Rosa Linda Román (00:29): Hello and welcome to New Mexi-Castaways. I'm Rosa Linda Román and I am talking to you from the garage in my home in Round Rock, Texas. It's a rental home outside of Austin and we have been here now, let's see, this is December. So, from August, November, December, we're about four months into this house that we are in. And the reason I'm in the garage is I'm working on trying to get a handle on all the stuff. Oh my gosh, I do not understand how it is possible that you can go from living on a sailing catamaran and having pretty much no stuff or we had stuff, but you know, just what fit on a boat to having so much stuff that you cannot find things anymore. And there's clutter everywhere. And I have now, just this week, hired a person to help me with cleaning and I'm looking to hire someone to help me with laundry because I do not have enough hours in the day to get the stuff handled and still try to do this podcast, and all the other things that I'm working on, which I will get into in a little bit. Rosa Linda Román (01:38): But anyway, I'm in the garage and I decided… we just finished Hanukkah. It was early this year, which is a blessing because now that I'm done with Hanukkah, everybody else is just ramping up for Christmas so I can be helpful to others, maybe babysit their kids or whatever, wrap presents, whatever anyone needs from me because I'm done with what I needed to do for Hanukkah. So, now, I'm using this time before my kids and I are going to go to Chicago to be with my family for their Christmas. And so, I'm using this time to get organized. And so, one of the things I bought for the family for Hanukkah was an organization system for the garage. So, I'm putting that together and that's why I wanted to tell you that because you're going to hear me working while I'm recording. I am recording this on my Rode Lavalier mic plugged directly into my Note8 phone. Rosa Linda Román (02:27): And so, that's kind of nice because I can move around, and walk, and talk, and not have to worry about the sound. And so, I just wanted to talk about where we are, what we're doing. I just finished a really cool challenge to myself called NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is where you spend the month of November, which is National Novel Writer's Month. You spend that month intensely writing. You're supposed to write a novel, which I did not write a novel. I wrote the memoir of our experiences on the boat. And the idea is you write 50,000 words. And I did that and I took part and really surprised myself that I did it, and I got it done, and it was quite challenging, but I stuck with it. And I'm just really, really proud of the fact that I accomplished that. And so, then, now that it's December, I'm done with NaNoWriMo and the next step is to figure out, well, next step is to figure out what the next step is, and specifically, working on that book, realizing that there's still a ton of work to do. Rosa Linda Román (03:36): 50,000 words might be some people's novel, but it was not enough by any stretch. And so, I put together some of the words that I had already written before the month of November, which was about 11,000 words. And so, I've got a good 60,000-word start to the book, but there's a ton of work to do as I start now doing the editing process. It's a little bit daunting because there's just, you know, a lot of things that I have to refine, and fix the writing, and not just typos, but a lot of things that maybe don't flow right or that I really need to kind of rework certain things. So, that's what I'm doing at this point. And it's been good. It's funny how I worked during NaNoWriMo. I worked so well, so intensely, and I got so much done in those 30 days. Rosa Linda Román (04:32): But without the push that came from doing that competition, I've kind of gone right back into kind of not so productive, not so inspired, just kind of plugging along a little putzing with it here and there, you know, messing with the script, but not a focused-driven sense of, you know, getting this novel done and printed, this memoir. And so, that's kind of on my mind, how it is that you go from what is the thing that pushes you to push yourself versus kind of where we start moving back into our comfortable zone and rest on our laurels almost. Right? And it's something I struggled with throughout New Mexicast, in general, because I didn't have the deadlines that I had when I worked in mainstream media and without those deadlines everything just kind of, you use the time you're given, right? And so, the looser the deadline, the harder it is to stick to something, the more that all the other stuff comes up and you focus on that. Rosa Linda Román (05:33): I find that really interesting to think about how to self-motivate and how to push myself to do these things that I really want to accomplish while also enjoying my life. I don't want to be this crazy stressed-driven to the point of exhaustion person. So, this week my daughter Ahava, who has struggled with productivity because she does homeschooling using the online school, Florida Virtual School, it's all self-directed and self-timed, and self-guided. And she, like me, tends to be a bit of a perfectionist. And so, she won't turn in work that isn't all the way perfect. And I tend to be that way, where I just won't do the thing that I want to do or I'll get it to a certain point but then it will die because isn't exactly perfect in my mind. And so, she introduced me to something called the Pomodoro method. Rosa Linda Román (06:29): And then, I saw somebody in the NaNoWriMo groups, the forums discussing it as well. And basically, the Pomodoro method, the idea of it is that you work productively for 25 minutes, and then, you're