Weeknotes 22 October

Reflections on a Monday

I often start a week thinking I’m going to read more, but don’t have the energy after reading for work and home. Today rather than just listening to music I also listened to an audio book whilst updating slides for the FFCP Introduction on Wednesday.

My Mondays have a pattern where my thoughts are torn between home stuff and work stuff. It’s always a balance as I my mind drifts always. While I was painting the ceiling in the sitting room I was mulling over my last week at work and while I was gearing up on Monday I was thinking about our energy supplier, something that is a bit of a frustration. I’ve found it’s best to work with this rather than against it.

But Monday felt productive and purposeful. I had a slight, oh I wish I was in the office moment when I was speaking to Fiona who was, but I’m staying away this week as I have plans to be off next week. With just two meetings it meant time to concentrate and then time to get lots of things progressing.

And then the rest of the week happened

Tuesday was classically the day where I felt most productive. It’s odd what makes me feel productive, a meeting finished early so I went and got my hair cut. But more than that it was a day where I was in full flow. It’s odd to me because productivity seems to be something that measures output rather than in-put where listening a book doesn't feel productive but sending an email does… how odd.

On Tuesday I also did two user research interviews on matrix management having a greed questions with Fiona on Monday — it feels nice to hear things, to make notes to consider what is said and implied by what is said. I continued to edit the slides for the FFCP Introduction.

On Wednesday we had the FFCP Introduction session, which lasted about 2hrs. After lunch I talked to Giles about the slides and the session, it felt really nice as it always does talking to Giles, though the dogs joined in, which I can’t remember. I must by his book. I also had a chat with Charles which was nice he is going to take a gentle step back from the OrgDynamics team and asked if I’d be interested in taking a step forward. The obvious answer was yes. Though I ponder how this changes the dynamics in the team, still Charles isn’t going anywhere and the transition will be gradual.

On Thursday I took some time to read Nour’s blog posts, time very well spent. Listening to the book wasn’t possible, nor as it turns out is writing. I realise at this point I haven't mentioned the books title — It’s Wilding by Isabella Tree. Fiona and I joined up with Sharon on matrix management as she is developing some guidance on it with Lorna. I also sent out a placeholder for the first FFCP lightning talks session — all I had to do was send out a placeholder for the 18th November — simple, in my haste I sent it out for the 17th and didn't turn off notifications… I rectified that after my call with Uwais.

On Friday I started going though my list of things, and honestly it was quite a nice process though a little daunting — I do need to update Trello, I was using the one on my whiteboard, but I feel that can hold. The key for me is that I have put in hand the things that need to be while I’m out next week.

Memory Jar

Seems odd but the fact that it’s been a rather balmy 19°C during the day one day followed by 8°C walk to school a few days later is a little odd — though both are welcomed. I miss what in my memory were more clearly delineated seasons.