Week notes 20–24th March

I’m sitting having my morning Saturday coffee looking out on blue skies and with the clocks going forward tonight it feels like brighter days are ahead and I’m feeling positive about what’s ahead.

After having a conversation with someone at the start of the week who had a different perspective to me on the role of delivery management it made me feel like perhaps there was something quite fundamental that would become a psychological blocker for me in the role. I then had a 1:1 and my perspective changed again I was asked to reflect on the leader I was in my previous context and what has changed — a reflection that I’ve come from somewhere with established processes and ways of working so I should start to expect to be challenged.

My Mum actually commented on the fact that there’s occasionally friction is good because it shows you’re doing your job — if nothing changed, then you wouldn’t be fulfilling the remit of your role which was also helpful.

So what else has happened this week

1. I got better at taking control of my calendar. I was previously waiting until the current week to block out focus time but by that point, there were already so few gaps that it provided little reprieve, so now a week in advance I’m blocking out some longer slots actual focus time and tried to coincide them with the days I’m in the office so I’m not spending time co-located by on Zoom. On Tuesday I had my first block of time and it felt amazing to have some space, I finally got through a list of actions and really felt like I was moving forward
2. After several weeks at home, trying not to spread my cold, I was well enough to go into the office twice this week. I had begun to feel claustrophobic at home so this did me the world of good. On Wednesday a group of us also went out for dinner after work to a country pub nearby to the office which was lovely
3. The presentation on Monday to 45+ staff at one of our client's offices went really well which was a good boost.
4. Chris Harris (QA Lead) and I presented what we’ve been working on internally at a lunch and learn yesterday. It was great to do this together, there was some really good engagement and it was great to see how much we’ve achieved together in the last few months
5. This week I spoke to Huey Nhan-O'Reilly to exchange notes as we’re both operating in similar roles, there was so much I could relate to in his journey. I ended the week speaking to Laura Paine who is also in a new role. After our call, she sent an email saying “Seems like we both need to bit a bit kinder to ourselves”. I think she’s onto something there!

I’m off to London now for the weekend to catch up with friends and looking forward to a change of scenery. See you on the other side…