off for five maybe, which is interesting. It's definitely an interesting idea because what they say is you get four Pomodoros in your workday or in a row and then you take a long break. I tried it on Friday, it was very effective because I got more done. And one of the things that the method, and I was just listening to Chalene Johnson who I used to listen to a lot and kind of hadn't listened to her a long time, and I had been to her success-like event in California. I've always enjoyed listening to her, and her productivity tips, and things like that. But anyway, she mentioned that she's talking about not trying to multitask and that if you're trying to mount multitask, it's really just your brain switching back and forth between things and you're much less productive. Rosa Linda Román (07:28): Well, that is the same idea that this Pomodoro method talks about. And it is for that 25-minute session or you can alter the time to fit your needs. But let's say the way they said it. So, for those 25 minutes, you spend only doing one thing. So, I might spend that 25 minutes only focusing on editing my book, or I might spend that 25 minutes only focusing on folding clothes, or I don't know, whatever the thing might be. And then, when you're done with that 25 minute you set a tomato timer, was I guess the idea behind it. I have a little owl that is a kitchen timer. And so, you set that timer and when it goes off, you stop what you're doing and you take a break. So, the idea is you're not multitasking. You're doing one thing, and then, you might carry that over to the next 25-minute Pomodoro, or you might work on a different task. Rosa Linda Román (08:16): I found it to be very effective. And going back to the NaNoWriMo way that I wrote, I would do these things called word sprints. Now, the group in Austin that is like the NaNoWriMo support group for other writers is very active and was a lot of fun. I really liked them. They had like a Facebook group and one of the things that they did is they created word sprints for every half hour. Let's see, you do 30 minutes and then you take 15 minutes off. 30 minutes then the next word sprint would come up 15 minutes later. I did this and that is how I wrote my 50,000 words in one month. I did so much better having that set structure. I'd say, okay, at 11 o'clock, there's a word sprint coming up, so I'm going to set that time aside and I'm going to work exclusively for 30 minutes on that task and writing, writing, writing for 30 minutes, and then I'm going to stop for 15 minutes. Rosa Linda Román (09:10): And I would say to my kids or my husband or anyone, "Hey, I'm sprinting right now." And when I was sprinting they knew to leave me alone. I'd say, "I'm sprinting right now, but I'll be done in seven minutes and then I can help you." And they knew that that was the timeframe that I was available to, you know, answer their homework, help, or work on something on the house, or talk about family schedule, or whatever it is. I set that boundary. It's so funny that talking this through with you because I'm asking myself why do I feel less productive this month when I've done more and I've done a lot of things. You know, I did Hanukkah, and I've gotten many things done, but I'm still am feeling kind of like failure feelings, which I hate that feeling. And also, like, I've fallen off the pattern of getting things done on my writing and I've fallen off the pattern about handling some of the things with New Mexicast, which that's another thing that I'm actively working on and I'll tell you more about that. Rosa Linda Román (10:06): But anyway, you know, I'm wondering like why do I have these feelings? Well, when I was doing my most productive work, it was, A, when I was working at local stations in, you know, around the country, I worked at different stations and when I had a deadline. So, say, had to get a package done by 4:15 in order for it to be edited in time to make the five o'clock news or whatever the deadline was, I worked intensely for that time that I had, and then I knew I was done, and then I'd have to go put on my makeup or whatever I had to do to get ready for the live shot. But I had a specific, like, crunch time and I worked really well that way. I mean, I wrote multiple stories a day. You know, at one point I was anchoring seven shows a night and getting everything written and doing all of those things. Rosa Linda Román (10:54): So, I'm asking myself like, how did I do that? Well, it's because I had a set time to work and I had a deadline, and same thing with NaNoWriMo. I had a set time to work and I had a deadline. So, I'm seeing, as I'm talking to you guys that that is what I need to do as I move forward. Of course, moving into New Year's, I'm going to have my own, you know, New Year's resolutions and all that. And I think that's going to be the main one, is setting weekly schedule for myself with a set time to work and a deadline of the tasks that need to get done. So, that is what I'm going to work on and I'm making the commitment and telling you guys so I can't back down because that's something that Tony Robbins, of course, my favorite mentor always says is you have to tell people, and you know, say what you're going to really do so that you're accountable for it. Rosa Linda Román (11:40): You can't back down. You can't, "Oh well it would've been nice if I had met that goal." No, I'm going to do it." I'm telling you guys I'm going to do it and now I'm all the more committed. And so, that way I can set that time aside and maybe I'll set it up kind of like those word sprints that they did in the Austin NaNoWriMo group and just set it up so that I say to the kids on a Sunday, "Okay, if you need my attention, I've got a schedule up. And that schedule