I'm struggling to keep a routine with posting on Listed[1]. I didn't post yesterday, but I did write towards my application for the social impact author's cohort. I wrote three pages for my writing sample and edited five questions. Today, I revised the questions again and then submitted my application. I will find out in January if I was accepted. It would be dope if I was. A bit validating too. It would mean I am a writer, but I guess I am already a writer, but this would mean others see me as ...

Planted: Thursday November 18, 2021 Last Tended: Thursday November 18, 2021 I have my writing everywhere. I will stumble on an old notebook and find something fire that I wrote. I will find a file in my Standard Notes or Onenote and it will be fire. Setting up a system is important, but even more importantly, I need to piece all my writing together. For this social impact author cohort, I need to share a sample up to 10 pages of what my book will look like. I wanted to write something from sc...

Planted: Saturday October 16, 2021 Last Tended: Wednesday November 17, 2021 Almost done with the application for the social impact author cohort. I been reflecting and think it is mostly individuals who are building in groups. Collectively Upward[1] is a collection of essays and stories based on my life experiences working with various groups; grassroots, higher education, community, and more. These life experiences have cummulated into the question: how can we create collective change and gr...

Planted: November 16, 2021 Last Tended: November 16, 2021 I need to create a time that I dedicate to writing. I think it would be best to do it in the morning that way I don't make excuses later in the day. I am thinking 7:30 to 8:30am. One hour a day and then maybe another 30 minutes at the end of the day. I have a list of book ideas and to get them done, I need to be consistent. It would be great if once a year I published one academic publication and one fiction/non-fiction a year. Not sur...

Planted: November 15, 2021 Last Tended: November 15, 2021 I am behind on applying to this social impact author cohort. So tomorrow, I am going to dedicate the day to finishing up the draft of the application so I can revise it and submit it on Friday. There are a number of questions which I started drafting up responses, but I need to write my sample for the book idea. Which is a collection of essays based on the Collectively Upward[1] framework. I think the working title will be Collectively...

Planted: Friday October 29, 2021 Last Tended: Friday October 29, 2021 Our DNA: Learn.Grow.Pass (Heritage, Preservation, Culture, Legacy, Experimentation, Action)[1] Shared Resolve: Actualizing Change IW shared purpose: discovering dreams and self COUP shared purpose: actualizing dreams HF shared purpose: sharing articulating dreams Quest: to create stories and strategies about actualizing change while navigating uncertainty Strategic Narrative/Message: We'll bring the stories and strate...

Planted: Friday March 1, 2019 Last tended: Friday March 1, 2019 Inspired by my dissertation work, I want to understand how people change places over time. Which people? Well, for the most part my writing and ideas stem from my experiences, so I'm mostly talking about how a Black woman can change a place. What places? I'm in love with Toni Cade Bambara's quote that the "revolution begins with the self, in the self," The places that I think about are the self, home, school, work, and nature. Wha...

Planted: Sunday November 14, 2021 Last Tended: Sunday November 14, 2021 I’m waiting for feedback on my brand kit that I want to send potential organizations. I am thinking career development offices at schools and HR departments at organizations. I currently have four leads: two high schools and two colleges. I am trying to think about the type of organizations that might want to purchase my journal. I am thinking I should make a larger list of maybe 100 organizations to start out with. I w...

Planted: Saturday November 13, 2021 Last Tended: Saturday November 13, 2021 I really don't like to market or do sales. But I need to use the remainder of this month getting together the branding of the Intellectual Will journal. I need to send out my brand kit and make some video highlights from my fireside chat[1]. I consider October 1st until now the soft launch of the Intellectual Will journal. I'm collecting feedback and gaining insights, but now I need to take action on that information....

Planted: Thursday October 17, 2019 Last Tended: Saturday November 13, 2021 I’m a life long learner and dedicated to improving myself, the life of others, and the condition of our planet. I care about transformation and growth of the environment... self, built, natural, and spiritual. I don’t have a catchy branded mission or summary, but the overarching theme of mt writing is transformation and growth. I see the final product for my collection, but I’m still working on finding the right wor...

Planted: Sunday 9/27/2020 Last Tended: Sunday 9/27/2020 Sometimes I reflect on the phrase that the revolution will not be televised and I wonder if that means it will be digitized. The internet, software, technology is the Wild Wild West. It’s the new frontier and policy can’t keep up. Issues that existed in the physical world seem to be mimic and replicate in the digital world Inequity, racism, surveillance. But the digital world can also be a place of connection, growth, social good, a...

Planted: Friday 11/12/2021 Last Tended: Friday 11/12/2021 I submitted the journal article last night. I am excited to submit this article that is based on my dissertation research. I created a conceptual model from a pilot study that informed my dissertation research on women academic entrepreneurs and the institutional environments that constrain or enable their entrepreneurial activity. This paper has been rejected once already from a journal, but I think this one could potentially have a c...

