Why weeknotes?
I’ve worked for myself since 2015. There are so many flexibilities that come with freelance work and opportunities to be part of different groupings and partnerships. The flipside is that it often feels there’s no-one to support you, to hold you to account. I have seen other people that I know use weeknotes as a way to document their work, their learnings and also personal reflections.
Although I am now employed in a team half the week, and have great support, I still appreciate the practice of reflecting. There are so few people that will see this website, but this is a space for me to regularly document my ideas, remind myself of what has been achieved and also keep a record of things that I have seen and heard.
31 July 2026
Things I have been working on
- Talking to people I used to work with, people on the peripheries of my network about their work, my work. Without the pressure of doing something immediately but learning and seeing where there’s overlap.
- Reviewing time spent on projects for the last six months and thinking about what we need to prioritise for the next ones. Lots of aspiration, not enough resource.
- Reviewing indicators for an index. Needs a lot of headspace for conceptual clarity and numerical literacy. Hard between other things!
- Refining focus for literature review and accompanying interviews.
- Bids. Urgh.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
- Not much at all. Lots of work so outside I have been working out, cooking, seeing friends and staring at the horizon.
17 July 2026
Things I have been working on
- Changing role, taking on more responsibility and more hours.
- More development of HR policies that are bound in law, generous in practice, clear in application.
- Helping write things. Needing to rewrite as not clear enough. Remembering good words take time.
- Writing more social media posts. Having to work hard to then not watch the engagement (or lack of…) in real time.
- Exploring why local markets matter. Trying to summarise in a pithy way.
- Running the biggest event of my life. Having to move it online at the last minute due to climate change driven extreme heat. Feeling hope and joy and grief all at the same time.
- Meeting up with old colleagues, connecting with new folks.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
- The ambition penalty, and other Culture Study posts.
- The Emperor of Gladness
- Over the top, under the radar
- Enshittification
- My country, Africa
2 April 2026
Things I have been working on
- Refining plans for some new research on extraction to make the best use of the team’s time and the data access we have. And all that has already been written.
- Qualitative interviews. Always a joy.
- Summarising 6 months of work into a pithy slide deck.
- Fundraising, always.
- Speaking to Times Radio on 18 March. I had to lie down afterwards. How anyone deals with the emotional exhaustion of media performance day in day out is beyond me.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
6 March 2026
Things I have been working on
- Plotting, planning and strategising key work for the next six months. More focus, and an explicit narrative goal.
- Meeting potential collaborators for work on extractive practices.
- Starting new projects that repeat previous work in a new context.
- Getting rid of subscriptions and admin I no longer need. More agile - what’s the bare minimum I need?
- Learning - with a focus on equity. Went to a great training taster on Neuroinclusive training, and accidently joined a reflection session on language and protected characteristics which left a lot to think about in terms of evolution of words.
- Catching up with a whole host of old colleagues.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
- Vittles on Jamie Oliver in Rotherham, extractivism and community power
- What the Estate Left Makes Possible
- Lots of documents on framing, seeing what people are saying about extraction (not much!)
13 February 2026
Things I have been working on
- Speaking with those in national government about what legislation is already in place and what needs to change to reduce extraction in the care system.
- Running an in person away day with colleagues. A joy!
- Supporting an in person event to set campaign goals.
- Catching up with people I’ve known along the way - some in person, some on rambling phone calls. Working out where we can help each other.
- Saying yes to more work with people I trust, despite a lack of detail as I know it will all work out.
- Focusing on less projects, more depth. 2026 will be about care and housing.
- Being interviewed on a podcast for the first time.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
- Vittles magazine 2: Bad Food
- Amahra Spence’s substack
- Women and Work: Feminism, Labour, and Social Reproduction
16 January 2026
Things I have been working on
- More conversations about care homes. Depressing stuff. But feels like we’re maybe on the cusp of enough people knowing and caring to make a big change. Planning next steps on that.
- Thinking about retrofit again. Going to be supporting with that a bit this year.
- Writing better organisational policies now I’ve had a rest.
- Reviewing the impact report of an organisation I have been coaching to develop a theory of change and measurement approach. It was a joy to read!
- Planning finances for the year; being clear how much extra work I need to search for. It’s doable but I have no motivation to seek out things at the moment.
- Trying Gen AI for the first time, properly. Trying to think of more things I can use it for, but realising I need to do lots more prep to be able to give decent commands to get a good output. I want a flow chart and someone told me to use AI. Feels like everyone is using it all the time to do summaries. I wonder how quickly we will all forget everything…
Things I have been reading/ listening to
Older posts
September - December 2025June, July, August 2025January - May 2025October, November & December 2024July, August & September 2024April, May & June 2024January, February & March 2024October, November & December 2023July, August & September 2023April, May & June 2023January, February & March 2023September - December 2022April, May & June 2022February & March 2022