It turns out that what got me on Boxing Day wasn’t just a winter cold or even tonsillitis, but an extra spicy combination of many things including the so-called “super flu” – all of which has lasted overall more than 2 weeks. I’m still very tired and my brain’s not operating at full capacity. I’ve started the year in catchup mode and I’m not fully up to speed yet. This is what this first week of the year has looked like…
At work:
- Co-production resources project: collecting some more stories to turn into case studies, and thinking about the structure of the information on the website.
- Website co-production project: tying up the first round of data gathering, and setting up the follow-on conversations.
- Still pending: social care engagement project report, project supporting team development (had to postpone an away day I wasn’t well enough to travel to and run), and what feels like lots of actions on all of the things! 🙁
Deliverables this week:
- Website co-production project: summary report on the first phase is off my desk. (Was due end of December.)
Development this week:
- Chats about new work! I’ve been asked to speak at an event (next week), deliver some training about unconscious bias (in February), and facilitate a health and social care event (in March).
- The tender about partnership building work I had to turn down in December (for lack of capacity to even respond) has been republished, and I’ve submitted a proposal.
- There’s another tender for training and strategic development due next week, and I’ve started drafting some thoughts.
- It’s great to have these opportunities that might secure work over the coming months (if I win the tenders), but it’s also stressful because of feeling behind on the stuff I already have. In a week or so I should hopefully have clawed my way back to be keeping pace with the projects in real time instead of being in catch-up mode.
At home:
- Suspended all my new routine scheduling for the next few weeks: I am battening down the hatches and focusing on minimum viable activity to make the most of what energy and focus I do have. So thinking time first thing in the morning, working on things and writing things up to get them out to deadline (or asap in the case of overdue deadlines), and not being too creative about new routines and ways of working. Head down, plodding through, until my energy levels lift and / or I get on top of the to-do list.
- I considered quitting my Welsh course, because these past few months have been tough and I have done zero homework and revision, and I feel I’m not doing enough to learn effectively. Basically just showing up to a class once a week isn’t great to keep on developing my memory and speech patterns. But I don’t want to lose contact with my (favourite!) teacher and with my lovely group. I had a chat with the teacher though who was so reassuring and convinced me to keep tagging along and doing what I can (even if what I can do is very little).
- Acupuncture has helped with shifting the gunk in my lungs and enabling me to breathe free-er, but I am still exhausted with about 2/3rds of my usual energy. I get to mid afternoon and my tank is empty even though I have things left to do. C’mon, get better, get well, time is a’wasting! Impatient? Moi? 😀
Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash