The last few weeks have been really hectic. Actually, the whole month of September has been really busy so far – so let’s keep this roundup short and sweet.
This week started exactly where the last one ended – on the road. If you read my last week’s roundup, you’ll know that I struggle with going back to the Czech Republic to visit my family. So on Monday morning I was quite grateful to be going back to the UK where I can live my life the way I want, without anyone’s judgements.
Networking is not only to meet potential clients
If you’re running your own business, you’ll probably already doing some (or a lot) of networking to grow your professional network and meet new potential customers. But have you ever realised that networking isn’t just about meeting new prospects, handing out your business cards and pitching?
This week, I went to my first marketing conference since I started freelancing. I chose a smaller event called MarkedEd Live up in Derby set up by a few of my Twitter friends. Not only was I looking forward to hearing and meeting some incredible speakers from my field, but I also wanted to meet in person some of my ‘colleagues’ that I’ve known on social media for a long time.
During the event, I realised how important it is to meet and talk with people who are on the same journey as you – no matter if they started decades before you or just joined. It was really reassuring and comforting to know that there are others struggling with the same things I do, and learning from their lessons.
Spending some time alone
After an intensive day of networking and learning, I needed some time for myself and decided to spend a day hiking and exploring Derbyshire and The Peaks on my own. It gave me the time to sort out my thoughts from my trip home, insights from the conference and get some much-needed headspace.
While walking through fields with sheep, climbing up waterfalls and admiring the beauty of historical estates, I had the time to ask myself many deep questions: What’s my life goal? What’s my purpose in the world? What do I want to achieve in my life?
I still don’t have most of the answers to these questions, but I have a much better idea of what I need to do to get a bit closer to finding out!
Book Corner
In this week’s book corner, I want to look at back at a book I read about a year ago and that often stands out in my mind if I’m thinking about work-life balance, procrastination and headspace.
The title might not sound that relevant to this topic, but let me explain. I think that we need to be able not only to capture someone else’s attention but also work on our own attention span! That’s why I’ve chosen this quote from Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention by Ben Parr:
“You might think a chronic multitasker would be more adept at switching between tasks, but you would be wrong. A recent study […] found that “heavy media multitaskers”—those who consumed a large amount of media content—were not only more susceptible to irrelevant stimuli, but they were also significantly slower when it came to switching between tasks.”
What’s your view on multitasking? Is it helpful or distracting? What are your strategies to be more productive and procrastinate less? I’d love to know!
