macro
- family and friends
- work
- health and wellbeing
- hobbies
- personal development
- to allow myself to sit with uncomfortable emotions
- to focus on what is in my control
- to open up about how I’m feeling and ask for help
- and, that no matter what I’ll be OK
- the level of patience needed as everything is naturally taking me longer
- how it’s forcing me to slow down and be more deliberate in my actions
- that I will inevitably need help with some things and must be prepared to ask for it
Weeknote 04/22
Every weekend when I catch up with my parents they ask how the week has been. Mostly I can’t recall what’s happened… perhaps I should start writing my weeknote before I speak to them?
Friends and family – There are some weeks where Izzy and I are ships that pass in the night, or rather over the dinner table. We snatch half an hour together while we eat our tea between work and evening meetings. This was one of those weeks. It was good therefore to have a bonus day together on Saturday after my hockey was called off. We went to the cinema to see Belfast and returned home for a steak dinner. Other than that my only socialising this week was a quick pint with my pal after work on Friday.
Work – This week was really up and down work wise. There was some real highs: running the first of this year’s monthly planning sessions and delivering a talk on sustainable productivity, based on these nine principles, for Postgraduate students at the University of Glasgow. And a few lows: an unfocused day, where I frustrated myself by neither committing to work or taking the time off, and a disagreement with my accountant. Nevertheless when it came to reviewing my week with the accountability group on Friday, I’d got everything done that I set out to do.
Development – Another week with little on the development front. We’re back up and running with the daily community mindfulness space, which I host once a week, and it’s good to be back in that routine as a way of starting the day.
Hobbies – Storm Malik put the kibosh on this week’s hockey match by blowing the goals around the pitch making it unsafe to play. In lieu of playing sport myself I’ve been listening to a lot on the radio during the night and early morning with action underway in the Women’s Ashes and the second week of the Australian Open. Other than that, I’ve done the first lessons and exercises in an art course on how to draw birds and am really getting into my new book, Saltwater.
I’m looking forward to a quieter week. My focus will be getting back into having some structure in my working day, blocking time for work on both the things that need doing and longer term goals/projects.
Weeknote 03/22
Well here I am back for another overdue weeknote. Maybe I just need to accept that Monday is my weeknote publishing day? Although I didn’t think I’d get to it at all today but then my 5PM discovery call was a no show, so here we are….
Friends and family – Two good friends came to me this week presenting conundrums they’re dealing with. I was able to offer a listening ear and space to bounce around ideas. This is the strength of our friendships. One came back for food later in the week and it felt so good to cook for folk again. Izzy and I have been making a conscious effort to eat at the table instead of in front of the TV and I’m really enjoying the conversations we’re having.
Work – I really felt like I was chasing my tail at the start of the week with so many back-to-back appointments. It’s a way of working I so rarely do, and I’m supremely grateful for that. I managed to catch up with myself later in the week, despite a couple of personal appointments breaking up the days on Wednesday and Thursday. I sent out my newsletter after the week off, wrote the outline for a talk I’m delivering next week and starting thinking about the next steps to get a group coaching programme off the ground.
Development – This week’s sole development activity was a session with my own coach.
Hobbies – I managed to get back on the hockey pitch this week, first for training and then a match at the weekend. I’m glad I gave myself a bit more time and took it gently to start. I suffered a little after training but am pleased to say there’s been no side effects from the match. This week I also finished my first book of 2022: The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin. Well when I say book, it’s actually seven books in one (plus assorted afterwords and essays) and I started it last year!
Health – I’m feeling back to my best this week after various issues through December and the first couple of weeks of January. As well as hockey I’m increasing exercise again, this week with a couple of sessions of yoga and a run. Izzy’s also requested a slight change to our eating habits as we’ve both put on some unwanted weight. I’m enjoying finding new things to put on the menu.
In the coming week I’ve got another busy few days up first. They focus is a talk I’m giving to new Postgraduate students on Wednesday.
Weeknote 02/22
Here we are again. I’m happy to report I’m on schedule for writing my second weeknote of the year. I’ve even done some prep for this one pats myself on the back. So here goes…
Friends and family – I enjoyed some serendipitous meetings this week. First I bumped into a former co-worker in the park and had a lovely catch-up. Then I had a spur of the moment drink with a friend who happened to be passing the cafe I was in. One of the things I’ve not quite figured out (despite nearly two years of on/off furlough and wfh) is how to get meaningful work done when my partner is at home. She was here two days this week. We did OK but I’m determined to crack it this month as she has a lot of holiday to use up so will be home more frequently.
