Monthly Overview: August

Introducing the monthly overview! I have a practice of creating a plan for myself at the beginning of every month, and I thought it might be interesting to bring some of that here, in the event that you share my obsession with seeing other people’s workflow. 

My intention is to put an overview out at the beginning of every month, and for future months to include a recap of the prior month (so in September, I’ll report back on how August went before I give you the September overview). My fantasy is that eventually this space will also include financial breakdowns with information on what money is coming from where¹. 

I think the format should be pretty self explanatory, but if you want more info on my structure you can check out the June edition of GOOD PLAN.

Happy to answer questions if you have them! 

August 2024

The Vibe

Deep Tending — I’m thinking of a garden and being in the soil, of getting my hands dirty, of preparing things to flourish before the harvest.

I’m a Virgo with a late September birthday; Virgo is the symbol of the harvest and I’ve been leaning in to/exploring that archetype² since I took Astrology for Writers with Jeanna Kadlec. August is my month to get many of my projects into a position to “harvest” in September.

Monthly Priorities 

• Decide on schedule + structure for next Rec Room session

  • I host a shared container for recreation (like co-working, but for fun!)³ called Rec Room and need to figure out when the next round is starting and what the meeting cadence will be. 

• Finalize “Recurring Characters” for September book fair

  • I wrote a poetry chapbook and am planning to launch it at a local book fair in September, so I need to get everything together to print & order it. 

• Decide “Screen Glow” next steps

  • Also a book thing! I was planning to put out a zine of some essays and poems about pop culture, but I’m reconsidering what format is going to make the most sense for this (which is partly a question about what I’m trying to achieve). In the most ideal of worlds, I would have this available for that September book fair as well—which may not be realistic depending on what I decide. 

• Publish 1st round UCPS website

  • The next evolution in my ongoing efforts to simplify/centralize! I’m not ready to get into the details on this yet, but I’m excited to share more in a few weeks.

Priority Tasks

• Optimize large planner listings on Etsy

  • The 8.5x11” Open Concept Agendas aren’t selling as well as the smaller size, and I have some inventory on hand that I want to move! It may be that letter size is just too big for most people, but I want to do some work on the listing before I throw in the towel. 

• Write UCPS footer for newsletter(s)

  • You’ll know what this is about when you see it! 

• Document TBP workflow (where are the friction points?)

  • Now that The Bi Pod is putting out weekly episodes I’ve been tripping over some stumbling blocks that didn’t seem like such a problem before. My hope is that in writing out every step in the process I’ll be able to see what parts are causing problems and hopefully how to resolve them. 

• Create BoW paid subscription launch timeline/plan

  • I’m going to introduce paid subscriptions on this newsletter some time in the next 4-8 weeks and I want to be intentional about what that looks like rather than just flipping the switch one day. 

Ongoing Intentions

An easeful and expansive editing schedule 

This was one of my priorities in June and I realized that I wanted to keep it front of mind in an ongoing way. Documenting the podcast workflow is very much in pursuit of this intention. 

Upcoming Work

For this newsletter, I’ve got essays in the queue about letting go of old work & stories I told about myself, the many meanings of sharing work, and details on what “UCPS” is. 

Over at The Bi Pod, we have a minisode of affirmations (to complement our episode with Jess Vosseteig about her book Affirmations for Queer People⁴), a peek into our personal lives that will be on Patreon⁵, as well as some fun pop culture content.⁶

---

Thus concludes the first Monthly Overview! If there’s anything you’re curious about or want me to include in the future, drop a comment or hit reply!

Having made it this far, I thought I’d also give you a picture of the version of this plan that goes up on my wall (less commentary, more dates).

Shout out to these two pieces of washi tape which I have been using again and again!

1. I look forward every month to my friend Nic’s Tiny Biz Letters, where she shares transparently about the financials (and much more) for her tiny business.

2. Hence Fallow Fields

3. More on that soon!

4. This happens to be an affiliate link so if you click it and buy the book, The Bi Pod will make like 10¢. But you could also just search for the book on your website of choice!

5. Hear me stumble my way through talking about a crush and how embarrassing it is to exist! Out on 8/8.

6. As two people with, ostensibly, media studies degrees, Christina and I love doing pop culture episodes and really have to reign ourselves in.