Emma Cragg

🤹 This week I’ve been working on four main projects and felt like I took significant steps forward in each of them. I generally find that having more to do makes me more efficient, plus there’s the benefit of being able to switch project when I’m bored/stuck/need some variety.

📆 I shared the details of an event I want to trial and got some immediate registrations. Although I was a little disappointed that there was zero response from one community I shared it with. There’s a lesson in that at least.

💰 I talked to a couple of new accountants about some upcoming changes to my business model and how they can support me.

💬 Conversations continued to get feedback on a new group coaching programme I’m working on. I’ve got enough to revise the offer ready to re-test with a wider audience.

📢 I joined a small group of fellow freelancers to chat about our approaches to and challenges with marketing. I came away with a load of ideas for how to make marketing work for me. And by that I mean make it something I actually do rather than indefinitely put off!

⏳ I’ve accepted that I only ever work a half-day on Friday. I’m actively trying not to become the freelancer in this web comic.

🏃 Pleased that I broadly kept to my exercise plan, including hockey training in the torrential rain on Wednesday. It was a small session but sometimes they’re the most fun.

🏑 We got a good result from Saturday’s hockey match. Another 0—0 draw with a local university team, that included surviving a penalty corner in the final seconds of the match. Oh and I was voted joint player of the match!

🥞 I hadn’t planned to have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. As it also fell on St David’s Day I decided to make Welsh Cakes instead.

🐦 My dusk walks continued, and included a longer one on Sunday evening. On the home stretch I spotted a treecreeper.

Rounding off the month with what was for me a really good week both personally and professionally.

🗓️ I ran the Feb/March monthly planning session on Monday. Each time I’m gradually refining my process and I’ve got an idea how to adapt my Notion setup to better link daily-weekly-monthly reviews together.

💫 The big thing work-wise this week was moving two future projects forward; one event and one group coaching programme. I’ve started conversations to get feedback on my initial ideas and am ready to open one up for bookings so I can run a pilots in March and April.

🧠 I met with the fellow directors of the company I work through and we’ve made some major decisions for how we’re going to do business in the future.

🍃 I helped to rebrand the community mindfulness group I’m part of. We’ve recently transitioned from being under the umbrella of a startup to be independent and community run, so a new identity was needed.

💰 I attended the IAF Northern Meetup on the theme of selling facilitation. It was a fun and informative session as always.

📶 We had wobbly Internet for a couple of days at the end of the week (possibly result of the weather, possibly people digging up fibre cables). It was frustrating but thankfully seems to have stabilised.

🌇 I shifted my daily walk to dusk. I witnessed more bird activity, as they settle down for the night, and some beautiful sunsets.

📺 I watched less TV than normal which meant more time for cooking, reading, playing board games, and conversation.

🏑 We tried a new formation at hockey. It’ll be a good move in the long-run but on this occasion we were out-played and lost 2-1.

🍻 Post-hockey, my wife (who was at work) asked what I had planned. My response: “Two rugby matches, a sausage roll and a beer (or two)”. We agreed this was my perfect afternoon.

🍗 And the week rounded off with a trip up the coast to visit a friend in her new home. We went for a walk in the woods nearby and to the local pub for Sunday lunch.

Photo of the week: Sunday night’s sunset

Let’s try this again. I drafted most of my weeknote yesterday but committed the cardinal error of doing so directly in the browser and then accidentally closed the tab before I was done!

I’m trying on a different structure inspired by maique’s ThingsThisWeek.

⏸️ I finished reading Do Pause by Robert Poynton. It was jam packed full of ideas that connect to my work and how I try to approach life in general. I wrote up some initial thoughts for my newsletter.

💡 I made some meaningful progress on a couple of projects I’m trying to get off the ground. First, I’ve set up some customer research conversations for a new group coaching programme. Then, I had an idea for a monthly conversation club which I’m going to develop and test over the next month.

❓ This week’s coaching involved exploring what it means to “be productive” and helping a client with prep for an interview.

💸 I did a long overdue financial review and made a plan for the rest of the year. I finally feel clear about where I am and what I need to do next.

💻 I got a lead on some possible desk space at a local content agency through a former colleague. I’ve been searching for some out of the house workspace since the end of lockdown but everything has been too cold (not temperature wise) and corporate. I’m optimistic about how this could work out.

