Writing up the interview analysis into a summary document people can use to plan a workshop, as well as inform end outputs. As usual, needed longer than I thought to be comprehensive, even though I knew the jist of the main things that needed to be said. It’s a delicate balance between being thorough and getting lost in themes.
Writing the massive tender (below) with other freelancers. Building connections quickly, trying to be impressive yet concise. Appreciating having people with design skills in the team. We might not get it, but it was a great team effort.
Interviewing Directors of Public Health to inform a workshop. Feeling inspired by all the good things people are trying to do, but frustrated at how 15 years of cuts mean everyone is ragged.
A week’s holiday. Much needed decompression and reading.
Continuing discussions about new work. Making a new CV for the first time in three years, updating my rates for the first time since going freelance in 2015(!), making beautiful summaries of work I have done to share with people.
Starting some new work to help with an event. Involves researching participants published work and summarising their ideas about the economy. I have made an Airtable so my colleagues can read brief summaries of publications with visible codes so we can apply filters.
Interviews with people working on community-level interventions to increase cancer screening.
Reading this blog on taking a annual reflection break and thinking I need to do the same. Maybe on the anniversary of being self employed- September - and doing a proper job of it!
I have also been talking to other freelancers this year about building informal collectives. This would be nice for belonging, responding to opportunities and also learning. This was an interesting post on someone else trying to do the same thing.
Analysing interview transcripts. Slowly. This is enjoyable. I don’t have much work on so I am appreciating the time to dwell on the ideas people have. [But also getting very little done with no sense of immediacy- it’s a delicate balance!]
Six monthly refresh of this website. Cleaning up things I don’t like. Changing the colours. Checking it actually represents my work.
Speaking to small organisations about new work. Looking at a massive tender with other freelancers and trying to assess whether it’s worth going for.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
New IPPR research on who creates the greatest transport emissions
24 May 2024
Things I have been working on
Full recovery from burnout. It took some courage but managed to say to people that I didn’t have capacity for work, social support etc. I took some time out, stayed with family and removed the pressure. I feel back to my ‘normal’ self again.
Slow but enjoyable analysis of interviews for a the network of community organisation and some interviews on the meaning of ‘good work’. Went back to some software I haven’t used for years and it’s helping me be more systematic about the process from the get go.
Team away day for a multi-year project. Was a joy to be in a room full of brilliant people.
Catching up with old colleagues who are thinking about their next steps. Stomping up a hill is the best way to cover 6 years of lives, work, hopes and fears.
Thinking about strategies, plans and working with and around other people for regional projects.
Recovering from having too much work, being stretched across too many projects. All of this came from my own decisions to say yes to interesting things. But that is linked to my perpetual fear of not having enough work, or my contacts drying up, or having a financial crisis and not having enough stashed to pay the bills.
Working as a contractor means that last month I have five email addresses, three internal communication platforms to keep on top of. I am behind on keeping up with family and friends as I am now feeling a massive aversion to screens and messages as a result. I have caught up and now just have substantive things to do, but my brain and nerves still feel fried.
But… I have been taking time to catch up. I have read newsletters and articles, taken training modules (and promptly forgot things, I will retake when my brain has saturation capacity) and read books and listened to podcasts. I’m finding my way back.
In between not really working, I have finally found the headspace to write some meaningful (and good!) topic guides for interviews and have now done some of those interviews. They went really well and now I am just searching for the headspace to analyse and write them up.
I also participated in a three day (mornings only) final conference for an Erasmus project that was supposed to be a quick and interesting partnership. We started in January 2020. We’ve had epidemics, war (the lead organisation is based in Ukraine), capital controls and are trying to complete the project despite all the challenges. It was great to see people again and connect and learn what’s happened since we last met in Ukraine in January 2022.
