Emma Cragg

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. We raided their fruit trees, helped collect firewood and went out for lunch.

The time off over the Bank Holiday meant I had a three-day work week. Here’s what I spent my time on:

• finishing the set up for our next accountability group
• running a quarterly planning session
• research for an upcoming talk on the role of personal development in the transition to self-employment
• writing a brief and marketing plan for the freelancer away days I’m running later this year
• a project plan for my next group coaching programme

Over the weekend, I:

• watched finals day of The Hundred
• had a games and pizza night with a couple of friends
• prepped all the fruit we brought home ready for the freezer
• visited a friend in her new flat for Sunday lunch
• went for a stroll at the coast

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. So I’ll keep going with this approach during September and see how it works out.

✅ A bit slow out of the blocks but we finally got everything set up for our next accountability group which starts on 2 September. We’ve switched from monthly intakes to quarterly and are going to spend the rest of this year looking at developments for a relaunch/refresh coming in 2023.

🛬 I ran the final session of my group coaching pilot on Tuesday. Now I need to collate feedback from the participants and consider how I want to develop the programme for the next group.

🤔 I spent two days in my co-working space… but was the only one in. considering what to rename it. Suggestions from mastodon: a singularity; a lair or den.

🔌 We had no Internet at home for most of the day on Friday which threw the end of my working week off course. I’ve done a little bit of catch up this morning (Saturday) to make sure I’m ready for next week as I’ll only be working three days.

🍻 I’ve found myself drawn into over socialising this summer. This week I’ve been grateful that I’ve rediscovered my ability to politely decline when invited out. I’ve learned my capacity is having things booked for a maximum of two evenings during the week and once at the weekend. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule; hanging out with my buddy and dates with my wife.

🏑 There’s been a lot of hockey admin this week ahead of the new season. Some people stuff too as we start to consider who will be in what squad.

🚘 I’m early with my weeknote because this evening we’re hopping in the car to head south and spend the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend with my sister and family.

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. It was the first day in a long time when I felt full of energy and looking forward to getting stuck in to my work. My laptop felt different and when I arrived at my desk it refused to turn on. So I immediately turned around and headed home. The rest of the day was a right off.

💰 With the help of an IT guy I know, I managed to get the laptop fixed pretty quickly and without breaking the bank. He has recommended that I think about making plans to replace it. Any recommendations welcome!

✅ Without my laptop I didn’t get a huge amount done, choosing to focus only on the essentials — calls with potential clients and coaching sessions.

💡 Spending less time at a screen gave me some space to think about some projects I’ve got on the horizon for freelancer strategy days and a full launch of my group coaching programme.

📋 I caught up with my co-host of the accountability group to run through our plans for the rest of the year and any potential changes to how we run things. We’re also in talks to develop something similar for another community.

🏑 On Wednesday I went to my first pre-season hockey training. I’m captaining a side this season and with that comes a lot of behind the scenes work. This week that involved coming up with a solution for pre-season trial games that suited all teams and coaches, and worked with the pitches we have available.

⚽️ I played my first wildcard to reset my fantasy football team. While that hasn’t proved successful for this gameweek, I am in a much better place going forward.

🍻 Now that I’m over covid and my pal is back from her holidays we spent Friday afternoon/evening trying out a couple of nearby taprooms and playing darts (badly).

🤞 I’m keeping my finger’s crossed that the week ahead holds no surprises or set backs!

✅ 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.

🧟 Izzy came back from a big church event (~400 people on a university campus for four days) and tested positive for Covid. I followed suit a couple of days later. We’ve both had pretty bad cold and flu symptoms and been like zombies for a full seven days. I’m feeling much better (though lacking energy) as we start a new week.

☀️ What’s worse than 48 hours of unbearable heat? 48 hours of unbearable heat when you’ve got Covid! Somehow we got through it.

🎂 We celebrated Izzy’s big birthday in a very low key style — doing our weekly crossword on FaceTime with my parents and eating cake. All other celebrations postponed until we’re feeling better.

📺 While I’ve been ill I’ve struggled to read for any length of time so have watched a lot of not very taxing series on Netflix; two seasons of Chicago Fire and the first season of Heartstopper.

🛒 With plenty of friends on our doorstep we’ve had regular food deliveries but haven’t wanted to cook or eat much. Pretty sure I’ve survived on toast, biscuits, ice cream and lemonade.