It’s Sunday afternoon and by some small miracle I’m here posting my weeknote! 🪞 On Monday I had a great conversation with Kerry Bertram of Brilliant Thing via LinkedIn Live on the broad theme of reflection. We talked about the power of pausing, creative ways to reflect and the importance …
🙋🏼 Ran the second session of my group coaching programme on the theme of identity. I also got a head start on planning activities and creating materials for the remaining sessions. 🤔 Spent a good chunk of time thinking about how I position my business and talk about what I do. 💡 I’ve been thinking …
January to June in my local park
A chair collapsed underneath me today. Now I find myself viewing all chairs that I approach with suspicion
Human beings are like jazz musicians; always improvising. Fortuitous to be in the car with 6Music on the radio yesterday to catch Herbie Hancock on The First Time with Matt Everitt
🏆 My Pod co-host and I have been shortlisted in the Freelance Impact category at YunoJuno’s Freelancer Awards. Voting is now open! 🖐 Finalised materials for next week’s group coaching session on identity to send out to participants. 📅 Added details of the regular events I run to my homepage (a job …
Spent the morning with Hockney at Salts Mill. Fell in love with a tree 😍
🌟 The first session of my group coaching pilot was on Tuesday and it couldn’t have gone better. We started with a benchmarking activity which we’ll review at the end of the programme to help judge what progress has been made. The theme of the week was values, so the rest of the time we explored how …
Finished reading: The Locals by Jonathan Dee 📚 Found this massively underwhelming, if not irritating. Dee seemed to start lots of plot lines and then just let them trail off. About two thirds through I asked my wife if anything happened before the end, she said yes… it did not.
When I started co-working at Good Space in Commercial Union House we knew that one day it would be knocked down. Four years later they finally did it and this is all that remains
📆 It’s been a funny old week. Through travel and Bank Holidays I worked three days (two full, two half). It was quiet as we’re between Pods and many people are away for the school holidays. Without my usual standing commitments I had the opportunity to zoom out a little and think about longer term …
Got my watercolours out today and enjoyed getting a feel for the brushes again. Realised this may be the first time I’ve painted as an adult! It won’t be the last 🎨
Up and out for a walk before the Bank Holiday crowds. Lovely and fresh after last night’s downpour
What a morning of cricket! Delighted for local lad Matthew Potts on his debut. Trying not to get ahead of myself though; difficult to tell from the radio whether we’ve been good or NZ aren’t up to scratch… and have to wait to see how we bat 😬🏏
🗓️ Monday brought another monthly plan with me session. It was the largest group so far this year with a good mix of first timers and regulars. 🍷 We experimented with adding a social hour to the Pod. Not everyone was able to make it this time, but it went down very well with those who came. 📋 I had …
Finished reading: A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry 📚 Another gem. I don’t know any other author who weaves poetry into the narrative like Barry does.
Too nice not to head out for a stroll this evening
Just found out a local coffee roastery is opening a shop within 100 yards of my flat. Can’t decide if this is the best thing to happen this week (excellent coffee on my doorstep) or the worst (there’s already a beer cafe so soon I’ll have no pocket money left!)
Waiting for our new sofa to be delivered. Chance of any meaningful work getting done before or after? Slim.
Caught up on Taskmaster last night (S13:E6). Was in stitches at the attempts to record the highest number on a pedometer. As I was 30 mins early for an appointment today I decided to apply the simplest strategy to the task: walking. With 2,285 steps in 20 mins I’d have come 2nd
Tasks that present unexpected challenges then are straightforward to complete once you have a clear strategy and the right tools are the most satisfying. Emma 1 : Sofa 0
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it in a weeknote before but I start each week with two regular Monday morning commitments: hosting a half-hour mindfulness/journaling session joining the intention setting call with the accountability group I co-run Having these two sessions to draw my focus in helps …
Here’s how my afternoon is shaping up: dismantling a sofa and trying to follow 10 football matches all at once. How about you?
The weekly question in the freelancer community I belong to was: What gives you confidence? My response surprised me… My confidence is definitely lowest if I spend too much time alone, so getting out and talking to people is a real booster. I also look back to the point in my life where the …
Late again but I’m happy with my reasons… Last week I attended a 2-day conference (Friday/Saturday). It was my first in person experience for around 3 years and I’ve needed a faffing day and a full day off to recover. So I’m just starting my working week proper today (Wednesday). ☎️ Had a …