You Are Spring

Starting this week, I will make my weekly reflections public, while keeping some critical, identifiable details confidential, of course. This is primarily to hold myself accountable as I start practising weekly reflections, and also to have an incentive to do so, which will help me maintain it.

What are the Tasks I Completed Last Week?

I successfully completed one long-pending task for a freelance project. It was becoming quite a hassle, and I did not expect it to take as much time and require as many iterations as it did. Glad to have that done and out of the way. I believe I will not take on any more projects from them because the team is severely misaligned in terms of what they envision for their design.

I managed to publish two LinkedIn posts and two blog posts during my freelance stint. I need to pick up my pace and get blogs out more consistently. The feedback call with Pooja was quite helpful in determining the way forward with designs.

For the volunteering project, I am slightly unhappy with our current pace on LinkedIn. However, we managed to launch our research vertical, and I managed to close the website content as well. I am, again, not sure why two people, the Comms Lead and I, were working on the same thing, but I hope there was a good reason for this.

Now, most importantly, for my full-time job: This was one of the most nerve-wracking weeks that I have had here in the last three months. I made it through the Project Showcases and the Learning Session as well. The Learning Session, especially, turned out to be quite successful, given that the team liked the Canva videos I made, as well as the ones they worked on during the session itself. I also closed both case studies and managed to share them with the Founder in time. We are also managing to send weekly posts to our key client on time. Another thing that I am really happy I/we could do this week was gather some ideas of what needs to be done next in this key client’s project. Even if it is only a “concept of a plan” right now, it helps me with a direction to move ahead.

What are the Tasks that I Intended to But Did Not Complete?

I managed to complete most of the tasks I set out to complete, except:

1. I take an insane amount of time in following up and coordinating with people, which is why we had late clarity on the op-ed and still have none on the stakeholders’ posts. This is something I must fix. Just because it’s only a WhatsApp message doesn’t mean it’s wise to delay it. Many people rely on you to move forward with that message.
2. Must, must, must start getting serious, intentional, and consistent with freelance blogs. Pick up the pace and consistency on LinkedIn as well. I don’t want to do too much because the money is not worth it. But considering that I am getting paid for speed, especially on blogs, any compromise on that moving forward will not look great.
3. At the volunteering project, there are things I want to pick up my pace on, but the dependency on design inhibits me from doing so. I am also not a huge fan of waiting until it is perfect enough to be in public. Shipping is what I believe in. Put it out. Action is what is essential. Of course, this has exceptions. For example, I would not take this approach with client-related work, as I have done, poring over a caption for hours.

Personal Reflections

My head is always buzzing, and here are a couple of thoughts that sharpened in the week, along with personal to-dos and goals:

1. I managed to read “Butter” by Asako Yuzuki and “An Appointment with Death” by Agatha Christie. While the latter is a short play, I’m glad I managed to squeeze it in during the last days of the month. I want to read more. I believe that uninstalling Instagram and Twitter has helped over the past week. My screen time has reduced considerably, from 5 to 6 hours to less than 3 hours. That, too, because all my work-related conversations, whether it is my full-time job, volunteering, or freelancing, happen on WhatsApp. And it is not always possible to access WhatsApp on the web.
2. I have numerous projects that I want to take on, but I’m unable to find the time to complete them — including the crochet tote bag, embroidering my jeans and canvas tote, drawing every day, and making bracelets, to name a few. Two days off are not enough. In between all of that, I want to upskill. I want to crack the essence of Communications and there are some fire courses available on Coursera, which I have to get to starting June.

Reminders and Things I Should Work on

1. I need to get better at public speaking, or speaking in general. I have to be more direct and pointed with my communication. The way I presented during the Project Showcase was vastly different from how others in the team did. I was all over the place, and my narrative flow had no coherence. When I say speaking in general, I mean answering questions or explaining myself. I believe working with Pallavi has rewired me, where I approach every answer as if I am defending myself against the other person. Why? Because talking to her was always an interrogation. It was never a conversation. To summarise, public speaking, whether prepared or impromptu, is a skill I must improve.
2. I need to plan the next day in advance, both for work and otherwise, so that I don’t wake up feeling dreadful about all the things I need to accomplish on that day.
3. I must document the hours of work that are going into each task in the timesheet. While it is a hassle, it helps me see where all the time goes.
4. I need to challenge myself with something — maybe daily writing or drawing for 30 days? Or perhaps both, if I’m feeling a little adventurous.

Anyway, this is all I had for this week. I think if I start living the week with more intention of reflecting on it, I will be able to articulate it better.