Weeknote 10, 4th March 2019
What I’m doing
The week started with me doing some filming with the wonderful team at Camden Giving. We love working with them so much. We hosted a coffee morning for all our north London referral partners at our Camden site, and I had calls with future partners, including the lovely lot at Shift Design. I met up with people interested in supporting our work from the social investment, and straight investment, worlds. We visited a potential new space for our Wandsworth branch on a school site, which would be incredible if we can pull it off. I raced home early on Tuesday to make pancakes with the kids, while Will donned a suit and went to speak at a huge event at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership about equality, men, and jobsharing (for the write-up see here). I spent time with our new finance manager, I talked PR and brand partnerships, I wrote a Board paper on our future growth models to discuss and improve with the team, I wrote a very long blog and various social media posts for International Women’s Day, and last but not least I spent Friday night introducing Little Village to a crowd of end-of-weekish parents at the Alleyn’s Junior School quiz, and thanking them for their decision to make us their chosen charity this year.
What I’m learning
I’ve been giving lots of thought to my new approach to prioritising my time since the start of this year. I feel like I’ve been doing a much better job of focusing on the important work, rather than spending all my limited time on the urgent work. My challenge is that there’s still more important work than I have time! So I’ve been listening to a few podcasts with Cal Newport, author of Deep Work (see here and here). In particular I’ve been thinking a lot this week about my relationship with social media. He argues that you should only use social media in ways that enable you to align your life more closely to your values. He also argues that if you need to use it professionally, be professional about it. Plan and schedule posts on your desktop, rather than scrolling haphazardly on your phone. Lots that resonated here.
What I’m celebrating
I have absolutely loved the excuse, thanks to #IWD, to bask in the brilliance of the women in my life. I am in the unusual situation of working somewhere 100% female, with a Board that’s 100% female, as well as being part of The Point People, also 100% female. That’s a lot of awe-inspiring women, right there. I’ve also enjoyed celebrating the hard-won equality Will and I have created in our own lives given this year’s IWD theme of #balanceforbetter. It’s been nearly two years since we secured his job-share, and it’s been transformative for him (he’s a much better feminist these days), our family, our relationship and my career. It’s not perfect, and it’s still not totally equal, but I am proud of the work we’ve put in to make this work.
What I’m feeling
I’m feeling very tired of social media and its relentlessly glossy view of the world. We took the decision to ditch a whole load of posts we’d prepared on women and poverty in favour of a lovely story about Amy, a mum we’ve supported. The story celebrated a strong woman, the support we offer, and the generosity of our community. It was the right call, but only because social media works the way it does. It’s one of a few things that leave me feeling dismal about how we are going to mobilise people to fight the rising tide of inequality in this country. I wrote a blog about this, but it won’t make any difference to the issues I’m working on. It all makes me feel a bit hopeless really. And angry.
Who I’m working with
I’ve been continuing to grow my network, which feels satisfying and is giving me lots of fresh oxygen. It was great to talk to Natalie Nicholles from the RSA, Stephen Moore from Princelet, and Olivia Sibony from SeedTribe. I also loved meeting some of our network of referral partners, which now numbers over 300 organisations. There are so many amazing professionals on the frontline, doing thankless, emotionally tough work every day, in a world where demand for services is rising, and funds are disappearing into thin air.
Photo of the week
