In this vlog, Mary Schiller documents her 13th day of a 30‑day "follow my dreams" challenge, during which she deliberately abandons any agenda to see where inspiration leads her. She opens with a memory of a pivotal moment in Central Park, where she realized she could choose any path, a realization that sparked a lasting shift toward personal freedom. Throughout the day she enjoys crepes, watches a WNBA shooting competition replay, and stays mostly indoors due to heat. She spends several hours rewriting the opening scene of her novel (around 6,000 words), practices French listening comprehension, watches a fiction‑writing video by Abbie Emmons, and engages in casual activities like crocheting and piano. Mary explains her productivity philosophy: she eschews traditional to‑do lists, relying instead on internal deadlines and mental checkpoints. She invites viewers to try a day without an agenda, asks them to reflect on their own experiences, and encourages comments. The vlog blends personal anecdote, creative work updates, and a call to action for the audience.
Chapters
It is lucky day 13, which means I'm gonna have some crepes. It is July 20th. 2024, and just before I hit record, I was remembering a very momentous day in my life that relates to the idea of being able to do basically anything we want to do at any time. Now, before I say any more, I know that there are people in the world who are not in that situation. and I want to acknowledge that. So what I'm saying, you have to take in the context that I mean it. So today when I woke up, I decided that I wasn't going to have any sort of agenda at all. I wanted to just see what I felt like doing in the moment. And I started by having a nice breakfast, and my husband had stopped at the boulangerie on his way home from a bike ride, so that was really nice. We watched the replay of the WNBA competitions, the 3-point shooting competition, etc., which was super fun. And I am probably going to stay indoors today because it is super hot already outside. If I do go out, it'll just be very, very quick. But I feel this need to just follow where inspiration leads me today. And the moment in my life that was so important that I was remembering, you may have heard me talk about this before, but I'm going to say it again here very briefly. I was working at the time for a big university in New York City, and our office was right across from Central Park. So I used to go to Central Park all the time for my lunch break because it's so awesome. Still love New York so, so much. And this one day I was in the park and my lunch hour was coming to an end. I was starting to walk back towards my office. I was still in the park though, and I just stopped and I realized, you know what, I don't have to go back to that office right now. Like, nobody is forcing me to go back there. If I wanted to, I could go home. If I wanted to, I could go to JFK Airport and get on a plane, go somewhere. It would have to be within the U.S. at that time because I didn't have my passport on me, but I had a credit card. And I just remember thinking, wow, like, I could do anything I want. There are no limits on anything. And I did go back to the office after that, but that singular idea created a massive shift within me. Massive. And it has a lot to do with what I'm doing in this 30-day challenge, which is following my dreams every day, doing what is calling to me to do. And so it may turn out that I spend 3 hours working on my novel. It might turn out that I spend 3 hours working on French. It might turn out that I spend the whole day working on this new offer that I am putting together for the wonderful people in my community. It may be none of that. I might start a new knitting project or practice crocheting, which I'm learning how to do. It could be that I go upstairs and play on my piano keyboard. I don't know, but that's the beauty of it. And I want to ask you something: when was the last time that you gave yourself a day without an agenda? A lot of people over the years have asked me how I create so much, how I do so much, and they assume, I think, that I have a big to-do list, but I don't. The only lists that I ever really use are a grocery list and a list for traveling, just to make sure I've not forgotten anything. I can't remember the last time I had a to-do list. I just don't use them. In my mind, I set deadlines for things. Sometimes I write them down, a lot of times I don't. I just know what they are. And I just hit those deadlines. So for example, with my novel, I will finish this rewrite before the end of the year, before Christmas break. That's just in my mind, so it will happen. I have some other deadlines within me that are alive and are fueling me. And so I would just put that question to you: could you take today, whenever you are watching this, or plan it for tomorrow where you have no agenda and see what happens for you. So let's see what Mary decided to do. And just like that, it is actually several hours later. It is almost 5:30 PM here on this Saturday. So what did I end up doing on this day when I had no agenda except not to go outside in the heat? And it's too bad because it's really pretty outside. Maybe I'll go out a bit later if it calms down a little bit. I spent a lot of time today working on my novel rewrite, feeling pretty good still. I'm still in the opening scene setup. I think I'm at like 6,000 words or something, maybe not quite that much. So I'm making progress. It's not fast, but it's progress. I also did quite a bit of listening comprehension for the French test, and what was funny about it was some of it is really easy, like it's crazy easy, and then some of it is like, huh? So I still am laughing at the fact that you only have to get 50 out of 100 points to pass, so I can't say that I'm all that concerned. So that was sort of a fun experiment today with all of that. What else did I do? I spent some time watching a movie that is somewhat in the same genre as my novel just to kind of get me in the mood to work on it a bit more. And I saw a really cool video by someone named Abbie Emmons who is a fiction writing teacher and a novelist herself. She has a great YouTube channel about how not to make your central character super boring. So that was helpful. Had a nice lunch, had some fun talking with my husband about all the different kinds of things that we're going to be doing in the next few weeks, traveling and such. It was a good day. How was yours? Tell me in the comments. See you tomorrow.
