When I woke up yesterday morning (at 4am after a nightmare that the website had crashed and the Internet was yelling at me on IG) (yikes!) I had no idea what today's blog post would be. Originally, my editorial calendar had said "backyard garden" which would have been a good idea except I can't follow up the GTWB launch with a plant post.
I wasn't exactly sure what felt like writing about. But I did know that I had to make something that wasn't on the computer.
I spent all of Tuesday – like almost every minute of it – prepping for the pre-order launch. Taking photos, filming the video, recording the voice-over, emailing with vimeo customer service, editing photos, designing graphics, drafting sales copy, talking to the PayPal customer service guys, coding all the webpages, beta testing the site and finally (finally!) sending out all the promotion via every channel I have access to.
It was a long day. It was an exhausting day. I was totally fried.
And, of course, totally exhilarated.
Because this? This is my THING. GET TO WORK BOOK™ is my brand to build. I know it might seem odd to long time readers; most of what I do here (and have done here) is seasonal. It's temporary. It tends to wrap up on my birthday. It comes and it goes. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst.
But like I said on Instagram Tuesday night, I feel like I've been working towards this project launch since my junior year of college. My entire path since age 20 doesn't feel at all random when I realize that after all that, this is where I was headed.
Something you should know about me: I'm not a dreamer. I'm not. I don't like thinking of "the endless possibilities" because it makes me anxious and tired. I actually LIKE ceilings on my plans (and generally floors and walls too) because that way I know where the boundaries are. I like stuff that makes a lot of sense and is easy to explain in jargon that I am already familiar with. I like to think to myself, "let's take it down a notch, Blaha!"
But I'm wondering if for the past 30 years I haven't been a dreamer because I didn't yet have the right idea. I just might have been waiting for the concept that could really click.
And that, I hope, is GET TO WORK BOOK™. (And all the tools and resources I'd love to eventually – key word – build from it.)
I spent bits of Wednesday reading emails and seeing feedback and answering questions and checking sales and texting my parents and sort of glowing. It's so awesome to see that some of you are connecting with this planner. I can't even imagine how cool it will be when it's IN YOUR HANDS and you can show me how you're using it. (Or you can ignore me completely and just use it.)
While Ellerie napped, I took my need to make something turned it into a banner for the emoji that represented my "feeling of the day." (I've always called it the "celebration emoji" but apparently is the "party popper emoji".) I trimmed gray felt into a banner shape, free-hand cut some yellow fabric into the cone and circle and then machine-stitched it all together and added the details using a super tight zig-zig stitch (also called the satin stitch).
After all that tedious coding it was the perfect mindless, creative task. And it guaranteed that I wasn't simply sitting at my desk and refreshing PayPal for two hours.
I am going to hang it in my office as a reminder that in the first 24 hours of sales I reached 13.5% of my huge "pie-in the sky, it will never happen, but I might as well go big or go home" dream goal for the next three months. It will also serve as a reminder that Wednesday, April 1 was a good day.
Even more importantly, though, it will hang as a reminder that this is just the beginning. My work starts, not ends, when your pre-order is placed. I need to be sure the shipping process and, of course, the book are flawless as possible. As with any annual product, it's not about the first purchase (though seriously, thank you!), it's about making sure the customer enjoys the whole experience enough to make that second purchase.
I've got my work cut out for me.
But first…more celebration emojis!
enJOY it 
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