Checking in on our systems

Hello darlings!

Well, it’s the middle of fucking August! I’m not going to ask how everyone’s doing! I’m going to assume sad, nervous, and slepe!

Maybe these two things will make your life better:

2027 writing retreat! Kelly and I are taking our next writing retreat to Sayulita, Mexico, May 18-23, 2027. Come write with us in a small fishing village just north of Puerto Vallarta. The house has a rooftop deck with a view of the ocean, an infinity pool, and lots of space to write, with cute coffee shops and restaurants in easy walking distance. You can read all of the details here, and register here (as usual, no money due on registration--just hold your spot!) The spots are quite limited, so if you are interested, don’t wait.

Free workshop on writing during the semester! Kelly and I are also hosting a free workshop on how to write during the semester. Aug 26 at 3pm Eastern. On zoom! Sign up here to receive the zoom link! The workshop will be a little on our thoughts of building systems and a lot on practical tips of fitting writing in.

Today, I’m asking: how are the systems going for us, friends?

Good systems only work if they work for us! So — are they working? What is working, what isn’t working? (A reminder that the systems can all be found here)

Here’s my audit of what has and has not worked for me!

Email: yes, but I got more extreme in what makes it in front of my eyes and I’m so happy about it

Focus time: I need more! I just adjusted my morning focus time to go 30 minutes longer and added an afternoon session. During these times, my phone goes to grayscale, my browser closes my email or social media tabs, and I’m reminded to GET TO FUCKING WORK (yes it makes me nervous to set these up and yes I do it anyway)

Syllabus system: Not teaching rn, but did tuck the link to the boilerplate language for this AY into my system set up file!

End of the day: well, this has been a total fail!

This is what the “wins” doc that I started looks like LOL.

Really keeping up with this! (NOT) It turns out, putting the reminder at the end of my day does jack shit because I want to end my day when I want to, not at the precise moment the calendar tells me to! A reminder to go workout is great because I can still diddle around for a few minutes or finish a sentence or write an email etc. So having a specific set of things that I’m reminded to do at a specific time doesn’t do it for me! I’m also not attaching this to any new habit so not benefiting from habit stacking. Gah. But to be honest, I’ve never been good at a gratitude journal or daily pages, so maybe this piece is not for me!

I have: 1) been shutting everything on my computer down and sending all emails, 2) putting together a 3 item to do list for the next day, and 3) continuing my end of the day mantra. Maybe that’s enough for my system! I will continue to experiment

Website and social media refresh: Website yes, social media no. I need to do this still! On the list…

Weekly research goals: Yes and I just used the template today to create the goals for the week! And was reminded to include a little whimsy (and maybe a little evil).

Monthly research goals: Yes and they have helped me say yes to things that are aligned with my goals and no to things that are unaligned! Plus, I fucking love a check mark in google docs!

Semester research goals: Well, I just put them together so… we will see! But the system helped me think through what I want to get done this semester and what I really won’t have the time for and what might be somewhere in the middle of those. But I promised a look at what this process involves for me. So.

Here are my semester goals. As always, don’t look (or don’t look closely) if you don’t want to see me betting on 20 pigs. Bonus — I also have my monthly and weekly goals in the tabs.

And here is a crazy ass video tracking the key strokes of how I produced those goals. I didn’t do it ALL for you because the end is just rearranging deck chairs on the titanic and fixing my spelling errors. The playback extension tells me that “This document was created over 11 distinct writing sessions” with these blocks of time:

This tells me that my semester goal setting is probably best achieved across several settings — maybe the same applies to my monthly goals?

So: how are the systems working for you? What is going well, what is failing, what tweaks can you make now to improve your life? Remember that you can always drop me an anon piece of feedback here or just reply to this email! Or leave a comment! Or send me a giant ass bouquet of flowers with a note that says “Mirya your systems suuuuck but we love you anyway”! (It’s true, you could do this!!)

XOXOX

Mirya