I woke up with a gigantic zit on my chin.

My high school reunion is just a couple of weeks away and I knew if I left that monstrosity alone it would end up getting even bigger. Big enough, in fact, to warrant its own ZIP code.

I needed to get an early start today on some work but, seriously, this huge-o zit just wouldn’t let me focus. It hurt, darn it.

So I popped it. (Ewww.)

Blessed relief.

Sometimes you just gotta get the junk out before things can get back to normal.

And so it is with writing.

If you’ve struggled (even a bit) with formulating your ideas, finishing (or starting) a project, or nailing the copy, perhaps there’s some junk you need to get out before you can move on.

Junk can be circumstantial, such as a cluttered desk or disorganized office, or it can be situational, such as dealing with a family emergency or work crisis.

While I don’t believe in becoming too distracted from our productive work, sometimes it helps to deal with the thing that’s bugging us the most so we can get back to the task at hand or, better yet, break through to new ideas.

Here’s a plan for clearing out the junk and making way for good ideas and great copy:

1. Take 5 minutes to decide what’s niggling you. It may be more than one thing so make a list if you have to.
2. Decide one action you can take right now to eliminate it — and do it.
3. Make a list of other actions to take (if necessary) and plan for them in your day or on your calendar.
4. Focus for 15-60 minutes on idea generation, brainstorming or writing.
5. If the “thing” is still niggling at you, take another action or two or three, but limit your dealing of it to one hour.

That’s it. That should free up your mind and energy at least in the short term. Repeat as often as necessary.

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My schedule got all wonky today. An old/new client postponed a meeting and a rush project came to a screeching halt (for the moment). I don’t mind. I always have plenty of projects going on and appreciate the opportunity to pick the one I feel like working on vs. the one on deadline.

While working a bit on my home-study web content/copywriting course, I got to the part about generating ideas. That led me to start a blog post about finding content in the everyday, which led me to thinking about blogs I like and why, which led me to revising my original post to the one you’re reading now.

Whew. A bit circuitous, but that’s how ideas work most times.

And it proves my point, which is that by writing about something very ordinary that happened to me (working a blog post), I can share an idea that may prove helpful to you (write about your everyday life no matter who you are or what your blog is about).

My favorite bloggers do just that. Leo Babauta, Brian Clark and Alaina Sheer continually, constantly and consistently write stuff worth reading because they write about their lives and how it relates to you and to me.

Business and political blogs, on the other hand, have a tendency to slog, drone and drag their way through post after post with a self-serving agenda.

Who wants to read that?

So I propose a business and political blog revolution.

I propose that business and political bloggers (CEOs, politicians, their ghostwriters and the like) stop writing about their business or agenda — and start writing about their life and the application of it to the rest of us.

Wouldn’t it be more interesting to read about Carly Fiorina the woman on the campaign trail than to read a deadly, dull post that goes something like this: “During this morning’s event, Fiorina rode in a parade vehicle alongside Huntington Beach City Councilman Gil Coerper; Councilman Coerper’s son, Major Michael Coerper …”

Oh, joy and rapture. Carly road in a parade vehicle. (Who even talks like that?)

Instead, do what Carly doesn’t do and use your blog to let people live inside your world (at least part of it for a little while).

Tell us something personal and meaningful and then make a point about it.

Let us get to know you, the person with ideas — instead force-feeding us the prim, proper and staid persona you want to project.

Agree or disagree?

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Ever since I bought a Venus Embrace razor, I shave my legs daily.

It’s soooo easy.

No soap.
No shaving cream.
Just zip, zip, done.

But recently I noticed my old razor sitting forlornly on a shelf in the medicine cabinet. And, along with it, three unused blades.

Frugality taunted me.

So, I temporarily retired the Venus Embrace and, ahem, embraced my old razor.

But the darn thing has a too-small handle.
It has a super-small shaving head.
There’s no handy-dandy shower holder.
And there’s no slime bar.

(Gillette calls it a “ribbon of moisture” but, hey, they’re not on my client list, so as a consumer, I call it “slime bar.”)

It’s a real pain to shave with the new/old razor.
And so I don’t.
Well, not often, anyway.

The problem is not the razor.

The problem is that it’s the WRONG TOOL for the job (shaving in the shower vs. shaving in the tub).

Which got me to thinking …

That’s what happens to writers: sometimes we use the wrong tool for the job.

And it doesn’t work as well — or as easily — as the right tool.

Take, for example, a thesaurus.

This one is good.
But this one is even better.

Why?

Because one is more literal and one is more thought provoking.

One gives me easy options but the other forces me to be more creative.
And that makes me a better writer.

Which tools do you use? Which tools make you a better writer — and which tools need to be dumped from your toolbox?

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Four years ago this July, I left my job at Resource Interactive, launched my business, and welcomed two adorable kittens into my life.

They’re no Sockington, but my two fur babies, Bailey and Avery, bring me daily doses of love, joy and delight.

Avery likes to stand on her head and be petted (but never held) and Bailey is what we affectionately refer to as a lap whore because she jumps into our laps even when we’re standing up. (Yeowch! Those back claws are killer.)

And every day of every year for the past four years, one or the other of them drags a certain toy we call their “baby” through the house, meowing and yowling along the way.

This baby is (I should say was) a white, feathery puff that I once used to dust on sparkly body powder. They confiscated it from me, claimed it as their own, and now drag it through the house with said howling in order to “gift” it to us as a presumed token of their affection.

I wash it. I sew it. I repair it. But over the years it’s gone from intact to unraveled and now thread-bare. But they love it; and so we hang onto it though its natural life ended long, long ago.

The baby, which today is literally hanging on by its last thread, made me wonder: What do we hang onto that’s comfortable, yet tattered and worn? What are we afraid to let go of?

In writing and communications, it’s often what we call “the little darlings,” the words and phrases and stories that we love and try to force-fit into our prose, often to its detriment. In life, it can be relationships, habits, jobs or shouldas/wouldas/couldas.

Perhaps today is the day to let go of something we’ve been hanging onto. What will you let go of?

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