*clears throat*
Ahem — hi, remember me?! It’s the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere today, which means spring is officially over, and so is TIME INTENTIONAL’s spring break!
You would not believe how quickly a season passes when you use it as a reference point to pause and restart a project. I can’t believe how many times I’ve uttered the phrase, “Ugh, winter is sooo long,” because seasons do not, in fact, last forever.
I’ve sorely missed writing TIME INTENTIONAL over the last few months, so I’m glad to be back (with some exciting updates)! What did I miss?! How have you been? How was your spring? Reply and let me know what you’ve been up to! (Please! I want to hear from you.)
Before we get into it, thank you so much to Payton (my wonderful husband), Kelly, Carolyn, and Kara for asking me when I’d get back to writing at some point over the last couple of weeks, and to Kara, in particular, for browsing the new website. Your nudges and kind words lit the fire under my ass for this return!
First, an update on the list of items I mentioned I was sitting with going into the break:
How to lead with more value
I’ve thought about this one a lot. Given that I’m writing about spending time intentionally, I want you to receive some value from reading TIME INTENTIONAL. But what I realized is that “value” comes in many forms: delight, provoke thought, educate, encourage, entertain, and many more.
Admittedly, I felt external pressure to “lead with more value” based on what I thought made newsletters “successful”. But I’m not working toward traditional definitions of “success” here. I’m not trying to sell you 12-step, “change your life” frameworks. So, I hope you find value in the words I share here in the forms I’ve mentioned above (and more).
What this reflection did help me do is create a stronger description of what TIME INTENTIONAL is:
TIME INTENTIONAL is a philosophy for living fully, rooted in the belief that a meaningful life isn’t something you earn in retirement, because it may not come. It’s something you build, day by day, within the constraints and circumstances of the life you have here and now.
That’s what I hope you find here: a little bit of philosophical, personal, practical magic that helps you live more intentionally, today.
Dreaming up a new, shorter email structure
I’ve had a handful of unsubscribers mention that my newsletter is too long. (Not an incorrect assessment, but this is my creative writing project, after all.) As you can imagine, it’s also challenging to produce a long(er) weekly newsletter without sacrificing quality. I knew I wanted to adjust the structure, but I wasn’t sure how.
When I sat with these observations, I realized I’ve sprinkled stories about my grandparents throughout editions as it felt relevant. But I craved a way to make honoring them foundational and more consistent.
So, next week, I’ll tell you all about the new, shorter email structure, and how you can’t find any other newsletter exactly like it.
More opportunities to hear from others pursuing intentional paths
This is a larger undertaking (mentally and technologically) than I’m ready to commit to at this time.
Long-term, I’d love for TIME INTENTIONAL to be home to the largest collection of stories about people pursuing intentional life choices and what that looks like for them. I need to figure out what that process looks like and how this would work on my website.
Collaborations with other brands and newsletters
If I’m being truly honest, I’d love to make a living from my own writing (TIME INTENTIONAL, bylined personal essays and articles, books (?), etc.). That’s the long-term vision.
However, I’ve decided that:
I’m not currently interested in turning TIME INTENTIONAL into a paid newsletter
I don’t want to share irrelevant ads to make a few bucks
I want to collaborate with brands and newsletters that are the right fit for this space
I’m not saying I won’t include sponsored ads in my newsletters, but I value your time, so I promise to share intentionally.
On newsletter partnerships: I still want to explore hearing from contributors. And I love spotlighting others, so I added a contributing writers section to the Authors page on the new website.
Upgrading the website
This is one of my favorite achievements from the break, so drumroll, please!
Here’s the new website (click the title or graphic below):
I hope you can spend some time browsing around, but here are a few of my favorites:
What Readers Say: I’ll share your kind words and highlight every reader who funds TIME INTENTIONAL.
Book Recommendations: I brought my bookshelf dreams to life, so click a spine or switch to card view to browse the book list. (All purchases support independent bookstores via Bookshop.org and TIME INTENTIONAL.)
Intentional Journaling Prompts: I turned the full list of past prompts into a random prompt generator. (Think of it like a digital prompt card deck!)
Can you feel the excitement?! Gah, it’s so good to be back. Same time, same place, next week?! I can’t wait to share where I landed with the new format.
In the meantime, I’m off to enjoy a few extra minutes of daylight, drag my husband to get a celebratory, TIME-INTENTIONAL-is-back boba with me, and play in the sun — more time to live this one precious life.
Don’t forget to write me! 💌
Source: GIPHY
