Hacking, writing and life

Three of my biggest sites got hacked this weekend - what I took to be a simple database issue was actually something far more serious, so I've killed the blog databases for the moment.
You might wonder what that has to do with writing?
Well, for a start, I didn't keep ANY of my blog articles anywhere other than these blogs. More fool me. So I'm now backing up more often than before (daily instead of weekly) and writing my blog posts offline, instead of on the fly, and in the blog sites themselves.
This is teaching me a really nice habit though - before I'd forget to trigger my spellchecker before posting - now, before I upload it I spell AND grammar check about six times, mainly because I have to. Once in Word, once in notepad (to strip out all of the code that office adds and is completely pointless in blogs) and a final time when I put it live.
This gap of a couple of hours between writing and posting also does me the world of good, because I'm now seeing where my posts do and don't make perfect sense.
Life wise, I've been garnering 70% marks for hand in essay style assignments, so life is good on the University front. On the family front, things are tough - my youngest is special needs, and hard work, but she's also SO worth it, so we're weathering that little storm as best we can. 'Work' wise (read that novels and my own blogs), I'm doing ok. They tend to be the last thing I pay attention to, and most of my sites are just languishing now, so I'm trying to decide what to do with them. Its amazing how things change over a year.

I'm curious though - have you found anything 'different' - any challenges you're up against that you didn't expect - any successes or learning spots (note, NOT failures) that you've encountered?

Please Note: I vacuumed again

I did it. I vacuumed.

That's twice in a week.

Can I get a woot woot?

Because I was a little vexxed by my book, which did not get its fatty bits written while I was away in Toronto, I decided I had to clean. And add furniture. My friend Kim was giving a way a little table and my mother was giving away a very nice, uh, thingy that has shelves and holds the microwave.

So I kissed my husband and sent him on a trip to get the table and my mother kissed her husband and sent him over with the thingy.

I pulled the kitchen/dining room apart and threw out a lot of paper that I had lying around. I've also vowed to read every magazine that comes in my door within a week of arrival; I have far too many magazines still in their wrapping, lying around in piles and stagnating. I knew I was a lost cause when I found the SELF "Summer Special" still in its packaging.

(Can I make a belated New Year's Resolution? Stop buying magazines!!)

But after the dust was swept and the floor washed and the carpet vacuumed... I felt a whole heck of a lot more peaceful.

It's like that sometimes, when I feel stuck, when things aren't flowing... I have to organized my external environment so that my internal one can clear. Sometimes just walking in to a room and seeing clutter can make me stop in mid-sentence, I'm so distracted by the sight of it.

Of course it can become a bit of a procrastination technique quite easily. I try to be aware ... am I cleaning the kitchen for the third time today, can it wait?

Does anyone have any other techniques they use to procrastinate from writing or things that they need to do before they can write with a clear mind?

Time Compression

I have this theory. It's kinda mathy... and I'm not mathy, so bear with me. It's a theory on me and being busy. Ok, maybe it's more sciencey. But I'm reading A Short History on Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and it's affecting my brain.

We all have a certain amount of time in the day. 24 hours. That time is at a certain level of density depending on what you are doing. The sleeping hours are kind of spongy, not really dense... just there to recharge and re-energize.

Then we get up.

If we go to outside employment, then we start to pack more STUFF into time. We have to get all the work stuff done at work, during those 8 hours we are there. It can be intense, it can spill over. If it spills over it starts to take up space in those other hours, making them more dense, less relaxing.

So we work hard at keeping work stuff at work.

It can be the same if we work at home with kids. Tell me there's no difference between the hour of time right after the baby wakes up and the hour of nap time. That hour of nap time is so densely packed that time actually moves faster... really, it so does.

Sometimes, for people like me, packing more STUFF into your day actually makes you a more effective person. When I'm at work I'm really effective. I check things off lists, I manage issues, I return phone calls so fast people are astounded. It's not because I'm THAT GOOD, it's because I have to be that good because this is the time for WORK. To be successful, I need to keep the work stuff in the work time.

With my writing career, I chip and carve out time during the rest of my non-work, non-sleeping hours. I schedule it in. I plan for dense periods of time. Currently, I'm in list mode. I have made a list of blog posts to do during nap time and I am doing it by sheer will. The baby is sleeping, the boy is playing.

I give myself a mental "let's do this sh**!" and pour a cup of coffee and get going.

The key to scheduling ON time into your day is to schedule some OFF time. I had some off time already this morning. I made pancakes and sang the pancake making song with the kids. I read Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb eleventy times while sitting on the kitchen floor. I made up a new song about my daughter's love for milk.

Last night during my OFF time, I played with my son and took some blackmail video footage. (That's a Facebook link... you may have to be a 'friend' to view it....)

