Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋

I used to be a NaNoWriMo person. If you’re not familiar, NaNoWriMo was a challenge to write an entire novel in the month of November. That was never my goal, but I usually challenged myself to do some consistent personal writing (outside of the writing I do for my business).

NaNoWriMo, as an organization, imploded and I find myself missing the community aspect.

Would you be interested in a group challenge to write (or complete another habit) every day in November? This would be very informal — I would create a private Slack channel where we can post and encourage each other every day.

If there’s enough interest, I’ll set it up.

1) Reflection:

My birthday was in October, and I was reflecting on this time last year: about three months post-brain surgery, with a lot of discomfort and issues. This year, those issues have been mostly resolved.

I created a free resource last year for solopreneurs: Preparing for Long-Term Leave. After stepping away from my business for almost two months, I found that there were very few (if any) resources like this.

I updated it this year, and it has a new format, along with audio and EPUB versions. You can grab it here.

2) Tip

Halloween is upon us, and when my kids were little, I heard about the Switch Witch. On Halloween night, the Switch Witch takes the excess candy and leaves a book in its place (or a toy, but our Switch Witch always leaves books).

My kids would always end up with hundreds of pieces of candy after Trick-or-Treating, and it was just so much more than I wanted to deal with. I’d let them keep some, but the Switch Witch took the rest. Two of my kids are teenagers and know better, but my youngest still believes in the Switch Witch.

3) Product

Due to the layout of my house, I can’t always hear the doorbell when it rings, especially if my office door is closed.

I got a Ring Doorbell extension, called the Ring Chime. When the doorbell rings, it also rings — nice and loud. I plugged it in near my office.

(Not that I need the Chime for Halloween, since I usually have to be perched near the door for trick-or-treaters, but it’s nice for every other instance.

Want more ideas?

→ I'm hosting a webinar on October 29th at 10:00 am CT: Automate 5 Everyday Business Tasks With AI. Register here.
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→ If you're looking to prep for 2027, you can join this free collective from Katelin Tieran. Each coworking session has an expert host.

That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Cheers,
Anna

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