🕘 I updated my /now page for the first time this year.

🥌 I spent a lot of time over the weekend watching curling and ice hockey on catch up. That doesn’t come without its challenges — I had two match results revealed to me before I could get around to them.

🛌🏽 We gave a bed to some friends while they were passing through town this weekend. I’ve only seen them briefly since I moved back up north and it was so good to have the opportunity to catch up properly.

👨🏼‍🍳 I’m feeling pretty smug about my cooking this week. First, my wife requested chicken kiev for our Valentine’s meal and then I decided to attempt a fancy looking pie for dinner with our friends. Both surpassed expectations.

🏝️ After some scrutiny of the diary I booked our summer holiday. The island emoji might lead you to think we’re going somewhere tropical when in fact we’re staying relatively close to home… in Scotland. It’s no less beautiful than a tropical island and crucially for me involves far less stress (for that read no airports or planes) to get there.

🛋️ Oh yeah, and we ordered a new sofa.

Home — I’ve been home alone the majority of this week. I survived pretty well without reverting to student / bachelor behaviour. Mostly because I planned my meals and did a big shop at the start of the week (that’s usual, but I tend to let it slip when I’m on my own) and I allowed myself one indulgence… to get out of bed whenever I wanted each morning. Izzy returned late Thursday and we’ve had a quiet weekend at home dog sitting for Aggie, a west highland puppy.

Work — My focus this week was on mid- to long-term goals and I feel I made real strides forward. This includes a financial plan for the next year as well as clarity around my offer, where I want to put my energy and what types of work I want to do more (and less) of. What’s been critical for this is time away from my desk. And I’ve got a detailed list of actions for the next few weeks.

Hobbies — This week I’ve done lots of walking, bird watching and reading, plus a solo trip to the cinema. I’ve also posted daily on Instagram for the February photo challenge. The stand out here this week is a 0-0 draw at hockey against a team that thrashed us last time around. It was a strong team performance and honestly felt like a win!

Personal development — Choosing to allow myself to get up later in the mornings meant I didn’t go to the daily community mindfulness sessions. I’m feeling a little unanchored as a result of this so want to be sure to make the effort to attend in the coming week.

Looking ahead, next week I’m going to get to work on research for a new group coaching programme and bring back some routine to my work days.

Let’s get right to it…

Home – Cleaned the flat on Monday evening and what a difference it makes to the experience living and working at home during the week! I’m really going to make a concerted effort to do this regularly so doesn’t become a “big thing”. Keeping up with my intention to strengthen connections with friends, I’ve been in touch with some friends from a previous life… hopefully they’re coming to stay later this month so we can catch up properly. I also wrote to some people I met on my travels around a decade ago. And I decided to update this heading from friends and family as it often involves stuff not related to people.

Work – I don’t have a huge amount to show for my work this week, however I made some big decisions. The first was about whether to get involved as an associate on a new project. This coincided with thinking about the projects I want to push forward for my own business. The end result was that the two don’t really align so I’ve decided to focus on doing my own thing, at least for now. That all led to a review of my goals for the year and coming months and a brain dump of all the associated tasks.

Other than that, I spent some time working outside the house this week. It’s amazing how a different environment can help shift things. My aim is to make this a weekly event.

Development – I started reading Do Pause by Robert Poynton. It grabbed me from the start and I can tell it will be a book I return to regularly. I’ve also found an in-person conference I want to go to in a few months and am looking to join a new coaching supervision group. Related to the decision making that went on this week, I’ve started a new journal specifically to record these things.

Hobbies – Two hockey matches. Two losses. The less said about that the better. I didn’t get to the next class on my “How to draw birds” course, but I did stop off at RSPB Saltholme on my way home from one of those hockey matches to do some bird watching. Although most of the birds were sensibly sheltering from the strong wind and freezing rain, I did see a kestrel, a heron, a lapwing (I think) and hoards of goldfinch.

Health – I hadn’t realised it until someone asked me how I’m feeling physically, but I’ve been back to 100% for the past couple of weeks. That’s a real relief as there was a moment mid-January that I thought I’d never get over the persistent after effects on the non-Covid virus I had before Christmas. To mark this improvement in fitness, I started strength training again.

Looking ahead, this week I need to start unpicking that big ‘ol list of tasks I wrote and start prioritising project work.

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.

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.