Work – This week was mostly one about seeking out and siezing opportunities. I had a great call about a new project that’s starting up which I’m keen to get involved in. It’s early days but I think once the ball is rolling it’s going to move fast. We’ve had some enquries about developing our accountability group model for different communities and I’ve started the groundwork to make a promo video for them. And lastly I’ve started exploring the idea of a new group coaching programme for freelancers.
Health and wellbeing – It’s been sunny this week and I think I’d forgotten how much that improves my mood for the better. I’ve had some lovely walks both in the early afternoon and at dusk. Hockey started up this week but I’m not ready to return yet. I have ventured out for a couple of short runs to test my energy level and lungs. I did OK and feel I’m in better shape than I feared. I did get a migraine after my second run of the week though not sure if it’s connected 🤷
Hobbies – I’ve not done much recreational reading or making this week as I’ve worked a couple of evenings. I did however make my first eraser stamps (while watching snooker).
Development – I ran community journaling sessions four mornings this week and attended part of AgileNE’s meetup on facilitating hybrid events.
Next week is looking pretty busy. Monday is practically a full day of meetings which is quite rare for me. One thing I need to be mindful of is keeping up with the routines that help me stay on an even keel, especially getting out every day for some fresh air.
Weeknote 01/22
Among many other things, one of the habits I want to build this year is writing up my weekly review as a weeknote.
Last week I shared some intentions for the year under five categories:
I’m going to use these categories for my ongoing weeknote series. I figure this will both help give me a structure for each post and also encourage me to keep those intentions for the year front of mind.
Friends and family – I got off to a good start with my intentions here. First I went for a mid-week pint with my best buddy. It’s our usual routine to go to the pub on Fridays to drink beer and play cards. I couldn’t do that this week so I’m glad we managed to still meet up. I wasn’t around on Friday because we went away for the weekend to visit friends in Coventry. I can highly recommend scheduling something like this for the end of your first week back at work.
Work – It was a slow start to the year for me and I really needed that as a transition out of doing nothing for a full two weeks over Christmas and New Year. I spent my time reconnecting with coaching clients and booking in future sessions, kicking off January’s accountability group, doing my accounts and making decisions about how I want to spend my time this year. I also wrote and sent my first newsletter of 2022.
Health and wellbeing – We were dog-sitting this week so there were plenty of walks. I particularly enjoyed going out as the sun was setting and may consider shifting my daily walk to this time for a while. I’m still recovering from a month of illness so haven’t been doing anything more active than these walks. I’m really glad to be feeling better though and am starting to get itchy feet to get back to more strenuous exercise.
Hobbies – I did little in the way of reading this week largely due to not quite being back to my usual weekday morning routine. I’ve missed it, so that’s a high priority for next week. Similarly, I’ve done a lot of thinking about my linocut project but not made a start on it yet.
Personal development – This week I restarted morning journaling thanks to the accountability of the community journaling group I’m part of. It felt so good both to start the day getting words out of my head and onto paper, and to catch up with a few other group members.
Next week (well actually this week as I’m late publishing this!) I’ve got a conversation booked in about some possible associate work and am restarting coaching sessions with a couple of clients. I’ll also start doing some gentle exercise and get back into my weekday routines.
Looking forward
I’ve been reading lots of blog and social media posts over the past week with people sharing their themes, goals and intentions for the coming year. I’ve seen far fewer resolutions than usual, however. I wonder whether the language we use for these things matters?
Personally I’ve found myself making a distinction between plans I’m making for my business — where using goals feels the right — and for my personal life — where I’m all about intentions. The difference as I see it is that my goals are specific and measurable, ie I’ll know if/when I’ve done them, whereas my intentions are around rituals and routines that I want to build over time.
One of the posts I read was Doug Belshaw’s Looking back, looking forward. The broad categories he uses to outline some of the changes he wants to make in the next year helped to give me some further structure to my thinking. So using these categories, here’s what I want to do this year….
Family and friends — This one is simple: more quality time spent together. There just hasn’t been enough of it in recent years for obvious reasons. This will include regular dates with my wife, Friday nights in the pub with friends, weekly crosswords with my parents, a holiday with my sister and visiting my oldest friend.
Work — I enjoyed the direction my work was taking me last year and the momentum I was building. The aim for this year, therefore, is to do more of what was good from 2020. That will involve playing an active role in communities, seeking new collaborations and associate work, and creating my first product.