Planted: Thursday 11/11/2021 Last Tended: Thursday 11/11/2021 A lot of people talk about writing blocks. How they sit down at their desk and words to do not flow and the pages stay empty. I don't have that problem. Once it's time for me to write, my fingers move[1]. What I do struggle with is editing[2]. I usually edit as I write. I will write a sentence or paragraph or even a few pages, pause and then go back from the beginning, refine my thoughts, cut some sections out, add something new, etc...

Planted: 9/27/2020 Last Tended: 11/11/2021 Collective wealth is a way for people to gain upward mobility. Pool resources together and using them to move forward with goals. Collective wealth is not limited to financial wealth, but can be education, career, ideas, and more. Cooperatives, collectives, co-working spaces, and other collective means of taking individual strengths to form a collective strength is the future. ...

Planted: Wednesday 11/10/2021 Last Tended: Wednesday 11/10/2021 I am exhausted. I've spent so much time giving to others that when it is time for me to work on my creative projects, I am too drained. Part of the problem is that I am overcommiting and saying yes too much. I need to work on saying no, so I have room for the hell yeahs in my life[1]. My goal for this year and the upcoming year is to say no to anything that doesn't make me say "hell yeah" That's going to be difficult, but I ...

Planted: 9/27/2020 Last Tended: 11/9/2021 I started thinking about advancement when I was working at a research center. I thought for me to get to a director or executive level position, I needed a PhD. When I entered my PhD program I eventually decided to study women and innovation in the workplace specifically engineering faculty who commercialized their intellectual property within an university. Most people spend 30-50 hours a week in a workplace and the interactions and policies that occur...

Planted: Tuesday 11/9/2021 Last Tended: Tuesday 11/9/2021 There are times when it's hard for me to let go of words. It's easy when I'm writing creatively, but when I write for academic publications, it's hard for me to let go of the words. My extended abstract needs to be 1,500 words and I'm at 2,300 without references. I'm having a hard time letting go. I took out a bunch of words and then I inserted more. I feel like if I take out some of the sentences or paragraphs, the meaning will get lo...

Planted: 9/27/2020 Last Tended: 11/10/2021 Mind, body, soul, and environment. When these components are in alignment a person can walk in their true power and authenticity. As we serve as leaders we should remember Toni Cade Bambara's words "the revolution begins in the self, within the self." Before we can make change out in the world, we should reflect on the change we need to do within. Within ourselves, our mind, and soul and remember that alignment with our first home the earth is somet...

Planted: Monday 11/8/2021 Last Tended: Monday 11/8/2021 It's 6:09pm and I have not worked on one item from my previous post: Shorten the extended abstract to the journal word count. Outline my writing sample for the author cohort application. Post on Instagram an affirmation Write Listed update Add newsletters from Lima Pea Co. to Listed I actually spent time writing about digital gardens[1]. It's funny because my second #100Days post was the same exact title as this one: Setting realistic...

Planted: Monday 11/8/2021 Last tended: Monday 11/8/2021 As it tends to happen, one day I fell down a rabbit hole. About two years ago, I became interested in becoming better at reading. I read the book How to Read by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren [1] and somehow that led me into exploring how to take better notes [2] which led me to the commonplace book [3] which led me to learning in public [4] which then led me to digital gardens[5]. This was an interesting turn of events because at...

Planted: Sunday 11/7/2021 Last Tended: Sunday 11/7/2021 A little over two years ago[1], I attempted to participate in the #100Days of writing, but failed miserably(got up to day 9). Though, maybe failure is a matter of perspective. In 2019, I had started writing a guided journal called the Intellectual Will and after many starts and stops, I’m happy to share I self-published the journal[2] on October 1st. I currently have the digital versions available and the paperback versions available f...

Today*, I wrote out what intellectual will meant to me. I already had a definition that I wrote, but it needed to be revised. As I was reflecting on the definition, I realized that I needed to think back to the circumstances that I was under that made me make major changes in my life. The intellectual will is a result of my perseverance. My adaptation. My survival. I struggled during my PhD program and slipped into depression. I am a giver who likes structure and external deadlines. I spent ...

Planted: Friday 8/2/2019 Last Tended: Friday 8/2/2019 Today I was reviewed my notes and revised my outline (kind of). While I was looking over the old material, I started to feel overwhelmed. I felt like I was starting over and I was not in the mood to do that. However, I decided to get a grip and review what I have already written on Listed. It's interesting reading back on what I was saying in May. It also was a helpful reminder about where I left off in my process. I have already completed t...

Planted: Friday 8/2/2019 Last Tended: Friday 8/2/2019 I am a person who lets the words fly when I write. I read through to make sure things make sense and then I keep it pushing. Yesterday, I wrote a summary of the book, which came out to about 300 words. I just wrote. Today, I spent nearly 2.5 hours rereading and rewriting that paragraph and the title of the book. By the time I finished and felt satisfied with what I wrote, it was lunch time and I had 125 words. Maybe it took me a long time to...

