Thursday, April 17, 2014

7 Lessons I'm Learning While Taking Part In The A-Z Challenge

If you've been following my series of tutorials on how to grow vegetables in the semi-arid, summer rainfall region of South Africa, you might have noticed that I had an unscheduled pause in the A to Z Challenge. Sorry about that. The break was not intentional.

The long Easter weekend begins late today (normal schedules resume on Tuesday) and many offices are closing as we speak as South Africans, including some of my family members, are going on holiday. So I'm going to have a lovely quiet time to blog and catch up with the challenge with very few interruptions.

Before I resume publishing the series though, I thought I should share some of the lessons I learnt so far:

1. The A to Z is marathon blogging, not a sprinting session - Yes, I heard veterans saying "pace yourself," and I thought I had. But clearly I didn't, because I did need that minute to pause to attend to other life related things and recharge.

2. Life happens; deal with it - In my case, it was needing to take Mma to a doctor and having to attend to some extra things related to her care.Nothing huge, but when you have a business to run, a household to manage and are involved in a daily blogging challenge, then one more task can tip the dominoes.

3. Manage your time as efficiently as you can - Again, I thought I was doing that. All I needed was Mma being off and some close cousins to make an unexpected visit for a number of days to tip my house of cards.

4. Set up a back-up plan to keep publishing - In hindsight, I should have seen all these life issues coming and planned for them in advance. Maybe not the exact issues, but something to upset the applecart, because Plan A is messy like that :)

5. If your pre-write your posts, make sure that they are publishing ready so you don't need human intervention to at least keep publishing, even if you cut down on blog visits- I pre-wrote my posts, but they're not publishing ready. So I have to take a look at them first before we go live. Which takes time.

6. Have fun - For a moment there I was getting stressed about it all. Then I had to remind myself that my reason for joining in was to make new friends and have fun, not to add another source of stress to my plate.

In spite of the above, a lot of things have been happening out here:

a). Mid-challenge I wrote an ebook proposal to a publisher, asking if they'd want a consolidated 3 book version of the series (vegetables, herbs and fruit) They've emailed to say "Yes" and want to see the full manuscript of the vegetable ebook.  Can I just say "wooot!"

b) Emboldened by their response, I contacted several local organisations to ask for support so I can improve my gardening and blogging processes.

I met with them and one organisation has offered a lot of technical support in growing vegetables and will help promote my blog within their own networks. They will even consider translating and publishing the books in print to distribute locally.

Another organisation offered whatever seeds/seedlings I need to get my crops going. I'm still excited by my meetings with all the people - they were as excited about what I'm trying to accomplish as I am :) This brings me to lesson 7:

7. Your posts can have life beyond the challenge - We all have different reasons we blog and joined the challenge, but while the challenge was going on I realised that the challenge need not be the end of the material I was developing. Hence the book proposal.

So. I hope you're still enjoying the challenge; that you're learning things you didn't even know you wanted to learn; meeting interesting people. But most of all, I hope you are still enjoying blogging.

See you tomorrow.


18 comments:

  1. Hi Damaria, I was missing your posts for last few days and now it clarifies... yes, one should have fun and not create another stress... Congratulations on your e-book deal. Hope that is a smash hit... Thanks for all the valuable lessons learnt. They are as important to everyone as you...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. our comment in an earlier post about consolidating posts into an ebook reinforced my belief, thank you. Suddenly it wasn't just me dreaming.. someone agreed it was possible. Thank for your support.

      Delete
  2. CONGRATS on the book deal! I especially love your post today because I am feeling the same way. I went back through my archives and put up a post I wrote in 2011 that seems very appropriate and it was fun going back into my old posts at the same time.

    Yes, life is busy! Seems like there is never enough time but plenty of things to fit into each 24 hours. I love lists and use them often. I look forward to reading more from you! ~ susan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for coming by, Susan. I'll come by to check out the post.

      Delete
  3. A great post about some important lessons - not just on blogging but also on life and living. Thank you :) And congratulations on the book deal. This must be so exciting. Take care, and keep sharing whenever you can.

    Beauty Interprets, Expresses, Manifests the Eternal

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I am very happy about the deal.. and energised again to continue with this challenge. A second wind, I guess:)

      Delete
  4. Hi Damaria .. it sounds despite being busy - you've had some great outreach ideas - which are paying off .. that's amazing ... and I'm so pleased for you.

    I hope life settles - but you have some great thoughts to twirl around with ... and then May comes around and you can really hit the ground running - so pleased for you .. cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The problem with having a seemingly good idea is that you then have to work hard to see it through. Hehehe! But I don't mind. I'm glad to have something solid lined up post AtoZ.

      Delete
  5. That is great, Damaria. I hope your mum is improving now. Your new e-book deal sounds very exciting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Nana. She the meds are working and the infection is clearing. The problem is that whether the infection will stay gone was we finish the heavy-duty drugs, or come back again like it did before. We can only hope.

      Delete
  6. I have been enjoying your blog and recognize that one can not "do it all" when growing food! Bless you and have a lovely day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hehehe Kathe. Another lesson for us, hey. Great to see you again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Glad to see you back. I learned a few things last year doing the challenge that really helped me this time. I am so glad for your ebook opportunity. Have a Happy Easter and remember that life is a journey, enjoy the scenery as you go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ja, I'm already planning how I'm going to handle the challenge next year. Having a lot of fun despite the few hiccups here and there.

      Delete
  9. Glad to see you back, too. Congratulations on the book deal -- that is wonderful news.

    I hope you have a very lovely long weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or no.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We celebrate Easter and the weekend was beautiful. Lots of food, family... you know how it is:)

      Delete
  10. Very interesting read!!!! Congrats about the book deal!! :) Kudos!

    ~S(t)ri
    Participant|AtoZ Challenge 2014
    Smile, it makes (y)our day!


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Now I just have to finish it. AND you know that's the hard part:)

      Delete