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Weeknote 09/24
Better late than never, here are a few things from the week that was:
I took Wednesday off to spend with Izzy after she returned from a week away at work I moved desks - I’m now on my third desk in 9 months I caught up on a few smaller projects that took a back seat while I worked on a tender document in my freelance time this week, I worked on tasks associated with relaunching my coaching practice and had a very fruitful supervision session I recovered from an annoying hip injury to play two hockey matches over the weekend, including the O35 Plate competition quarter-final which we lost on penalty shuffles Izzy went away again over the weekend and I subsisted on supermarket pizza and beer for three days I went back to try again with Picard - so far I’m enjoying the second season way more than season one on Sunday Aggie arrived for a few days stay
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Weeknote 07/24
I still don’t feel that I’ve fully got into a rhythm for my freelance days. At the moment I’d say I’m only spending 1 day at most on this work. As a result I made the decision this week to bump a couple of workshops I had originally scheduled to happen in March. They’ll now take place in May.
I’m spending much of my freelance time at the moment focused on repositioning my coaching practice and working towards re-accreditation with the International Coaching Federation.
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Weeknotes 05-06/24
Week 5 After a busy weekend, I mostly took Monday off to catch up with myself I did some digital spring cleaning, got some household chores done and made a plan for the lino project I want to take to my upcoming induction at the print studio.
I watched Bottoms for Monday movie night. I really wanted to like it more than I did.
We had a dog sitting duty Tuesday to Friday which meant I worked from home for an extra day.
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Weeknote 04/24
Monday saw the first monthly planning session of the year. We had a great turnout of 20 participants which is largely due to teaming up with Freelancer Magazine this year for some cross-promotion. Later the same day I had my first 1-1 coaching supervision. Previously I’ve done group supervision but it was great to be able to focus on my own practice for the hour. I came away with lots to think about!
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Weeknote 03/24
I think I drank more tea than usual. It’s cold. We had a little snow. And mostly I’m feeling like hibernating until spring would be a good idea.
The highlight of this week was a visit from Aggie who stayed with us from Monday to Wednesday. She supervised my work from the comfort of her bed…
At the job job this week I was mostly focused on running client workshops. The first was for a site that’s about to launch giving their editors an introduction to writing for the web.
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Weeknote 02/24
The highlight of my week was a fleeting visit from my sister who was in town for a conference. It was novel to spend time just the two of us. And I didn’t know how much I needed it.
I ran the last of my freelancer away days on Monday. We met online for three 90-minute workshops to review what happened in 2023, set intentions for 2024 and start planning the projects that will help us reach our goals.
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Weeknote 01/24
I love it when the month starts on a Monday. It’s even better when it’s also a new year! We met friends for a walk at the coast then spent the rest of the day sorting ourselves out for the week ahead and clinging on to the last hours of the holiday.
I went back to work on Tuesday. It took a while to warm up to it but was I back in the swing of things by lunchtime.
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Weeknote 35/22
My week started with a couple of days off visiting family. On Monday I went to watch The Hundred at Trent Bridge with my sister and her family. My nephews (aged 3, 6 and 8) were beyond excited about their first live sport event (and getting to stay up late!) It was a great day out and our team won both matches.
On Tuesday we stopped off to visit my aunt and uncle on our way home.
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Weeknote 34/22
What happened this week…
📋 I took a new approach to setting my intentions for the week using three themes; things to finish, things to progress, things to think about. It turned out I had three items under each of the things (I didn’t set myself a limit, but I think that’s something to consider). When it came to review the week I found I’d checked off all the things I needed to finish and spent time working on or thinking about everything else.
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Weeknote 33/22
It’s been a few weeks since I posted a weeknote. You missed out on:
a second week of COVID blues a holiday in Scotland the blur of returning to work after nearly three weeks off I’m ready to write again now! Here’s the week that was…
💻 On Monday I got up and hosted/joined my weekly calls to start the week. All was well. Afterwards I hopped on the bus to go into my co-working space.
