Meta comments – about weeknoting:
- I’ve been meaning to do weeknotes for a while.
- These are my starting reference points: Neil Williams, Giles Turnbull, Steve Messer – I don’t know why it’s all just blokes, that was the result of a cursory search into why and how to weeknote, I’ll no doubt delve more one day once I’ve got more thoughts about my own practice (if it sticks), and see who else is doing what.
- Weeknotes seems to be mainly a practice in government and statutory organisation teams, a way to work in the open. But it’s also a good reflection tool, and plenty of freelancers weeknote too.
- I don’t think to do things even if I mean to if they’re not in my calendar, so I’m testing a new possible end of week routine (everything is an experiment).
- This structure is an experiment also.
At work:
- After a worrying 4-6 weeks of no new prospects, work is coming in.
- I’ve never had such a desert since I started freelancing in public services back in 2015-ish. (Oh my gosh, 10 years!)
- This light pipeline is reflected in other freelancers I speak to, and the organisations we freelance for. The public services and charities we work with have battened down the hatches this year since about March-April. But the work still needs doing, so at some point once they have figured out how to juggle budgets and priorities, things should start flowing again – the question is just when.
- After my huuuuge project finished mid April it’s been very quiet. Nice to have a restorative break in May, just as the weather improved and the garden started blooming. Then after 3-4 weeks of rest, worry set in about my work pipeline.
- I’m now supporting freelance colleagues on a couple of engagement projects in schools so I’ve got a good 2-3 weeks which are nicely full as we try and schedule in all the activities before the end of term.
- I’m responding to a call for associates, and to a tender, both deadline Monday (one of which is midnight on Monday, is that midnight am or pm? I’m assuming am to be on the safe side).
Deliverables this week:
- Co-production training for a mixed team of uni researchers and patients, I really enjoyed tailoring it to their context. (The more usual training is for teams of professionals in statutory organisations, I’ve done it so many times – it’s nice to have a twist on the usual.)
Development this week:
- Attended a grief tending session online (4 hours!), about “tending our grief for the world”. I thought I wouldn’t like doing this sort of work in a group (I have done a lot 121, but I have trust issues with strangers for this kind of in-depth work ^_^) but it was skillfully held and I did not hate it.
At home:
- The foxlets reappeared this week. (4 cubs in March / April, now 2 teenagers scavenging dropped seed under the bird feeders). I have started putting out food for them in the evenings.
- Dentist after 2-3 years of not being able to get a routine check-up because the practice was so understaffed they only did emergency appointments. My teeth are fine, my gums are weak and need TLC.
