Zoe Carmina's Blog: Zoe Jane Carmina, page 24

Is it Important? Is it Urgent? What’s the Difference?

It’s great to be given tools to hack your productivity, but if your to-do list is a mile long and you don’t know where to begin, you may need to approach your tasks from another perspective. Let’s talk about the two ways you can categorize tasks.

Is it Important?

A task that is defined as Important means it is of great significance or value. It is likely to have a profound effect on the success, survival, or well-being of your car wash.

Is it Urgent?

A task that is defined as Urgent means it...

Front Load Your Schedule

I have another productivity tip for you today, and this time it’s all about frontloading your work.

What is it?

Frontloading your work is when you schedule the bulk of your work during the beginning of the week, and the beginning of your day, effectively getting everything done earlier than it needs to be done.

Here’s a short video, explaining the technique.

Why do it?

Have you ever noticed that you have a load of energy at the beginning of your day, and by 3:00 PM your motivation slacks? As...

Combat Overwhelm

Let’s start here. Overwhelm is a huge thing that Managers experience, because you are ultimately responsible for your car wash operations. Who will do all the things if not you?

We all feel this way sometimes, but there are ways to combat overwhelm that WORK. One of the easiest is to narrow down your to-do list. Seem impossible? Watch the incredible Mel Robbins talk about how.

In terms of your writing life, the book is the most important thing you can be working on. Whether you are...

2020 Progress Report

Well hello, lovelies. Since we are in the new year, I thought I should give you all a progress report for all my current Works in Progress. This will be an interesting exercise in humility for myself, I am sure, and I think you can benefit from my transparency. I’m going to do this by project, because that seems the simplest to me.So let’s dive in.

First, let me say that I am not working on anything less than a full-length novel. I have loads of ideas that are in exactly no shape towards...

2020 Focus Word: Persevere

Hi all! For those of you who follow me on social media, you’ll know that I chose my focus word for the year. For 2020, the word I’m using is PERSEVERE.

I learned to do this in 2018 by listening to the That Smart Hustle podcast by Kristen Martin. I THINK it’s Episode #23 if you’re interested. I found it on Google Podcasts, but I know you can also find it on iTunes and sound cloud.

Essentially, the idea is that you choose one word, phrase, or song, and use that to focus your intentions...

3 Ways to Use D & D for Your Writing

Hello Lovelies.

I’m writing this post today from my desk, a place I have struggled to write from in the past. And which is often filled with non-essentials, like bills, notes, and, most recently, Dungeons & Dragons things.

I am a Fifth Edition Dungeon Master for a group of local friends who have split up and now live all over the country. Having done this since 2019, my already-cluttered desk now contains character sheets, battle maps, miniatures, source books, and dice.

I’m not just saying t...

2019 Q1 Review and 2019 Q2 Goals

Hello and welcome to another quarter, friends! Here we are once again, planning the new quarter. I like making quarterly goals that basically have no deadlines except to get them done in the next three months. Why do I do this? I find that when I make goals without deadlines, I am much more likely to accomplish them, because I don’t have the stress of missed deadlines and can complete them in whatever order I feel like.

First, let me recap what my Q1 goals were and we’ll see how well I did!

2...

The Hero’s Journey – Plot Theory

Hello and welcome back to the blog, lovelies. Today we’re going to talk about one of the most oft-repeated plot structures out there, which is The Hero’s Journey. Also called the Monomyth, this plot method was developed by Joseph Campbell in which a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed.

There are several interchangeable terms one associates with the Hero’s Journey, and I will attempt to include and explain them, but...

7-Point Plot Structure – Case Study

Hello, Lovelies, and welcome back. Today I have a special treat for you. I’m running through Dan Well’s 7-Point Plot Structure, and how it relates to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. Just to review from last week, here’s how it works:

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Now that we’re clear, let’s talk about it.

Hook

The hook is that we are introduced to a very sad and peculiar young boy named Harry Potter, and he can do some very odd things.

Plot Turn I

The first plot turn is where Harry finds out he’s a...

7-Point Plot Structure – Plot Theory

If you’ve ever read a Dan Wells novel, you’ll know that guy is a genius at story. He’s so good, in fact, that he’s got his very own story structure, the 7-Point Plot Structure, and today we’re going to go into what it looks like. There are three different elements to this, and this is an outlining system Dan uses in which the story moves forward along seven sequential points.

In Story Order, these points are:

Hook Plot Turn I Pinch I Midpoint Pinch II Plot Turn II Resolution

While these are...