Emma Cragg

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.

🗓️ 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.

💭 Ran session three of the group coaching pilot this week on the theme of boundaries. We’re now half way through the programme and I’m starting to think ahead to opening bookings for the next group starting in the autumn.

☕ One of the coaching group had to miss a recent session and as she lives nearby we met for coffee and a recap. Made me realise although there are great benefits to being able to run events online it is good to sit alongside someone.

📋 My main tasks outside of coaching this week have been making sure I’m prepared for the next few weeks where I’ve only got a maximum of two working days per week. I got my newsletter scheduled as well as completing some prep work for other up coming events.

🦋 I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour.

👀 I watched a lot of sport this week (aided by arriving at my parents who have both Sky and BT); most Wimbledon matches, most Women’s Euros matches, England v India T20s and the home nations southern hemisphere rugby tour matches.

🏏 While I’ve been home, we also went for a day trip to Nottingham to watch my eldest nephew play cricket and I’ve been helping my Dad with various labour intensive two-person jobs in the garden.

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. I found out about 30 seconds before I was due to host a session that I no longer had permissions to open the room. Thankfully my co-host was on hand to step in.

📄 Most of my time outside calls this week was spent working on the last few weeks of activities for my group coaching programme. I’ve also been researching launch plans for marketing the next run of the programme.

🛍️ A recurring theme of my weeks lately has been working in the background on small shifts to my positioning and offer. It’s slow progress but I’m getting there.

🔗 In the latest issue of my newsletter I shared what I’ve been reading in June in my end of the month link round-up.

🥗 Izzy and I are giving Weight Watchers a try for a month. So far, I’m enjoying cooking from their recipes (it’s not vastly different from what we’d usually eat, just more moderate portion sizes!)

👂🏼 I spent most of the week with a blocked left ear which made me disoriented and cranky. I also realised too late that it was really effecting my concentration.

🐶 We had Aggie staying with us until Wednesday evening. She’s such a treasure it really makes me rethink my hard stance on not having a dog while we’re in the flat.

📽️ On Saturday night we attended BALTIC is Curious as part of the month-long Curious Arts festival. We saw three excellent short films by women and non-binary people of colour.

🎾 Most of the weekend I’ve had tennis on in the background while I’ve either been reading or doing stuff around the flat. Watson and Norrie’s runs have been a highlight.

🙋🏼 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. Less disposable income for individuals could mean less investment in personal development activities like coaching. I’ve had a couple of ideas this week for how I can expand and offer my services for small businesses locally.

☕ Met all the other folk at my new co-working space for our first members’ coffee morning. Another sign that I’ve made the right choice.

🗃️ Tidied up my weekly and monthly planning templates in Notion. The main aim for doing this was to add sections to keep my monthly and quarterly goals visible.

🐶 Aggie arrived for a mini-break on Friday. She comes regularly enough that we all know the daily routine and she settles in well. I’m really enjoying it being light enough to take her round the park for our last walk of the day.

🍳 Cooked steak and proper homemade chips for a friend’s birthday meal over the weekend.

☂️ Finished Russian Doll and started watching the new season of The Umbrella Academy.

🎶 Enjoyed having coverage of Glastonbury on in the background the whole weekend while I pottered around the flat. Favourite sets include: First Aid Kit, Gabriels and, Skunk Anansie.