Vision Board + Free Editorial Calendar Template | Writing Myself Into the Life I Want

*Tips hat to Dan Humphrey* (IYKYK)

Scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

08/09/20 

“If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.”

Romans 12 7-8

Now that I've been on this journey for more than two days, I've been doing a lot of planning and pitching and writing - there are many first drafts and incomplete streams of consciousness, but at least I am getting into the habit of writing every day. 

I do have days, though, where I don't feel like doing too much thinking, nor do I want to write the things that I have planned and scheduled on my editorial calendar (free template pegged to this post coming soon so you have a reason to keep coming back!) On these days, I hunt for platforms that a future version of my and yourself, reader, could potentially write for, and list them neatly on this here spreadsheet (P.S: I've really enjoyed seeing all the anonymous animals - including a nyan cat - at the top right of the workbook and I'm glad that it's been a useful resource for people!). I also spend these days baking, updating my Pinterest boards (if you're a Pinterest-er, then pin this post!), and as I've done today, updating my vision board. 

On days that I don't feel like thinking, I still spend a lot of time in my own head, trying to figure out ways of making this writing thing sustainable. I've been asking myself many questions about the content I want to produce, whether it is worth producing and found that in planning, I neglected to plan for my own blog. I figure a lot of things out my putting them on (sometimes virtual) paper and realised that my plans to write were dependent on whether I would be asked and/or accepted to write. But I want to do more than that because my writing is not only valid when other people want it. It is valid in and of itself and it's great to have entries to share that read the same way that I think - unedited (sometimes maybe even a bit disjointed) with a lot of asides captured in all the parentheses and dashes that you will see me throwing in here (like this one, ha!)

So, having my blog - and in the future hopefully my own website - is central to the vision board. I can see it now, neat sections for reflective entries, creative writing, personal essays, a gallery with poetry videos and images, open access resources. I want my own platform to also serve as a digital CV and portfolio but mostly, I have plans of making it a depository for every version of myself through the years as seen through my writing. This means that every first and subsequent draft and iteration of works that have found a home elsewhere, also deserve to be housed and seen and appreciated for who they (and I) had been. So in planning for my blog, I've challenged myself to update this space at least twice a month, and I am counting on you, reader, to help hold me accountable! 

I prayed a big prayer this morning and asked my partner to pray it with me. I want to come back and tell you about this prayer when it manifests but right now I want to share with you my vision board; it's one of the ways I prepare for the things I pray for (you can follow the vision as I update it).

The first thing that I had to remind myself, and that I affirm to myself every day is that I am a writer. Whether the writing is for my own platform or for someone else's, I am a writer and the writing is valid. I have also on the board a logo, a cute elephant because elephants are my favourite (I look forward to seeing its future iterations), and a drawing of a Black woman working (there are many of these on the board) by Nicholle Kobi, because she is I and I am she.

I included images of Black women whose work I admire as some of my inspirations - if you go to my Pinterest board you'll see that the list of inspirational Black women continues to grow. Top to bottom and left to right there is Tobi Oredein, (whose platform, Black Ballad, kickstarted my intentional writing journey), Toni Morrison, Stephanie Yeboah (I bookmarked one of her tweets today where she responded to her past self with pride that she hadn't given up on what she wanted and I'm linking it here for good measure, in case you and I need the reminder) and Amy Sall.

Part of my vision is to write for platforms like gal-dem, The New York Times and CRWN Magazine, among others and I put them on the board to give me something to work towards. I'm also manifesting an inspiring work space and this future version of myself is a plant momma with business cards (centre bottom) to keep me booked and busy!

And of course, because it is central to the vision, on the left side of the board there is a website, that one day I hope to have the domain rights to, that I hope you, reader, will find yourself on, reading what I write because I will have kept writing.

Thank you for spending this time with me and see you soon. x

Click here for the free editorial calendar template!

*A few notes on the Editorial Calendar*

The calendar goes up to the last day of February 2021. I may update it, but I'm also conscious that some people get booked + busy quite early so you may need to get ahead of things to start planning March 2021 and onwards.

Of course, once you copy and paste it into your own spreadsheet, feel free to make your changes so that it works for *you*. For example, I've been adding rows to the underneath the days for when I need to tackle more than 1 task her day. And, just to avoid confusion, once the day + activity for the day is done, I change the colour of the cell to grey.

Make sure to share this post, and the calendar with someone that you think might find it useful!

And, finally, make sure you comment under this post (or any post in the blog) and share it; you'd be doing me a solid and it really goes a long way!