Planted: Thursday 8/1/2019 Last Tended: Thursday 8/1/2019 Time for a reset. I was so focused on finishing up my dissertation revisions, moving, and traveling that I didn't make writing my book a priority. I'm almost officially done with my PhD program. My dissertation is going through the formatting and prepping for ProQuest. Hopefully, by mid-August my degree will officially be conferred. I just finished reading the book "Working" by Robert Caro [1] and it inspired me to take a different a...

Planted: Sunday 5/19/2019 Last Tended: Sunday 5/19/2019 I did not write yesterday or do anything towards my book. I made it nine days straight before I slipped up, but that's okay. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep on going. I was working on my dissertation revisions and didn't make writing my book a priority. I think part of the reason is that I don't really have a schedule or routine for writing the book. I just try to write or work on it before I go to bed. I should try to keep a...

Planted: Saturday 5/18/2019 Last Tended: Saturday 5/18/2019 Yesterday, I finished writing the text for the first two parts of the book. I am pausing on writing the other parts of the book. This will give me time to work on writing a first part that is good enough to send to agents. I want to rearrange parts of the book that I've written so far. I think my introduction shouldn't be in poetry format and I should write a regular introduction to the topic of personal development. The book origina...

Planted: Saturday 5/18/2019 Last Tended: Saturday 5/18/2019 I am looking for quotes from people primarily from underpresented groups. I have found a bunch of quotes that I enjoy and that I feel align with what I am writing. I was looking over some of the quotes I found and decided I want to find the original source. I want to be able to reference back to where I found the quotes so people can read or listen to the entire excerpt. It's interesting that people just post quotes on the Internet, ...

Planted: Friday 5/17/2019 Last Tended: Friday 5/17/2019 I got the quote back from the graphic designer/illustrator and the fee is out of my budget. I really liked her work and wanted to work with her, but it doesn't make sense for me to spend a lot of money on something that an agent or publisher might have me change once I get signed. I was disappointed when I saw the quote. The cost for one image was my budget for typeface, illustration, and layout. But after thinking about it, I realized t...

Planted: Thursday 5/16/2019 Last Tended: Thursday 5/16/2019 Every now and then I head over to Seth Godin's blog to see what he is talking about. In a recent post he talked about the importance of selling to strangers over selling to people you know [1]. At first, this resonated with me. Of course, I shouldn't rely on selling to people I know. I thought of course Godin is right; it doesn't scale. But then I started thinking more about this and I realized that I don't fully agree because strong a...

Planted: Wednesday 5/15/2019 Last Tended: Wednesday 5/15/2019 I’m almost done with the section of the book that I would like to send off to agents. When the graphic designer is done with the layout and illustrations, I will send the section to my beta readers for feedback. I want my beta readers to be a mix of people who have engaged with the Intellectual will before and people who have never engaged with it. I’m hoping to get six people’s feedback. I think that’s a decent number of people to ...

Planted:Tuesday 5/14/2019 Last Tended: Tuesday 5/14/2019 I was convinced I was going to self publish my book. I was inspired by Nipsey Hussle and other hip-hop artists that have their own record labels. I like the idea that all the profits return to the artists. I like the idea of being entrepreneurial and doingmy own marketing. I would rather sell 1000 copies and make a profit of $100,000 than to sell 1000 copies and make a profit of $1,000. Like Hussle, I want to give back to my community and...

Planted: Monday 5/13/2019 Last Tended: Monday 5/13/2019 I told myself that daily I would only spend 40 minutes creative writing and 20 minutes writing an update on Listed. I chose to focus on one hour daily because I have a bad habit of getting in the zone and not moving with the exception of having to use the bathroom. Today, I wrote for two hours and did not take a break or stop when the timer buzzed. The graphic designer got back to me, but requested more information so she could give me a...

Planted: Sunday 5/12/2019 Last Tended: Sunday 5/12/2019 I went to see Avengers: Endgame today and afterwards went out for dinner and drinks. When I got home it was late and I wanted to go to bed, but I remembered that I promised myself that I would write for the next 100 days. I owe it to myself to see this goal to the end. I want to see if I can write on a consistent basis or if I need to wait for inspiration. Accomplished authors say that waiting for inspiration is a myth and the best way to ...

Planted: Saturday 5/11/2019 Last Tended: Saturday 5/11/2019 I've always wanted to write a book. I didn't know what I wanted to write, just that I wanted to write a book. About nine years ago I started three books. One was an ebook on how to have better dreams. One was a coffee table book with photos/stories about my trips to Haiti. One was a memoir about my experiences losing a mother at a young age. All of these books have beginnings, but no middle or end. Ten years and those stories have dust...

Planted: Saturday 3/16/2019 Last Tended: Saturday 3/16/2019 May 2019, I graduate from my PhD program. As the date approaches a common question is asked of me: "what are your plans for after graduation?" This used to be a dreaded question because I was unsure. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go into academia or industry. After much soul searching I decided that I am best suited for industry. But what to do in industry? Are my skills transferable? Those were questions I struggled with, but then I st...