NaNoWriMo time

With a goal of writing regularly instead of word counts I decided to try national novel writing month (NaNoWriMo) this year. I even made a little habit tracker in my new bullet journal. 

Some days have had more words than others. But I've written every day so far. Some writing has been over lunch breaks. Some has been in the evenings after younger kiddo has fallen asleep. 

How I Use Trello

Awhile back I asked on Twitter if anyone would be interested in hearing about how I use Trello. While this is aimed at making ADHD organization easier, this should still be useful for anyone looking at Trello.

This post is about what features I use. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel with explaining how all the settings work. Trello has good documentation on thier website. 

Trello

What is Trello? 

Very quickly, Trello is like a virtual bulletin board. Where you can create cards to hold information. The cards are organized within lists on the board. A user can have multiple boards. This can be for solo use or collaborative. 

When setting up a board I try to keep the purpose in mind when deciding how information is going to flow or live. How task oriented? What's the project scope? 

Examples: 

-When I was job searching each list was a step in the search process. Then each card was a specific job application, and I'd move the cards from one list to another. This follows the logic of a card being on a list based on where it is in a process. 

-For my job workload organization I do time based lists. I usually have each list cover a month worth of time. This can also work with Quarters. 

-I've got a Story board for writing and a general art board for ideas. Lists here are more topic based. Like setting ideas, muse prompting, or material type.

Trello Settings used:

This is under power ups, the calendar feature is something I use on most boards. Calendar or not all cards can have a due date. Due dates can send reminders. What I like about the calendar is that it can toggle from a list view to when things are due. This is a helpful view, and cards can be dropped and dragged on the calendar as needed, which updates their due dates. Note that they still stay in thier list. This is also more functional on the desktop web version than mobile app.

Lables are my next favorite feature. While cards live on lists they can have multiple labels for organizational purposes. For my job board this is the type of task. For my committee team board this is team role based. Both boards are time based lists. Labels show on the calendar and can be used when filtering a board. 

Email settings are another feature I use. Trello allows for card creation by email. This is under the email to board setting. Trello will generate a email address for the user and the board, which I then save as a contact in outlook. Email subject populates the card name while body will be the card description. And any attachments on the email will be uploaded to Trello.

Trello does have a personal paid version, thier Gold, which allows for more power ups per board. They also have a business class which gives more boards per team. What's covered in this post is available with the free version. 

A note on mobile, I have an Android phone and use the app in addition to desktop. The app can display push notifications when a due date is approaching. And I can use the "add card to Trello" option whenever there's a share button on my phone. 

New Post

Looking at 2020 and thinking about how often I'm updating this blog. I still want it to be writing with a slice of life, which can be tricky when I haven't been writing as often as I'd like. I have my other blog for more professional / higher ed data type posts. 

Short post is short, more to come soon. :) 

Peony

Found this in my drafts and figured I'd post it.

One Word 2020: Heal

Last year was forward, which was good in theory. But thinking further healing from the past needs to be part of the process. Only looking forward doesn't help in the long run.

Micro Fiction

I signed up for an online class for writing micro fiction. This is with a professor I had previously had, and I'm excited to be working with her again. 

I'm also looking forward to writing again. I know I need to work on my revision skills and figure that short fiction would be a great place to hone this skill.

Test post

Test post to see if the Blogger app on my Android phone even works anymore.

Racism is not a mental illness

I found this as a draft, of which I'd originally written for a Facebook group. The topic still resonates on its own so I revised this a bit.

Can we discuss racist actions without using words like crazy, insane, or anything else related to mental illness? I've seen this a few times and wanted to write a stand alone post. The point of being more intentional with our interactions on this topic.

Two main points with this, the first being that calling racist behavior crazy can look like an excuse for it. Like someone doesn't know better. Which removes accountability in a way.

The second point is abelism. Using a disability/ disorder to describe something else in a negative way is abelism. With mental illness there is enough stigma around it already that we don't need to use related terms in a negative way. And some of us with mental illnesses are working hard to address racism. Calling someone else's racist actions insane lumps us in with them.

Some other words to use: unbelievable, unacceptable, inappropriate, ect, as a start.

Of darkness and light

Of darkness and light and moving forward. I saw this picture on a Facebook page and it speaks to me. There's something about recognizing the impact of the dark times, and taking those lessons forward. 

Image description: A woman standing with arms forward, light in hand and around her. Text reads "Thoes who have seen the darkness have the most light to give. @therandomvibes".

Image

2019 - Forward

I decided on Forward for my one word. To kick off the year I drew this in my new marker sketchbook. Inspired by Steven Universe.

Picture here because Blogger wouldn't post with it.