will show you when mommy's working, and you know, the times in between those times I'm going to be available for you to ask a question. So, if before you ask me a question or try to get my attention, check the schedule and see if I'm working." I don't know. That's what I'm thinking about right now. Rosa Linda Román (12:19): At this point right now Nathan has Ahava at work and she's crunching to get her schoolwork done before our upcoming break. She doesn't get much of a break with gymnastics. They have like, I think they gave them three days off and it's like they're off the day before Christmas, Christmas, and the day after Christmas. And we are going to Chicago. So, I'm flying up to Chicago with Ziva and Samuel, and Ahava is not flying up for another couple days so that she can maximize gymnastics time. Normally, I would protest and just take her with me. But she at this point is four weeks. So, one month from now she'll be having her first Texas meet competitions and so she really needs to maximize her workout times. And so, she's at work right now trying to get her schoolwork done before she has gym this afternoon. Samuel's at school and Ziva is here at the house. Now, talking about productivity, it's really interesting because she also does Florida Virtual School and she decided that she wanted to get all of her schoolwork done before December 12th because we were going to go to a concert in Houston, which was kind of expensive and it was kind of like a reward that Nathan set down as a goal for her. Rosa Linda Román (13:30): And he said, "If you get all your schoolwork done by December 11th, we'll drive to Houston, we'll get a babysitter for Samuel." Actually, we got my friend Amy, thank you to watch him and he had a great time. And so, she had to finish all of this semester's classes in time. So, she did that and it was amazing. I'm totally in awe of her ability to do that. But now I'm in this position where it's like, okay, now she's here, and she's home, and she's done her work for the... not just for this semester, but she doesn't have to start until January 7th for her next semester. So, she's got three weeks to just hang around, putz around, whatever. And so, the question is how to help find her productive challenges that she can work on instead of, you know, using the time vegging out on YouTube, potentially watching stuff that we don't approve of. And so, you know, we're in this situation where I'm like, okay, it's great that she got that done and how to keep her inspired to continue the learning, continue challenging herself, and you know, doing positive things. So, that is what is on my mind right now. I'm actually going to go in and check on her and then when I come back I'm going to tell you about my cool Hanukkah gift that I got from Ziva. It's called Ember and I love it. So, I'm going to check on her and I will be right back. Rosa Linda Román (14:54): Okay, I'm back. And it took longer than I expected because I not only checked on Ziva, but I welcomed potential sitter and general family helper who had just arrived to go talk with her. So, that was, her name is Lexi, and I am testing her out by teaching her something called KonMari. Now, if you are new to my channel and you don't know what KonMari is, you need to go back and listen because it's a little bit more complicated than I'm going to get into here. But basically, it's the system that I use to downsize our house in New Mexico to move onto the boat and it is called KonMari based on a system by Marie Condo, a life-changing magic of tidying up. And part of that process is folding clothes in a certain way to keep things nice and neat and it's very time-consuming. Rosa Linda Román (15:45): As you can hear, I'm back in the garage, sorry about the noise, but I got to keep working. So, it's very time-consuming, but it's joyful for me. It sparks joy when we have things KonMari folded. And so, instead of giving up this system that I love because I don't have time to do it, I have been looking for someone who can help me do it. The kids have learned it and they've maintained it a certain amount, but the reality is I need someone outside our family to help us with these things that we just don't have time to do. There's plenty of chores to go around, so it's not like this has to be the kids' chores and in theory if it works out I can hand her a basket of clothes and you know, I can do the laundry. I don't really need her to wash it, I just need to wash the clothes, hand it to her in a basket, and ask her to KonMari fold it at her leisure or you know, overnight at her house, or whatever. Rosa Linda Román (16:38): And so, in order to do that, I have tried out a few different people and it's not a skill that everybody can do because it takes slowing down and really taking the time to do it. It's kind of very meticulous. You fold the clothes so that they fit in these bins, which as I was explaining to Lexi, when I did the first KonMari system, the KonMari process the first time we had these bins that you put inside your drawers and I did that in New Mexico, right? Then you move and you know, eventually, I took those bins and put them in my car and drove them across country with the clothes already folded and in place, and drove them across country and put them in the drawers on the boat. Then when we moved off the boat, I did the reverse, took them off the boat, took those, think of it like a shoebox-size, okay? Rosa Linda Román (17:28): So, these bins that fit inside your drawers, and if you are part of our group, New Mexico-Castaways group, you can see the pictures I'll have links too in the show notes. But basically, I took those bins from the boat and drove them back cross country to Texas and I was able to take those same bins