Week notes; Rose — Bud — Thorn

The why, what and how of these recurring articles

Weeknotes are notes about the week’s activities

I heard about this from Sean K. Gabriel, a fellow Badger, who suggested this as a way to get into the practice of writing. My interpretation of these is that they’re a little bit like a public journal about what you’ve been up to in a given week, usually at work. I guess my version of this is going to be a little bit different in that sometimes it’ll be related to the work I do in my current role, and other times it’ll be more related to the work I’d like to be doing in the future. Additionally, sometimes they won’t be weeknotes at all, they’ll just be lengthier reflections on a particular topic/podcast/webinar/course/book that I’ve stumbled across.

They’re a way of generating knowledge

I have barriers to writing. Sometimes I’ve wondered what the value is when there’s a sea of content online already. The voice in my head, whenever I sit down to write asks, “is anyone really going to read this?”, “who are you to write about this?”, “pretty sure someone else has already said this, but better”.

Blair Enns, said, “Experts write”. It wasn’t until Cain Ullah, our CEO, reframed this as, “You build expertise by writing” that I began to realise that I could reframe the value of writing as a selfish one; one for my own reflection, learning and growth. After all, in order to write about something — you need to learn about it first. And hey, if you [reader] get something out of this too, then it’s a bonus.

The good, the bad, the…

A new friend once proposed a game of rose, bud, thorn at a dinner party:

“It’s this thing where we at the end of the meal, we all share something we’re grateful for this week, something that’s been a bit sh*t, and something we’re looking forward to”. It was a wonderful way of creating a sense of community and a feeling of belonging, while allowing us all to show some vulnerability.

I’ve since been using this at work as a way of connecting and checking in with the rest of the team at the end of a (long) week. I‘ve found it’s a nice way of reflecting on and making space for both the good and the bad, as well as keeping an eye on the future.

Expect weekly summaries and occasional deep dives

My weeknotes will be framed up as roses, buds and thorns, and I’ve decided on two formats for these. The first is a short version with my roses, buds, and thorns listed as bullet points. These I’ll aim to publish these at the end of each week and they’ll be something like this:

🌹🌱🌵; 8–14 June, 2020
Roses:
- Something that went well this week
- Something I’m grateful for
- Something that happened I wasn’t expecting
etc

Buds:
- Something that I’m excited about/looking forward to
- An idea not yet fully formed
- Something I’ve learned
etc

Thorns:
- Something I’m worried about
- Something I’m struggling/struggled with
- Something that didn’t go how I planned
etc

The second is a longer version where I’ll dive into a specific rose, bud or thorn, in order to share some more detail about the topic. These will take the shape of case studies and reviews:

🌹; Descriptive title about the role
Imagine text the length of a 5–10 min read here

Listen/watch/study/read along with me, if you want

At the end of each post I’ll aim to include a podcast/webinar/course/book that I plan to write about next. If you’d like to listen/watch/study/read it too, let me know and maybe we could jump on a call to discuss it/co-author a post on it.