Ticking off my 'yick' items

Sep 10

2 min read

Today, I just want to write. I want to sit, relax and write – so why don’t I - after all, I am supposedly on holidays! The reason I shouldn’t, and I probably won’t, is sitting just to my right - my work diary. It is full of jobs to do – some small, some I’ve put off for weeks, some that even really interest me and get my creative juices flowing – but to do these well, I’ve got some more learning to do first. So, it’s a time and head space game.

Now, I’m not asking for sympathy, but I’ll take a little empathy, as these are jobs I never ever thought I’d need to learn or do! Most of the jobs fall into a category I only learnt existed yesterday. After the gorgeous dogs we are minding decided it would be fun to start the day at 5am, I chose to spend the quiet hours dipping back into an eCommerce Google Certificate I started months ago on. What I learnt is that there is a marketing funnel; and at the top of the marketing funnel is the awareness level – people can’t consider purchasing your services, or product - in my case - my book, if they haven’t heard of it. So, first up, get your book heard of.

Turns out the jobs I’m putting off today mainly fall into that category – letting people know my book exists – jobs like creating bookmarks and flyers, sorting out signage for market stalls, touching base with those who already stock the books (although this is building loyalty – stage 4 of the funnel – see, I’m learning) and so on.

Then, I had an epiphany! Quite simply, many of these jobs I’m not great at and I don’t really have the desire to become great at them – I just want them done! This was the turning point, I know people who love doing them, who are great at them and who will be more than happy to take them over. Sure, it will cost, but they say you have to spend money to make money – fingers crossed I don’t have to spend too much but there is no point having written about an amazing part of Australia's history if no one reads it - so creating awareness just has to be done!

Now I feel like I have maybe, probably, potentially, regained some holiday time. Completing my course is stimulating – happy to do it while on holidays. Writing a blog now and then, love it, happy to do it on holidays. Create a campaign to get Empty Roads, Empty Promises: The Forgotten Blockade of Razorback Mountain into libraries while on holidays – absolutely happy too - even when others tell me I'm crazy and wrong! It feels awesome to have offloaded my ‘yick’ items to free up time for my ‘fun’ items!