and put them right into the drawers here at the rental house. So, it's really a great system when it works, but again, the folding process is time-consuming. And so, that is what she is here testing out. So, that took me a little while just to kind of teach her and she's now in there folding the t-shirts as that's kind of the easiest part of KonMari. So, I figured let's put her to the test because I've had a couple people try to help me and the first person was Miss Allie and she was awesome, and Miss Lauren, and those are two of the nannies that we had aboard the Dawn Treader. Rosa Linda Román (18:17): They helped me and it made my life so much easier. But then since I've moved off the boat, I've had no one to help me with that. And so, I've tried it. We had a cleaning, two ladies who came as a team to clean our house, and they charged a fortune, and I had to get them to come back because they did a terrible job, not a terrible job, a mediocre job. And for the amount that I spent, I was like, "Oh no, we cannot mop the floors." And they didn't clean inside the microwave at all and you know, just little details that were not handled at all. But I did try to teach, one of the things I thought she was going to be great about was she said, "Oh yeah, I fold laundry." I said, "Great." So, I showed her how to KonMari and she said that she understood, and you know, I worked with her a little bit. Rosa Linda Román (19:01): She acted like she got it, but she didn't do it at all, and it was very different than what I envisioned. And so, at the risk of sounding like too much of a perfectionist, I will say it, you know, it wasn't the right fit. Cleaning-wise, I definitely didn't feel like it was worth what I was sending. And so, I'm still in the process of trying out, you know, different people. So, this person who is in their KonMari folding my shirts is someone I found through an app called Nextdoor. Nextdoor is basically just people in your neighborhood who live next door or whatever, and you go through, and you meet people. You know, it's like issues relating to the neighborhood. Like, hey, there's a lost dog, does anyone know this dog? And they'll post. I honestly don't love the app because it's very gossipy and there's a lot of people that post mean things, which I am not a fan of, a lot of neighbor shaming, and stuff like that. Rosa Linda Román (19:58): But I will say I have found a few cool things and I think I talked about this on a past episode where we got a free grill out of the deal and you know, a neighbor basically posted that he was leaving his grill out by the curb and anyone that wanted it was welcome to take it. And so, I did. Everything from that to finding someone like this who can KonMari, potentially, help me and learn how to KonMari fold our clothes. So, there's some good at the Nextdoor app, but I don't think it's a good place. Like, as far as social media, I actually think it's more mean-spirited than Facebook and some of the other ones that people, you know, and I use. And I don't know why that is. I think maybe because we feel a certain amount of like, we're protecting the neighborhood and we got a, you know, anything that is questionable. Rosa Linda Román (20:45): Like, there was somebody who posted in there about someone they had hired to pet sit and they basically just shamed this woman and called her like a liar, and all this in the app, and you know, these are people who know each other, and they're neighbors, and it just felt really yucky. So, I try not to get involved in any of that, try not to spend much time on any of those kinds of things, but there is some benefit knowing if there's a real big emergency or something going on in your neighborhood, there is a place that you can go to find that information. Of course, the journalist in me really appreciates that because I feel like one of the most effective things that I ever was a part of in terms of my broadcasting was that I was able to impart information during active wildfires, for example, like the Los Alamos fire in New Mexico, that when there's an immediate need for information, I really was glad that I could do that and help get information directly to the neighborhoods that needed it. Rosa Linda Román (21:42): Like, "Hey, this particular street is now being evacuated." You know, that kind of stuff. Well, Nextdoor has the potential to serve in that capacity. I think, assuming that the internet still works during an emergency. For example, the other day, one of our neighbors homes not on my block, but somewhere not too far from here, there was some kind of fire during a storm and it burned their house down from what I can tell. And so, all the neighbors rallied and gathered things to help those neighbors who I believe had a newborn baby. And so, there's really some good that can come of it. I don't know why I went into this tangent, but I guess just to explain, that's what's going on in my house right now. Rosa Linda Román (22:17): Ziva is in there working on an online course that I gifted her for Hanukkah. I got them all these interesting courses based on what their interests are. And Ziva's working on a Greek mythology in astronomy. Yeah, astronomy class where she's learning the meaning behind like, you know, the Orion or whatever, all of the different constellations. So, she's in there doing that, Lexi's in there folding our clothes, which is awesome. And I'm back in the garage building this shelving unit. So, I'm going to bang on that for a second here. But I did want to talk to you about this other thing that I mentioned before the break. And that is the ember Ember, E-M-B-E-R. It's a little white coffee cup that Ziva got me for Hanukkah. And it is a self-heating electrical cup, but it's not like one of