Hard end-of-month deadline. For a night owl like me [and the company I'm writing for is in California], that gives me till midnight Thursday.
I have 54 products left, so that means 27 each day. And every single one requires 7 to 9 columns of copy created in a spreadsheet. I first have to study the product. Most of the copy blocks are just features, such as Opens any size can or 6-inch stainless-steel blade. But each item needs a long description, several sentences of inviting marketing copy, again created in spreadsheet format--which can feel [far] trickier and confining than composing copy on a blank page.
I have 54 products left, so that means 27 each day. And every single one requires 7 to 9 columns of copy created in a spreadsheet. I first have to study the product. Most of the copy blocks are just features, such as Opens any size can or 6-inch stainless-steel blade. But each item needs a long description, several sentences of inviting marketing copy, again created in spreadsheet format--which can feel [far] trickier and confining than composing copy on a blank page.
I've been at my desk most of the day since 10 a.m., with short, planned breaks to:
- Steam a bunch of asparagus bought at Mac's Market & Kitchen on the Cape. Drizzle two platters of it with fresh lemon juice. Leave one like that for Fig and shower the other with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
- Eat lunch [shrimp, avocado, steamed asparagus].
- Have a snack [my delicious smoothie from Juice Culture that I didn't finish at breakfast].
- Start a load of Cape Cod laundry.
- Load and run the dishwasher.
- Schedule hair color and brow tint [a first] for Friday. So.much.gray.
- Water some plants outside.
- Refill my tall cup of ice water several times.
- Stretch out on the couch for 15 minutes to read this past weekend's "Modern Love" essay on NYtimes.com--and catch up on Roseanne's very unfortunate, very unfair, just plain ugly racist comment.
- Talk to our sitter/friend, Elaine, when she got Punchy after school, as she does every Tuesday.
- Talk to Figgy when she came back from campus and before she disappeared upstairs to study chemistry.
- Check Instagram, email and blogs.
- Have another snack [too much snacking].
- Put frozen wild-caught, lightly breaded fish squares in toaster oven and tell Dan to steam corn on the cob to have with dinner.
- Eat dinner.
- Give Punchy her evening medicine [melatonin and another] with ice water.
- Give Sug a brief walk.
- Pay the mortgage online.
- Sign up online to bring watermelon to Punchy's school field day on Friday.
Wow, that's a lot of breaks. I think I might have ADHD?
Sigh, takin' care of business, every day.
Sigh, takin' care of business, every day.
I have to go to bed. Our bedroom is the only room so far with an A.C. unit. I am very hot.
Good night.
TCOY
At 9:20 p.m., I drove to Whole Foods to get roasted cashews. I also got organic PB; bananas; unsweetened almond milk for Fig; veg sausages; 2 bunches local asparagus; half-pint heavy cream; almond crackers; horseradish Cheddar dip [a very snacky mistake! but tasty]; cinnamon graham crackers and little packs of Late July brand Cheddar PB sandwiches for Punchy and others; 3 bagels for others; cream cheese for bagels for others; grass-fed burgers; teriyaki beef kabobs; coffee-rubbed pork chops; energy bars with 5 ingredients; Jarlsberg and Cabot slices to top burgers; and a little round of Purple Haze lavender goat cheese from a California creamery--very expensive, an indulgence for myself. I tucked it away in the bottom crisper drawer. I think I like the name and the pretty label as much as anything else about this cheese.
TCOY
At 9:20 p.m., I drove to Whole Foods to get roasted cashews. I also got organic PB; bananas; unsweetened almond milk for Fig; veg sausages; 2 bunches local asparagus; half-pint heavy cream; almond crackers; horseradish Cheddar dip [a very snacky mistake! but tasty]; cinnamon graham crackers and little packs of Late July brand Cheddar PB sandwiches for Punchy and others; 3 bagels for others; cream cheese for bagels for others; grass-fed burgers; teriyaki beef kabobs; coffee-rubbed pork chops; energy bars with 5 ingredients; Jarlsberg and Cabot slices to top burgers; and a little round of Purple Haze lavender goat cheese from a California creamery--very expensive, an indulgence for myself. I tucked it away in the bottom crisper drawer. I think I like the name and the pretty label as much as anything else about this cheese.
 |
| The small Cypress Grove round wss pricey; $7.99. But I'm not buying luxe chocolate, cookies, pastries or ice cream now. |
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Wow, that’s a big job. I would separate the tasks and first write, then enter on spreadsheet - I hate spreadsheets. It’s like a math problem -So if you work 10am-11pm with 2 half hour meal breaks, that’s 12 hours, and you can write 3 items in each of the first 3 hours, then you can take 30 minutes each for the the remaining 18 items ... goodness, that’s a lot. Do you map out writing in advance, or just plow ahead? I have monthly deadlines and also a lot of other tasks which interrupt. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteLkz
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Hi friend. How is the poison ivy? Sending healing thoughts. My client also suggested creating an word doc and cutting and pasting but to me, that just adds another step on a list of 106 gadgets. Christ. Sorry. Did I just say that? Thank you for caring and for your suggestions. On this project I am mapping ahead now that the end is near but I feel like a machine at this point. For over a month, I have been bringing gadgets to Punch's gymnastics but that is slow going and people must think I'm odd, holding up a ladle and studying it, etc. I am productive w writing articles at Starbucks but I can't with this, because it's a lot of knives, and some are quite big, and I would look suspect. xoxo
Deletedelegating work is so hard! I have ongoing piles at work: today, tomorrow, later in week. Sometimes it feels like I spend more time shuffing things from one day to the next in the to-do pile than I spend doing. The very varied, very engulfing amount of work requires diff systems than my freelance life, which was more deep dive on a few projects. I'm still developing systems. I miss the days when my work rhythms were so familiar to me that it felt organic. Challenges keep us nimble. That's what we must keep telling ourselves!
ReplyDeleteHi Kim. I like that, "Challenges keep us nimble." Yes, yes, positive thinking. I marvel at your skills, your mentoring, everything--at home and at work. Love Alice
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