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Weeknotes 28-29/22
✅ With a grand total of two working days over the past two weeks my focus has been on the absolute essentials; planning activities for my next group coaching sessions, creating worksheets for said activities and preparing to launch my next group programme.
⚽ We took a trip to London to see Germany v Spain at the Women’s Euros. While in London we caught up with friends and dropped in to see the Cornelia Parker exhibition at Tate Britain.
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Weeknote 27/22
🗓️ I’ve been feeling slightly apprehensive about the amount of work I have on and the limited days I have available in July. So I was pleased to hear a content migration job I’ve been waiting to get scheduled has been pushed back again. It gives me a bit of breathing room.
📑 Had a good meeting with a collaborator about pitching a project similar to the accountability groups we already run to another community.
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Weeknote 26/22
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 of reflection for teams as well as individuals.
🧈 I spent most of Wednesday livid because the video call software we use for our accountability group had released a pretty major update without telling anyone.
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Weeknote 25/22
🙋🏼 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 about my business model and how it may be affected by the rise in cost of living.
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Weeknote 24/22
🏆 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 that’s been on the to do list for too long).
📰 Sent my newsletter which includes a new article on metaphors for goal setting.
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Weeknote 23/22
🌟 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 these show up in the work we do and set actions to work on before the next session.
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Weeknote 22/22
📆 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 plans.
🧠 One thing I’ve been trying to figure out if the connections (and gaps) between the different things I do, how I communicate that and what I can do to make it more coherent.
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Weeknote 21/22
🗓️ 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 a catch up with the hosting team behind our daily mindfulness sessions to review developments and write prompts for the next few weeks.
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Weeknote 20/22
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 to ease me into the working week.
What else happened this week?
😵 My brain was AWOL on Monday after two days of pretty intense peopling and travel for the conference the week before.
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Weeknote 19/22
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 catch up call (refreshingly over the phone, not video) with a colleague about sponsorship and bursaries to support making coaching accessible to everyone who wants it not just those who can pay.
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Weeknote 18/22
Here’s my first attempt at getting back into the habit of posting my weeknote on a Sunday evening…
🌳 There was a Bank Holiday in the UK on Monday so we packed up our lunch and headed out into Northumberland for a walk. After a pretty meh weekend it was just what we needed.
🌟 When back to work, I made another big decision… this time to postpone the start of my group coaching pilot so I have more time to fill all the available seats.
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Weeknote 17/22
How late is too late to post a weeknote? Here’s last week’s…
🚆 I started my working week taking my first three calls sitting at my Dad’s desk, then caught the train home. I usually try to postpone work if I’m traveling but this worked out OK.
⚖️ On Tuesday I attended a webinar about the legal documents I need for my business. It was a surprisingly good refresher and I came away with a list of actions to review and refresh what I already have in place.
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Weeknote 16/22
I’m a little out of the habit writing these weeknotes having been on holiday and then seemingly incapable of dedicating time to them in the week before or after. I’ll summarise the lost weeks here instead:
Week 13 — All focus on getting everything tied up with a neat bow before going away. Overall feeling: pressure. Week 14 — 10 days away visiting family and friends, and exploring cities and countryside throughout England and Wales.
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Weeknote 12/22
📋 We’re running an open week for our accountability group in the last week of March, so I spent some time setting up and planning sessions for that. We’ve doubled the number of participants, and added a couple of bonus sessions, so it requires a little more logistical effort than usual.
❓ I attended a Q&A about business insurance. Sounds dull but was actually super helpful (and not at all dry) thanks to the enthusiasm of the speaker.
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Weeknote 11/22
⚡ I spent a good chunk of my working time this week preparing for an event series I’m trialling. The first session is next week and I’m just ironing out the details ahead of that.
✉️ I delayed sending my newsletter and decided to switch to a new schedule of two emails per month. As work is getting busier I’ve noticed the quality diminishing as I try to keep up with the weekly schedule.