those heating pads that you have to put the cup on the pad in order to heat your coffee, right? Rosa Linda Román (23:18): So, you have your regular coffee mug and you usually put it on a heating pad, but that heating pad stays in one place. Well, Ember, you can program it with an app on your phone and you just walk around with the coffee cup and it keeps it to whatever temperature you designate as your standard temperature, the temperature that you want to keep it at. And it literally just, you walk around, it's like a regular cup, but Ember, it's awesome. It heats my coffee. I'm here in the cold garage and this cup is keeping my coffee hot or like the temperature I like to drink it at. Well, the garage around me is very chilly, but not my coffee. My coffee is warm and I'm sitting here working on this shelving unit, and I have warm coffee, and I love it. So, I thought I would just give them a plug because they are awesome. It is awesome. It's one of the best gifts I got this Hanukkah. Okay, now pause, build the shelf and then I'll come right back. Okay, hang on. Rosa Linda Román (24:17): So, that is kind of the thing that I'm working on and what I'm doing around the house. And I talked about NaNoWriMo a little bit, and I'm going to continue to work on fine-tuning that novel. And as I told you, I've made myself a commitment that I'm going to actually build a schedule that involves sprints, let's call it work sprints or Pomodoros, or however you want to call them. I'm going to start doing it now, but I'll make sure that it's in place before the new year. That'll be my goal, to really make that a system that my family knows when to come and ask mommy for help and when to leave mommy alone. And then the other thing I wanted to talk to you guys about is if you're hearing this, it's because I finally got my, you know, what together, and producing things, and actually putting them out there again, which has not been the case for, let's be honest, for years Rosa Linda Román (25:04): I have been doing like live reporting and things like that. But when it comes to, you know, Facebook lives and I dabbled in different live platforms, but as far as producing something, and edited, or produced in advance, I have not done that in quite some time. And the reason is it's very time-consuming. And for a long, long time when I was doing my video podcast, New Mexicast, and then the TV show, New Mexicast, I was doing everything as a one-woman band, and doing that just took all my energy to just get anything produced. And I always had this, like, feeling of being like a failure, not being able to get it all done. And that's no way to live. Nobody needs that. So, I finally made the decision to hire someone to help me. Rosa Linda Román (25:50): And at the moment this may change and if it does, I'll talk about that later. But I just finalized an agreement with my friend Kim Iverson, and she is someone I met through the manic mommies, which you, if you've listened for any length of time, you've heard me talk about the Manic Mommies and I love them. So, Kim, I met through the Manic Mommies and she came on board New Mexicast, she joined the New Mexicast as team as the project manager. We just signed the agreement and she is now helping me overhaul the New Mexicast website. And she is also going to help me, finally, once and for all, get a handle on the thing that is the bane of my existence, and that is media management, specifically, Dropbox and trying to get things organized. And it's, do you see a theme here? Organization, being like the thorn in my side, whether it's digital organization or virtual, or digital or physical organization. Yeah, it's an ongoing theme in my life. Rosa Linda Román (26:52): And so, Kim is coming on board as part of New Mexicast to help me get things organized and I'm super excited about that because I definitely need the help. She will help me with that. She will help me launch this podcast, so the website, the podcast, and my goal, and I don't know if you're listening to this, it's already been achieved or not, but the goal is to do Patreon, which is a platform that allows people to support artists and creative types. And so, that's my intention is to have Kim help me launch Patreon, launch the podcast, fix the website, and really turn this from the fun hobby that it's been for a very long time to more of a business venture, something that I can really have as a solid way to use my skills, hopefully, in more productive ways, not just financially, but really just to feel like the body of work that I'm putting out has a direction and has some positive contribution to society, you know, contributes in a positive way to this world. Rosa Linda Román (28:04): So, yeah, that's what I've been focusing on. I'm super excited to have Kim on board because it's been a long time of working alone. And just knowing that somebody else is thinking about these things with me makes a tremendous difference. So, that is what I'm doing. And now I'm going to finish cleaning this garage, so it'll be a nice surprise when Nathan comes home. And then, I'm going to get to work on the rest of the house, and packing, and getting ready for a trip to Chicago. Anyway, think that I'm going to leave you guys there. I know I haven't had a lot of clear content to share lately, but we are working up toward a much more coherent version of New Mexi-Castaways. So, if you do enjoy this and you don't mind sharing, I would love it if you would share these podcasts with a friend. And I hope to meet you somewhere along the way. If you do like them, feel free to give us a review on iTunes or wherever, Google Play, any of the other places you get your podcast and we will check in again very soon. Thanks for listening. I'm Rosa Linda Román.