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Hello, and welcome to this week’s WEN-zine nuggets.

Whether an employee, a freelancer, or a creator, I’m guessing many of you have a new planner on your desk or device. I’m exploring how to best use my new Time-Block Planner by Cal Newport ... and I always have to “adapt” such tools to my style. I’m having fun in the process ... it’s sort of like revising someone else’s manuscript!

Then this fascinating story arrived in my email ...

1. A Short History of the Daily Planner

Being high season for planners, in last week’s Noted, Jillian Hess looked at how people have used daily planners in the past. A few of her revelations ...

• The daily planner as we know it descends from the almanac. In the 1700s, many users wanted to write in their almanacs, so they had blank pages inserted. Jillian shows a photo of George Washington’s Virginia Almanack for 1775.

• Also in the 1770s, an aspiring publisher, Robert Aitken, developed what is generally recognized to be the first planner in America. Aitken’s “Register” displayed an entire week on a page.

• The word “planner”– as in an object used to facilitate planning – wasn’t introduced into the English language until the 1970s (according to the Oxford English Dictionary).

2. Note she says “publish” ... not write ... all those words

From Cindy Bidar: “One thing I’m looking forward to is creating more. I have a huge goal to publish 1M words in 2024 – in the form of blog posts, podcast episodes, helpful emails, courses, workshops, and other materials. That means I’m going to have to be super-efficient with my time, and that starts by creating more productive workflows.”

If you’re interested in creator workflows, take a listen to Cindy’s podcast from this past Thursday: “Creating productive workflows in your business (four easy steps)”

3. When should you give up on reading a book?

This Washington Post article asked readers to weigh in, after explaining librarian and author Nancy Pearl’s “Rule of 50”: Give the book 50 pages and if, at the bottom of page 50, all you care about is who the murderer is or who marries whom, turn to the last page, and then stop reading.

Later on in life, as Pearl realized how much more precious time became as she grew older, she changed the rule: So, readers over 50 can instead subtract their age from 100 to determine the number of pages they must endure ... noting that “when you turn 100, you can legitimately judge a book by its cover.”

4. FYI items

▪ Outline Your Memoir is a free live workshop hosted by Janelle Hardy tomorrow at noon Eastern time. Sign up today at https://www.personalmythmaking.com/oym

▪ Free Printables now has 499 family tree templates – while intended for genealogy, they can be helpful for writing family sagas and biographies – even when reading one if the author hasn’t included this aid. See the newest additions at https://www.familytreetemplates.net/category/new

▪ This one came in too late for our January FWR: The 2024 Rattle Chapbook Prize deadline is Monday, January 15. Details: https://www.rattle.com/chapbooks/prize/

▪ Perfect for the new year: Kindle edition of Connie Ragen Green’s Self-Directed: Inspire, Motivate, and Empower Yourself to Greatness that Lies Within is free today.

Enjoy!

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To Your Writing Success,

Dana K Cassell

Editor

(Dana Cassell is founder of Writers-Editors Network, and has been freelancing/creating full-time for 47 years. In addition to writing, editing, and fact-checking for numerous business clients, she has published more than 2,000 articles and has ghosted or authored more than a dozen books.)

Not a Network member? Join now: https://freelancekeys.com/join-now/ Temporary discount codes:

Save $10 on Basic options: use TESTING coupon code

Save $15 on FFWA options: use TESTFFWA coupon code

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