milk will assist brain optimization.  Now you have churned your whole energy system, and it is pumping in support of you.
• The Latte Lift. If you love lattes, try this trick first.  Get your favorite latte and set a timer for 20 minutes.  Drink your delicious liquid, and lie down or relax in your recliner for those 20 minutes. You get a break, and as you’re rising again, the antioxidants and caffeine (or in tea lattes, L-Theanine, theobromine, and theophylline) are just hitting your  blood-brain barrier.  Now you’re rested and refreshed, yet your blood, oxygen, and energy are flowing well.

 

Now, your brain has what it needs, and your words will be flowing. You no longer have to dread Deadline Stress!  Play around with these brain boosting techniques and make them part of your regular writing practice.  You never need to be stuck again.  Now you’ll be beating all those deadlines and soaring as the writer you are meant to be.

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br),and Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.   
• Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com.