Health and wellbeing — My main aim for this year is to add more variety into my exercise routine. To do this, I’ll add strength and stretching to running and hockey. I also plan to keep up my daily walks which are good for both body and mind. My aim is to walk the distance from Land’s End to John O’Groats (1745km).
Hobbies — I’ve stopped setting myself a goal for how many books I want to read each year, making time for reading every day is enough. This year, however, I have set an intention — I’m only going to read books that I already own. There’s currently 42 unread (not counting ebooks)! I’m also determined to extend my linocut printing beyond making our Christmas cards. I’ll start with a project related to the daily prompts I shared on Instagram during December.
Personal development — One of my biggest achievements last year was developing my journaling practice (building from nothing to three or four days a week). This year, I’d like to build on that and start every day getting my thoughts out of my head.
What are you looking forward to?
Don't Look Up, 2021
Paused after an hour and when we realised there was more to go than we had already watched we gave up. Yawn.
Newcastle United
When you turn to the sports pages today you’ll see elated Newcastle fans celebrating the end of the Mike Ashley era. That’s something I can join in with but what comes next is not.
I can’t ignore the human rights abuses of the new owners. I don’t want to support a team that is funded by the leaders of a country where people like me are flogged and put in jail.
I hoped for something better for Newcastle but this isn’t it.
I’m out.
Choose your words carefully
Within the space of two hours today I’ve been addressed as brother and, as part of a group, ladies. Neither is correct. On both occasions the speaker made an assumption about me. In the case of the former that assumption was based on my appearance. And in the latter, on my name.
I know that the intention behind the use of each of these words was to be friendly and welcoming, but that’s not necessarily how they are received.
I wanted to share this experience to encourage you to take a moment to think the next time you find yourself default to using gendered language. Especially when it’s in conversation with a group or someone you don’t know. Who are you addressing? What assumptions are you making about them? What non-gendered term could you use as an alternative?
This is day 39 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com
Let the rug be pulled from beneath you
Everything is changing all the time, and we keep wanting to pin it down, to fix it. So whenever you come up with a solid conclusion, let the rug be pulled out. You can pull out your own rug, and you can also let life pull it out for you.
I’ve been sitting with this quote from Pema Chödrön’s book start where you are for a few weeks now. Today feels like the right time to put some of my thinking down into words.
Why today? Well, on this day seven years ago I packed all my worldly belongings into my car and left town to start a new life. It was a leap into the unknown after the future I thought I was stepping into was taken away.
I’ve always described this experience as having the rug pulled from under me. It was the lowest point of my life and at the time I couldn’t see how I was going to get out of it. I’d been holding so tightly to one specific outcome and suddenly it felt like there was nothing in front of me. Everything was fuzzy. Everything was uncertain.
When I was in the midst of it, it was hard to imagine life being any different. Anything beyond the day in front of me felt unclear. Somehow I knew that all I could do was to take things one day at a time. To put one foot in front of the other and slowly make my way forward. As time passed, the world started to open up again and I was eventually able to start making plans further into the future. To rebuild my life on my own terms.
With the perspective that each new year brings, I can now look back on that time and feel grateful for what the experience has taught me. I learned:
Five years on from this, I chose to pull the rug out myself, to make another leap into the unknown. I moved from the security of employment to the rollercoaster of running a business of my own. It was a step I’m certain I would never have taken without that previous experience.
What I think I’ve learned over the past seven years, and what I read in the words that started this whole piece, is that the less tightly we hold onto certainty, or a fixed outcome, the easier it becomes to deal with both planned and unexpected changes in our lives.
This is day 38 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com
Learning to be patient
At the end of last week, I managed to rupture the tendon of my right index finger. Apparently it’s an easy thing to do. The upshot of this is that my finger is in a splint for six to eight weeks while the tendon heals.
This morning I joined Sanctus' daily journaling session where the prompt was ‘What are you aware of?’ It got me thinking about how the splint has affected me over the past few days as I’ve been getting used to doing things a bit differently. Most things are OK as I can still grip with the remaining three fingers and thumb. Where a bit more dexterity is needed, for handwriting, eating and tying my laces etc, I’m having to modify my technique.
What I am most aware of is:
I’m only a few days in to this but I can already feel I’m going to learn a lot over the next couple of months. And that those lessons will apply more broadly to life than just what I can or can’t do with my hand.
This is day 37 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com