Emma Cragg

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.

⏪ Reversed a decision to keep a new group coaching programme under wraps until I was ready to launch properly. It’s now out in the world and I’ll be starting the pilot in June.

✅ Caught up with my co-host for the accountability groups to review where we’re going over the next few months. Participant numbers have been increasing over the last couple of months so we had some practical stuff to review. And we agreed that neither of us have the capacity at the moment to look for new communities we could collaborate with.

🤑 Started setting up new bookkeeping software.

🎱 Watched a lot of snooker and rugby.

🍿 Started rewatching The Matrix series and spent the whole of the first film wondering whether we had Internet at home when it was originally released.

🐶 We had a third member of the household for a week while we looked after a friend’s dog. She made herself right at home, turned heads in the park, and got me stopped on the doorstep by a stranger enquiring after our new family member.

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. Overall feeling: joy.
• Week 15 — Back to work trying to pick up where I left off and get used to being back inside for the majority of the day. Overall feeling: acceptance.

So what of this week?

🗨️ This week’s journaling prompts have been a selection of quotes. I’ve been writing up my responses on Fragmented Thoughts.

💻 A former colleague recently got in touch to see if I still take on freelance content work and this week we spoke to agree what that would look like.

✍️ I also got to the final stage in the onboarding process for some associate work I’m doing as an essay marker for a coaching qualification.

📋 My other main work time this week has been spent on content and marketing for a new group coaching programme I’ve put together which starts next month.

💭 And I’ve been doing some thinking about how all the pieces of my offer fit together and where there might be gaps to fill.

🌳 I’ve been making some tweaks to my daily routines, all of which so far I’ve felt the benefit of: drinking more water, creating more regular opportunities for fresh air and exercise and reducing time spent on email and social media.

🚆 Got the train home to visit my parents for the weekend. It was busy yet everyone was in good humour. A lot of groups heading to Wembley for the boxing.

🌹 Dad and I went back to Welford Road for the first time in about 20 years (we used to have season tickets there for Leicester Tigers when I was a teenager). We watched our first live Red Roses match. England only really got up to speed in the second half, scoring 9 of their 11 tries at the end opposite to where we were sitting. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable day out in the sunshine and good to see them play live.

📋 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.

👣 I also attended an onboarding session for an associate role I’m taking on through Barefoot Coaching. It was both helpful to walk through the various processes and good to meet my fellow associates.

💬 On Thursday evening, I ran my first Sobremesa Session where we explored the topic of compassion. Overall I was pleased with how it went and got some great feedback. There are a couple of tweaks to make for next time but nothing major.

📢 This week’s newsletter was about community. It clearly struck a chord as a few people immediately shared it with their networks. That was a nice reminder that if you write something that resonates other people will shout about it for you.

📖 During this week’s daily mindfulness sessions our prompts have all been about habits. Instead of journaling in response to these, I’ve chosen to start building a habit of 30 minutes non-fiction reading. It helped me to finally start reading Spring Cannot be Cancelled.

🍾 On Friday night we had our first takeaway in a while. And for no reason other than we wanted to, we shared a bottle of champagne with our fish and chip supper.

🏑 Saturday saw the last hockey match of the season. We made hard work of it during the first half which ended 1-1. Thankfully we found our stride for the second half and scored a further three goals with no reply; two of which are contenders for goal of the season.

⚽ To take advantage of the last of the sunshine before the weather turns we got the Metro up to near the airport to watch Newcastle United Women play Bradford City. Not the finest defensive performance from either team, it was 1-1 at half time. A penalty resulting from a foul by the last defender (who also received a red card) sealed the win for Newcastle, though they really should have had more after a couple of goal-line scrambles.

⚡ 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.

💰 Ahead of switching the structure of my business from a limited company to sole trader I’ve done a cashflow forecast and a load more financial admin.

📢 I’ve made the effort to continue consistent work on marketing. This has started with some thinking around what I’m trying to achieve and the different strategies that will get me there in a way that feels natural to me.

🔁 For a while I’ve been throwing ideas around with a colleague about how we can make our accountability groups a sustainable part of our businesses. This week I’ve been exploring memberships as a way of doing this.

✍️ Another decision, related to my goal of building a more consistent (non-work-related) writing habit is to restart the 100 days to offload challenge. I’ll post to my write.as blog a couple of time a week from the beginning of April.

🏑 Two big wins (and bonus clean sheets) for my hockey team this week. Mid-week we won 2-0 against a team who are right on our tail in the league. Then on Saturday we beat the team at the bottom of the table 5-0. The points and improved goal difference helped us leapfrog the team above us.

☀️ It’s really starting to feel like Spring. We’ve had sunshine all week, the daffs are blooming and I wore shorts all week (much to the consternation of some of my fellow freelance friends)!

🏰 I started reading Titus Alone and tried to explain the bonkers world of Gormenghast to some friends.

🗡️ And I binged season 3 of Killing Eve after realising I hadn’t seen it yet. I gave up after S2 which was more than a little ridiculous. Thankfully S3 gets back to basics.

🏃 Started the week running a sub 35-minute 5k. This is an achievement on two fronts 1) I’ve not run this far all year 2) I rarely run faster than 7 minutes per km (on average).

💻 Monday to Wednesday afternoons I attended virtual co-working sessions (one of which I hosted). I find these really helpful when I’ve got more routine tasks to work on as they both help me to focus on one thing at a time, and also give me a chance to chat during the breaks.

🐠 Over the past month or two we’ve been making plans to run an open week to share what goes on in our accountability group. We made the event live this week.

📝 I’ve created a more detailed outline for my first group coaching programme and have a couple of people signed up for a pilot to start in May.

📢 I made progress on the one area of the business that I really drag my feet over: marketing. This includes blocking time for it each week on my calendar and a list of tasks I can turn to to minimise decision making.

📰 This week’s newsletter was all about defining progress.

⏱️ I did an experiment tracking how I spend my time over a week, mostly out of curiosity and to see if there are any patterns or areas I want to change. To do this I assigned each 30 minute block to one of six broad categories: work, rest, exercise, morning routine, nourishment and other. My initial observations show that I’m pretty consistent every day of the week and I have no problems with prioritising rest! Next, I may take one of the categories and break it down to record more detailed level of activity.

🎳 Went bowling with my hockey team and then was encouraged to continue the fun with a few beers in town. Unexpectedly stayed out until 2AM… and then discovered after only 5 hours sleep why I don’t do that more often!

🏑 We managed to hold off the team at the top of the league for about 60 minutes before the deadlock was broken. The attack did their best to claw one back but the game ended in a 1-0 loss. There are definite positives to take away even though we might feel disappointed with the result. Just three matches left of the season.

🎆 Ended the week attending the festival finale of North of the Tyne Under the Stars. The projections were mixed but it was worth it just to see the Zoetrope on the Civic Centre (pictured below)