blog to discovery

So in 3 months I should be a mother, and to date we have not done any preparation. It is starting to dawn on me that we need to do something soon, but I’m not sure what. This will be our first child and neither of us have spent much time with babies so we are fairly clueless.

Of course I’ve got some books, but I know that you can’t always take book advice literally. So what I’m looking for is any advice to help us with the new arrival such as

• what would you recommend we need
• what would you recommend we don’t need
• do you have any tips on how to survive the first few weeks
• are there useful things I can make
• any books you think I should read
• any good website I should visit
• any organisation tips for all the baby gear

Its been a great month for my rss subscribers as I’ve passed the next milestone and reached the 200 mark. Okay, I admit I’m currently at 188, but in the last 30 days there were 4 days over 200 reaching a high of 207. So thank you again readers.

The most read posts in the last month were:

1. 13 tips to successful hotdesking
2. 15 different types of journals to keep
3. How I successfully plan my day
4. Day planner download files
5. Developing my mission statement

The search terms used to find my site that seem the most loosely connected were

• hairdressing appointment templates
• how to organise ebay
• I got nail varnish on my laptop
• referrals old english letter nail sticker

I have been working on my goals for a long time but seemed to stall at identifying what my top level vision was. Looking back on my notes it appears that I’ve had the content nearly there for a long time, but the thing that seemed to be stopping me was how to actually write my vision.

I have decided to use the format suggested by Jim Collins for organisation’s vision in his book Built to Last, which I remembered from the dissertation for my management diploma a few years ago.

The concept

According to Jim Collins a good vision consists of two components:

• Core ideology - what we stand for and why we exist
• Envisioned future - what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create

I didn’t write a making progress report for June and I think that says a lot about the lull in enthusiasm I’ve been going through, but hopefully I’m on my back now. I’ve been helping out on several projects at work and it started off at a good level, but towards the end of July it was getting more difficult to juggle so many project in the available time. However having got away from it completely on my sailing holiday has given me the opportunity to re-evaluate my workload and I will be sitting down with my manager next week to discuss it.

Goals - I have a first draft of my goals that I put together a week or so ago. I have looked at them several times and discussed them with my husband and there are just two areas that I’m considering changing slightly.

The first thing that is noticeable from the shape of my wheel this month compared to last month is the improvement in the vision area. I have finally committed to paper the first draft of my high level goals. The interesting thing is it didn’t take that long in the end due to the work I had done earlier, however I guess I was scared about finishing them. I don’t think they are correct yet, however I am happy to give it ago and see how it feels; expect a post about it soon and I would be very interested in your comments.

I have also increased the score for career slightly. My role changed at the beginning of April and combined with going on maternity leave shortly I am finding there are a lot of short term opportunities arising for me in the company. This is great because I have worked in the same area for the last 6 years and I am now starting to see other sections of the business.   An additional benefit is it should be easier to return to work after maternity leave if there is a reason why I can’t return to my current area. I am also currently on a week long course that will (hopefully) result in a recognised project management qualification, not only will this be good within my current company, but is obviously something that I can also take to other companies if I decide to move.

For the whole of this week I am on a Prince2 project management training course, so over the last few weeks I’ve dutifully been doing the pre course reading. I’ve just finished the first day of the course.

One of the ideas that takes my fancy is the Project Manager’s Daily Log, however I’m struggling to think how I would implement it. Its purpose is described as

“to record required actions or significant events not caught by other PRINCE2 documents. It acts as the Project Manager’s or a Team Manager’s diary.”

My understanding so far is that it is a method of capturing information related to the project, such as conversations with team members, customers etc. However, it also seems to be a reminder of things that need to be done in the future such as reviewing the status of actions that are meant to be completed. In this second aspect it seems to be almost like a tickler file by acting as a trigger to do something.

I recognise that I’m not good at moving outside my comfort zone, but every now and again I like to push myself, and my summer holiday last week was one of those moments.

So my husband and I spent our summer holiday on a 36 foot yacht sailing along the Dorset coast line with my parents- and sister-in-law. My husband’s family are long standing sailors and my husband is a Yacht Master and has wanted to take me sailing for at least nine years. Previous to this trip I had spent 2 nights on a yacht just a few months ago and visited the Southampton Boat Show a couple of times, so this was quite an adventure for me.

Here is what I learnt from my week sailing

• I prefer sailing with calmer winds and in the sun
• Other boats hitting you is scary

I have posted slightly more frequently in the last month, but it isn’t up to the level I would like, but you all know my excuse now and hopefully you understand. I am getting back on track though, so hopefully the trend over the last few months will continue and you will see a few more posts. However, despite my lack of posting the number of subscribers is holding steady and I am getting close to 200 mark, which I find amazing, so thank you to everyone who reads my blog (please let me know if there are things you would like me to write about that I haven’t covered recently).

My most read posts were:

1. 13 tips to successful hotdesking
2. How I successfully plan my day
3. Day planner download files
4. Ask advice: how to label keyboard keys
5. 15 different types of journals to keep

You may have noticed my posting has been somewhat erratic over the last few months and its not because I’ve lost interest in writing on my blog, in fact its quite the opposite I’ve got a growing list of posts I want to write.

The problem has been caused by a lack of energy and focus that seems to be a symptom of my pregnancy. Yes, that is the secret that I’ve been keeping from you all. I’m five months pregnant and the baby is due in November. We recently had an anomaly scan and the medical staff said there was nothing they were worried about.

I’m anticipating having plenty of time while on maternity leave to write; or maybe I am a little optimisitic about my expectations of having a baby around the house. However, it is likely that my posts could have a change of focus as I will have different challenges in my life, but I think organisation skills will become increasingly important.

Okay, its been a few months since I last did a wheel of life analysis, but I things are looking up in most of the categories.

I’ve been to see the dentist and chiropractor and they both say everything is looking good which is great news (I always seem to develop imaginary tooth pain a few weeks before a dentist appointment).

I’ve spoken to the majority of mine and my husband’s close family in the last few

weeks, plus we are travelling up to Yorkshire soon for a family reunion on my mother’s side where I will be able to catch up with aunts, uncles and cousins as well as some more distant relatives. It should be a good weekend and even better if we get some sun as a barbecue is planned.