Or I watch TV with my husband. If there's anyone I need to schedule in OFF time with, it's Major Man. He's doing a big share of the childcare while I am at work, and as soon as I get home, he goes to work! So sometimes the only time we have together is from 9-11 pm or until I'm too tired to stay up. Often you'll find us both on our laptops at the kitchen table, sharing our down time with some work time...

I think it's up to each of us to determine what kind of person we are. Do we do better with scheduled time or not? With one too many jobs to do, or the exact right amount, or just enough time to utter the words "I'm a little bored right now"?

So what do you do? Do you over- or under-schedule?

E-mail Etiquette

This week my inbox has been bombarded by little pop-ups that say something along the lines of "So and so would like to know when you read her e-mail, would you like to send a read receipt?" And I would select "no" and grumble about people who need to know exactly when I open up and read their e-mail. Shall I send a "wipe notice" too, as in, when I get done using the restroom facilities....

OK, yes, I'm venting.

As a freelancer, I usually find myself handling a large amount of my communication online, specifically e-mail. It is how I send queries, interview requests, invoices and even the finished article.

And while I realize not everyone will be annoyed by the same things I get annoyed about, I do think there are some recognizable standards. I've tried to compile a few:

1. Your e-mail address should be YOUR e-mail address. Don't send e-mail from an account that lists your name along with your husband's name. If you don't know what your e-mail says in the from line, send yourself an e-mail to find out. It should say your first and last name.

2. Your e-mail address should be professional. This is not the time to use your "momoffour" moniker. Even when you select what you think is a professional e-mail, ask someone else to look at it. I was once told my slslsherwood made people think of "slasher."

3. Do not send attachments that aren't expected.

4. Do not request read receipts the first time you send an e-mail. Save this feature for the time when you are sending a requested item a second time and there has been a demonstrated problem.

5. Use complete sentences and expected conventions for business letters.

6. Ask yourself if your requests are reasonable? Are you asking the person to "respond immediately" and sending it out at 4:57 p.m.?

7. Don't follow-up immediately. Just because e-mail lets your communication land in another person's box immediately, don't expect an immediate response. Wait at least a week, preferably two, before following up on an e-query.

8. Realize that not everyone has your standards for e-mail. Be aware that some people might not appreciate the cute photo or background that you like to use. For business e-mail, stick to plain text.

9. Do not send jokes, hoaxes, or warnings to people just because you have their e-mail address.

10. Pay attention to that TO line before you hit send. Some e-mail programs fill in addresses automatically, so make sure you are sending your e-mail to who you intended it to go to.

11. Make the subject line clear and concise. If I am sending a query, I write "Query: Great Article Title" in the subject line with the text "great article title" being replaced for a catchy title of my current proposal.

12. If you send out your e-mail query to more than one place, do not include every single address in your To: line. Learn how to use CC and BCC. Be careful using CC and BCC.

What tips do you have for e-mail communication?

Monday Morning Goals & Listmaking

I am being featured this week on the Direct Sales Radio Show. One of the topics I discussed was listmaking. I'm a listmaker.

Some people are predisposed to make lists (like me) but others need to learn. (Like, ahem, my husband...)

Listmaking does two things:

1. Makes a committment to yourself


2. Saves your brain memory and energy

I recently heard an analogy that said it perfectly, I'll attempt to recreate it here. Imagine your brain is an airport and you are the air traffic controller. You have planes circling and waiting for their time to land, you have planes getting ready to take off, planes sitting and waiting for passengers.

These planes are your tasks. Some are small, like remembering that there are shirts that can't stay in the dryer until the end of the cycle or they will wrinkle. Some are large, like a major project deadline looming. But while we devote a different amount of energy to each plane, as they require, each one takes up the same amount of space in our brain/airport.

By creating a list, we assign each plane its own space. A plane with no space for itself is taking up too much space wandering around the airport while we think about it, talk about it, discuss it and wonder when we're going to do something about it.

Here's my list for today:

1. Finish laundry.


2. Sort out the 'too small' clothes pile and get it ready for consignment store.


3. Sort out the Goodwill pile.


4. Finish column for WHR.


5. Go buy fall/winter jackets for kids.

Here's my list for this week:

1. Begin article for ABM.


2. Blog daily.


3. Work on Marketing Course material.


4. Send out eNews to Calgary Writers.


5. Finish Scribbler eNewsletter (issue #1!)

It doesn't look like a lot... but that's because I add duties as they come to me. I have a physical list sitting next to me on my desk. Whenever something comes to me, I put it on the list. Then, rather than spend time thinking about the things I don't want to forget, I just remember to check the list several times a day.

The great thing is, I get a little jolt of satisfaction every time I check something off my list. If I didn't have the list, I might be fooled into thinking I didn't accomplish a darn thing. So not true.

At the beginning of each day, I go to the previous day's list and transfer my 'incompletes' to my new list. Because they are right at the top, they often get the most attention.

Go on, be a listie!