Making a list... Checking it twice

25 comments

bozz2 days agoPeakD5 min read

It's a bit hard to believe that Christmas is less than 40 days away. This post isn't really about Christmas, but I was thinking of lists the other day and given the song mentioned in the title, there is a pretty strong parallel between this time of year and lists.

My wife reached out to our nieces and nephews the other day and asked them to give us their Christmas lists. It's interesting how the older they get, the more expensive the stuff they want is. I don't know if that is an inflation thing or just the cost of getting older. Shortly after Christmas comes the New Year where people start making a different kind of list.

All the things they want to do or change in the coming year. I have never been much for resolutions like that. It seems like you are just setting yourself up for failure, but what do I know.

Late Fall and Winter is usually a pretty tough time for me. In the Summer it is quite easy to find plenty of content to fill my HIVE blog, but as the weather turns colder, I'm not able to get out and about as much as before. Content becomes more difficult to find, and for me, it's just harder to put out my posts five days a week.

Quite some time ago, I started keeping a list in Google Keep of different story topics that I should/could cover in some of my HIVE posts. Some of them are just a couple words about a subject I can hopefully expand on to create a full post. Others are #threetunetuesday ideas that I might want to share in the future. Other times I write something down and totally forget what I was thinking at the time. Then I have to go back and figure it out and add more context to the line item.

Those are the worst!

The Google Keep note is titled "Story Ideas" and I keep it pinned at the top of my Google Keep screen. I was actually standing at the gas station pumping gas this morning and an idea for a post came to me, so I quickly pulled out my phone and added it to the list.

I thought there was a way to see when the note was created, but I haven't been able to find that info now. I could scroll back through the version history, but I update this particular note so frequently that I think it would take forever to get to the beginning.

In fact, would you believe that I am just three topics/posts away from having completed 150 items on this list?

I have the list set up as a checklist so that once I write a post about a topic I can place a check in the box and it moves it down to the completed area. I was a bit blown away the other day when I was scrolling through the list and noticed that I had 147 completed items.

It almost doesn't seem possible.

That's almost half a year worth of HIVE posts if I was posting every single day. The fact that I am not probably makes it closer to 3/4 of a year's worth of posts. Nevertheless, it's just crazy to think that I have dedicated that much time and energy to this blockchain. Sure, I know I have been here almost 8 years now, but I still just can't wrap my head around the fact that I have posted that much.

I know there are all kinds of analytic tools now that can show me how much I have posted. There is even one that can tell me the total number of words I have written to the HIVE blockchain. It still humbles me. I never would have guessed my path would have lead me to this place.

If you ever struggle for content, I highly encourage you to use Google Keep or some other note taking app on your phone and start a list. It's still not going to write those posts for you, but it can give you a bit of inspiration in the times when content is a little dry. It's also a good way to organize your thoughts for when that awesome idea for a post pops into your head (usually in the middle of the night when you are half asleep!).