Monday Musings

I wish you a happy, healthy, productive, and prosperous New Year. You can follow the Author on her  Website  or  X .

2023 has been a productive year, both in volume of work and accolades. I belong to the  High Country Writers  organization in Boone, NC, an excellent source for camaraderie and learning. At the Annual Holiday Party, I was thankful to receive the Juanita Tobin Poetry Award for prolific poetry publication. The Haiku Foundation accepts nominations each year from editors who publish haiku and senryu. Six panel members with expertise in these poetry forms weigh the selected works. The poems are ranked, Long Listed, then Short Listed, and finally award-winning poems are chosen. Even if a nominated poem does not win, it is a great honor to have a haiku submitted for consideration. I am humbled to have three poems put forward for deliberation. And last but not least, for the fourth year in a row, I have published a poetry book. The most recent,  KAR-KU ,  was released last week on December 15th. Exciting news: the book is already moving up the Amazon charts. As the year clo...

Recently, I’ve experienced a surge of creative juices, resulting in a high output of written work. The outpouring is fortunate because a writing colleague shared an updated calendar of haiku submission deadlines. I was excited to discover new journal opportunities around the country and the world. The Twitter writing community shares a wealth of experience and resources, and I’m blessed to be a part of them. The most recent deadline is today, May 15th. The good news is that I write nearly every day, so I have a lot of work products to pull from. I always carry a Moleskin notebook for jotting down spontaneous thoughts, most of which occur while driving (don’t worry, I don’t write until I’ve pulled over into a safe location.) My pocket companion and a mechanical pencil are step one in the writing process. The next step is to transcribe my notes into Word documents, which may consist of exciting words, snippets of overheard conversation, lines, and phrases of poetry. I keep a set of files...

There are many concepts of productivity. To an economist, it equals output per unit of input, i.e., GDP (gross domestic product), to number of hours worked. To someone else, it may not be a matter of getting a lot more done each day, but rather completing the things they consider essential done more consistently. For example, maintaining a steady, average speed on a small number of things instead of maximum speed on everything. There is a misconception that more can be accomplished by multitasking: WRONG. It is a very inefficient process. Individuals have different productivity styles. What can you do to enhance your productivity? The  Productivity Guide  in this link includes many valuable resources that approach productivity from various angles. Take a look and see if you can find one that fits your personality and needs. We all, myself included, spend too much time down the rabbit hole of the internet. Unplug and move forward with your projects. What will you do today to be...