Going forward
Me and my own reflections
I felt quite unsure when I started off on the course, I think I’d signed up to the waiting list quite a while ago and couldn’t remember why I’d signed up! However, as the time has gone on and the course has progressed I’ve been able to see a variety of benefits. The biggest impact on me has been the letting go of perfection, worrying about getting it ‘right’ and just going for it and pressing publish. This has been aided by reading others posts — I’ll come back to that aspect.
The session on writing for the web was really useful. I have gone back to Sophie’s slides a number of times, used the apps she recommended, and also shared the slides with a new volunteer blogger who is transitioning from academic writing to writing in a more informal manner for our website.
Learning from others
One aspect I have learnt a lot from is reading other people’s posts, particularly those working in the charity sector. I also find I really enjoy a reflective blog, irrelevant of if it actually goes anywhere or comes to a clear conclusion. As I say this has really helped me feel more relaxed about sharing my own, quite personal reflective thought processes without worrying too much about it!
Team work
For me the biggest challenge going forward is sharing the practice with the rest of the team, I reached out to others in the group and got some reading to do from that. I can definitely see the benefits, particularly as we look to grow and expand the projects into more areas. Having a practise of open working would be useful for new Project Officers and Managers, particularly as we everyone works in relative isolation.
Today’s chat before the writing session made me wonder about ways to build more open working into the way we work, idea for check in with our weekly tea break? Maybe with a ‘What are you working on this week’ question. If anyone has any ideas of how to do this with a small remote working team I’d love to hear them!
And finally…
Writing weeknotes going forward? It’s a practice I can see myself maintaining, not on a weekly basis (particularly as I’m halving my hours from the beginning of October). The reflections and processing it has allowed has been really useful. I’ve also enjoyed the community on this course and the comments and reflections from others.
