Today is an exciting day. It’s the first Monday of the first week in which I am full-time in my new business. Maren Deepwell Coaching & Consultancy is now fully underway. Woohooo!
It’s been a long time coming, and I didn’t really know what to expect from today. It feels a little strange not to return to the familiar busy inbox and long-time colleagues after returning from a two week holiday. Instead I sit at the same desk, in the same room, but in the unfamiliar virtual HQ of my new venture. It does feel strange and also thrilling.
As I have had months to wait, plan and prepare for this day, I have intentionally made a schedule for my first day and my first week on the job. The purpose is to provide a structure within which I can start to establish my new workflows, processes and routines.
Of course, the structure I put in place needs to flex in response to the demands of the new projects and clients I get to work with, that was clear to me from the outset. That said, one of the reasons why I set out to work on a free-lance basis is that I get to have a lot more control over what my days look like.
Monday mornings are not my favourite time of the week, and used to be taken up with a lot of catching up with emails, staffing matters, meetings and so forth. When I sat down to decide what my ‘ideal’ start to the week would look like I had to pause and think. After decades of not having much choice, suddenly having all options open felt a little daunting. Quickly I realised that what I really want to start the week with is time to think. To use the energy, focus and creativity I have early in the day to work on things that require some vision and some uninterrupted time to think.
Thus, my schedule for first thing Monday morning now reads: thinking time. And it feels awesome to have such a start to the week.
Today was my first morning of thinking about things, and I am quite pleased with how it went. I use Asana to plan and organise my work, and I set up a weekly task for Monday mornings, so I can keep a running list of anything that I need to work on or think about. Today’s list included writing a strategy document for the remainder of this year, to update my business plan for Q3, and to think about my financial strategy and reporting. Plus, blogging my first day.
Our day at home started early today, so I was at my desk first thing, with a blank screen in front of me, ready for ‘thinking time’. It’s a bit odd to change jobs as a home-worker, as you don’t have a lot of physical changes to help you make a transition like this: No new commute, new office, new desk or coffee with new colleagues.
Instead, I made efforts to change my digital set up and create a new workspace for myself: a new desktop, a new desktop organiser, new tools like a new email client, calendar and so forth, as well as nice filing structures etc.
Working with Canva and Asana, I made good progress on the strategic tasks for the day, updating various plans and actions, scheduling tasks and thinking through what I would need to do to achieve my objectives for the last few months of the year.
It really helps that I already have a couple of exciting projects lined up, working with the amazing team at Reclaim Hosting and also continuing with the wonderful AmplifyFE Project, as well as my coaching clients and upcoming hybrid working course. So this first week already feels quite buzzy.
It’s been a while since I started a new role, but what I am quite certain of is that time flies when you have a lot of new experiences, and so I want to chronicle some of my days via the blog (and some via my closed work journals). I love looking back at my entries from previous roles and projects, and reflect on how much things have developed since.
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I’ll tell you, my blood pressure dropped significantly once you started helping Reclaim out, and I could not be happier. Your vast experience married with sharp intuitions make you an amazing fit for any organization that wants to keep their finger on the pulse of the complex dynamics of workplace culture, whether in-person, virtual, hybrid, etc.). I just thrilled we were lucky to get in on the groundfloor with Maren Deepwell Coaching & Consulting to help us cope with life P.L. (Post-Lauren) 🙂
Wishing you all the best in this new venture, but something tells me you won’t need much luck given all the work you’ve done to create your own!
Aww, thanks, Jim! Looking forward to our adventures in the coming months 🙂