Happy Tuesday!

I bought a Christmas planner on Etsy last week. My husband laughed at me, but last year I had a literal meltdown on Christmas Eve night, resulting in me doing some naughty Santa-unfriendly things and having to go for a drive to cool down.

To be fair to myself, I was struggling with post-partum anxiety and rage and my grandfather (my only father figure) had died 12 days earlier. But I was still a hot mess, and looking back on last year, I cringe with guilt.

I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad for me, but it was relevant to why I bought the planner. I didn't want to feel out of control this year. We always want to make the holidays special and magical, especially for me right now with Little Man (4) and Little Lady (20mo). I want to see the joy in their eyes because it brings back the magic of the holidays for me.

So, I go all-out.

And I promise my husband every year I'm going to scale back, and every year ... I do not. In fact, the older Little Man gets and the more aware he becomes of the holidays, the more magic I want because I can feel the fleetingness of it all.

He's 4, does that mean I only have 4 more years of him believing? Kids do stop believing earlier and earlier.

It scares me and lights the fire under my butt all at the same time. So, I bought a planner. Just so I can keep track of everything I want to do, want to make, want to experience, and also give my poor (but 100% my accomplice) husband a glimpse into my brain so he can help out with what I need/want.

He doesn't get those a lot because we both know with my being an author, my brain is a scary place sometimes. 😜

Planning is huge for me. It's the only way I could author, honestly, because flying by the seat of my pants does not work. Even this email is a struggle because I don't plan it (but I should!), so I sometimes forget to send it, and then you're left wondering if I've fallen off the face of the Earth. (There's a good chance I have.)

Planning is one of my biggest tools, and then I found the HB90 system. It's designed for authors, but you don't have to be an author to use it. If you have goals, plans, and lots of things on the go ... this is the system for you to try out.

The premise is breaking your goals down into bite-size chunks and realistically looking at the time you have in a week to get your goals done. Then, with that realistic time frame, you plan out when you can and will work on your goals through task blocks.

The system was developed by Sarra Cannon, who is a paranormal author, and it is genius. Honestly, I don't just use it for my author life. You do three goals a quarter, and every quarter includes one author goal, one work goal, and one personal goal. So, I've adapted it to my non-author life before, and that's how I know it could work for you, too if you're not a writer.

If you're interested in checking it out, the course launches on the 11th and only runs for a week. The tasks only take you about an hour a day, but don't fret ... If you don't get the chance to do it, once you sign up, you have lifetime access! I redo the course every quarter because my life and goals change (having little people does that), and you'll always have access.

Also, don't fret about the price, Sarra offers monthly payments. That's how I afforded it! I have full access to everything right away, no catches, I just didn't have to pay the full sum right up front (especially before the holidays!)

Honestly, check it out. If I'd been doing this last year at this time, maybe I wouldn't have had the Great Meltdown of 2021.

Whoops. Apparently, I used this email as a therapy session since I had to cancel mine last week! 😬 But honestly, I love HB90, and I just want to shout it from the rooftops, hopefully, to help other people.

The last thing I wanted to share was: watch your emails next week as I'll be sending out an email with those new changes I hinted at earlier in the month. There will be a poll, and I'd love it if you could participate just to give me an idea of where you want me to go with this newsletter as well as a couple of projects I have in mind, but I'm not sure what direction you'd like me to go in first.

And finally, if you've made it this far ... Um, thank you so much 🥺 here's a copy of Compelling Her Mate for FREE. It's my Yuletide paranormal romance with an accidental pregnancy and a wolf shifter. This link is only live for a limited time, so please be sure to grab it now. (It will ask for your email, but that's only to confirm you've already subscribed to my newsletter so this link cannot be given out to anyone).

That's it from me! Much love,

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