Sometimes you just run fresh out of ideas. When you’re looking around for inspiration, try stepping into the shoes of one of your favorite people. Pick out someone you really love or admire, consider their every day task list, and see if you can find some nuggets there.

Choosing my Gramma, Naomi Buchanan, for instance, yields these memories of her daily practices and words of advice, which can be reworked into material for a blog post or other piece:

1. Tie on an apron as soon as you are dressed in the morning.

Alternate meaning: Come on. You already know this. But if you are a SOHO worker, you might sneak into the office in your pj’s sometimes. You need to be ready for anything, though, and pj’s aren’t how you put your best foot forward. Get up and get dressed before you go to work.

2. Get outside early in the a.m. to weed the garden and pick berries.

Alternate meaning: Clean out your inbox and take a glance at your newsreader first thing, making notes on those items that will need priority attention or could become the basis of a tasty new post.

3. Greet everyone you can at church, before and after the service.

Alternate meaning: You can’t do enough networking. Visit with people EVERYWHERE you go, whether online or around town. But please show some restraint and exercise proper decorum. Just like Grandma wasn’t greeting anyone DURING church services, if you see a prospect dining with his wife or friends, don’t interrupt and bombard him with your sales pitch right then.

4. Do the ironing in the afternoon while catching up on your favorite soaps.

Alternative meaning: No matter what you do for a living, there will be some drudgery. You have to keep on top of it or you may end up with a business in shambles. Whether your “ironing” is actually returning phone calls, invoicing, writing up proposals, or balancing your checkbooks, do it with regularity. To liven it up, listen to some tunes or podcasts, or watch a free movie on Netflix. Or watch a soap opera if that’s what you need to help you get the job done.

5. Eat some doughnuts once in awhile; it won’t kill you.

Alternate meaning: Just what it says. We are so health and fitness conscious these days, and that’s pretty much a good thing. But my grandma knew that it was pleasant to fill a thermos with coffee, stop at the HyVee for some fresh apple fritters, and then drive out to a nice viewpoint to take stock.

6. Do the crossword puzzle before anyone else butchers it.

Alternate meaning: Try to keep your mind active with reading a variety of material (not just what you find online!). Then, when you write, your material will contain a layered richness, rather than just some stale blather.

7. Prepare at least two vegetables with every meal you cook.

Alternate meaning: Mix it up a little bit. If you are a niche blogger, you still need some variety. That might come from guest bloggers talking about your subject, or an interview or some nice art to go with the meat and potatoes that is your blog post.

8. Chokecherry jelly is a lot of work, but it’s worth it; you can make enough for a year’s worth of gift-giving and home consumption with one really good picking.

Alternate meaning: Spend some time gathering ideas, winnowing your topic lists, and doing some writing. You’ll have extra material prepared for those times when you can’t write new content. It’s a lot of effort that will pay off in preparedness and it will allow you a little leeway when you are on vacation or wanting to spend time with family.

Now, practice translating these into tips that relate to what YOU do for a living, or generate your own list of metaphoric aphorisms based on a different role model.

What do you come up with?