by Carrie Boyko, CEB
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© AllThingsDogBlog.com
Homecomings from Conferences are the Best! |
Absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder, as the saying goes. With more conferences and travel to visit sponsors this month, I'm increasingly aware of my bonding time with the dogs. But the real topic of today's post is in answer to a reader question. What do I do with my days?
Wow. I’m thinking of all the variations on this theme and
getting totally bowled over by my thoughts. I’m going to have to set all the
what-ifs and coulda-woulda-shoulda’s aside and just give you a peek into my workdays.
Early morning walks with the dogs are my serenity. It’s truly
the only peaceful time of my day when nothing enters my thoughts save for my effort to think like a dog and
figure out what each of the boys is
focusing on. I play a game with myself.
I like to return home with a story in my head about Tanner’s thoughts about the
ducks or Oliver’s opinion of the poodle’s new outfit. Silly, I know. But it’s a
nice diversion from the challenges of the remainder of my day. Call it my
meditation; it relaxes my mind.
My workdays start with a quick post check and then on to blog emails.
This is the scariest part of my day, so I have to knock it out right after my
morning latte, when my energy is surging. Between the requests to help upstarts
and the offers to write advertising that masquerade as free posts, I always
find myself with at least one good laugh. A few nicely presented proposals come
in each week to temper my opinion of the folks in the pet industry; there are a
few that ought to be giving lessons. Seriously; they are so good at what they
do that I want to send them off to visit some of their peers for mentoring.
Hey! Maybe there’s a business idea in there somewhere?
Speaking of business, that’s my next focus. Gotta get the
tough stuff under my belt before the afternoon Fetch game and social media
time. Proposals, conference calls, and those discussions about how to do things
with sponsors. Event Barkers has got me back in the driver’s seat where I was
for many years as a business person, so I’m feeling pretty comfortable there. I
tried the retirement thing but found my days needed more challenge.
Oops! I suppose there needs to be a niche in my day somewhere for
writing posts. It’s funny; writing posts is something I have no problem with
doing. No writers block here. I keep a schedule/calendar of my posts and plan
ahead to some extent. I like to watch out for variety as well as assure space
for various features that I pre-arrange such as our Ask the Vet column or
product reviews. These are the dogs’ favorite days; when I break out the camera
and new products their ears perk up and they seem to know we’re going into
training and trial mode. Either way, it means a few treats for them and that’s
great motivation for some fun photo opps, or the bloopers reel—LOL! You know;
those pics of your dog when you’re intending to get their pearly whites, and
instead you capture a photo of them licking their, uh, let’s move on.
By lunchtime I’m itching to get writing. All those ideas that
woke me up in the middle of the night have withered and I want to get something
down as a start for that next post on, let’s say, Pet Projects: Helping Seniors Keep Their Dogs.
Before I get far though, I’ve still got some technical stuff
to do. Check in on renewals, memberships, followers, DMs, Facebook messages,
reader email, and the plumbing. By that I refer to all the sites I pay big
bucks to for assistance with tasks like giveaways, bloghops, statistics and
such--dull stuff that needs my attention in a timely manner.
After lunch, fetch and lizard tag on the screened porch
outside, the boys nap while I attempt to get some writing done. I write best
when the house is quiet--all humans are gone and pups are snoozing. Strategies
like playtime before writing work well for me.
The remainder of the afternoon--if anything is left--is spent
on social media and followups. It seems that the latter gets more of my
attention these days. For fun, I have found myself hooked on Pinterest. Anyone else?
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