End of the month catching up over tea time and the Astros baseball game.
Life Update:
So the end of October is here already and we only have two months left of 2021. It’s incredible how fast time went by I feel like I skipped through some months. This month I focused more on working in the background. Some days I felt really isolated because I decided to work from home more after a close family member passed away from covid and my sister got sick too. I finished my portfolio website to show my work and try to pick up a few more freelance gigs. You can check it out at fabiolavarela.com
This month I also got to volunteer at the local women’s center and teach a basic computer class. I try giving back to the community when I can. You don’t know how much of an impact you can make in a person’s life if you don’t share your gift with others. Even though I’m not a computer expert I know how necessary it is nowadays to be able to use a computer to be able to work from home, to communicate with others, or just be able to pay your bills online.
Reading:
If you don’t already know most of the reading that I do is self-development. Octobers readings were of course my bible, daily devotional, a few newsletter emails, and The Big Leap book by Gay Hendricks. I had this book on my bookshelf for a few years. Someone recommended it in a podcast so when I found it at a garage sell I bought it with the intention to read it of course. I think it got lost in the piles of books we have collected. Honestly making time to read was a little more difficult than other months even though I didn’t have many outdoor activities.
Planning:
Learn from my mistake and don’t forget to plan and organize your day even when you know you will be at home all day. I notice that I was feeling unproductive at the end of the days after being home all day. It wasn’t that I hadn’t done anything it was that I wasn’t seeing it checked off a list like I had been doing daily. Something about checking off tasks even if they are small makes me feel more productive.
My daily planner sat on my desk for the entire month just collecting dust. I thought I was just not working for me and I looked into trying something else. I actually gave my old A5 Stalogy a chance but it did not work. On the days where I had too many small work tasks to do I just wrote them down in a large spiral notebook so I could check them off and it worked like a charm.
Looking forward to updating my trusty old half letter disc planner for the month of November. I also started working on my 2022 planner inserts.
Journaling:
Paper and pen are my jam, but I also love the accessibility of my online journal that I can access from my computer or phone. I always keep a few journal pages online and I visit them when things get a little scrambled in life or when I don’t feel motivated to pull out my journals. This newsletter that you are now reading is another form of journaling I get to enjoy at the end of the month. I feel really motivated to share with you a little glimpse of my life through this end-of-the-month newsletter. I hope you like it.
Podcast:
The one podcast I listen to most of the time in October was Creator Club with Katie Steckly. Her podcast for content creators and entrepreneurs gives a ton of content creation social media strategies. Because I’m trying to get better with social media and need to learn some marketing strategies I think this is a great resource podcast. If you have any suggestions on other similar podcasts please let me know.
Blogging:
This blog has been moved around so many times just like my home furniture. LOL
I don’t know if it’s just ADHD or what but I can’t commit to keeping these few pages in one place. I’m working on it, but I still struggle with perfectionism. Wanting to have a beautiful-looking website instead of just writing to post consistently was a struggle for years. I bought this domain a couple of years ago with the intention to write blog posts but I got lost in the learning process.
I enjoy learning new things, and building websites is my dream career. I dedicated soo much time learning to code and trying to figure out all the free blogging platforms. Again, it could just be the ADHD that I can’t keep my focus on one thing. Hopefully, this becomes the permanent home for this blog.
Thank you very much for reading, I hope you stick around.
