One of my favourite things about being freelance is the variety it provides. Wednesday felt like a particularly good example of that variety, as well as the brain-stretch you need to keep jumping between different work, so here’s another insight into a day in the life of a charity consultant:
6am ish: Wake Up
Start the day because even though both of my kids know exactly what a gro-clock (programmed to “wake” at 6.30am) is and what it’s for, it’s done nothing to recalibrate their early waking.
6 – 6.30am: Denial
Trying to deny the fact that everyone is awake because I don’t quite feel ready for the day. Wonder how much more productive I’d be in life if I managed to secure a run of waking up past 6am…
6am – 8.00am: Morning Prep
Standard morning faff of getting the kids fed, hosed down after breakfast, dressed and packed for nursery/clubs. I managed to squeeze in 15 minutes of yoga. It might not be a huge amount but it’s what I can realistically squeeze in every morning, plus I figure over a week it adds up to more than two hours if I’m consistent. In between sorting the kids, I manage the usual morning jobs of cleaning up the tsunami of breakfast, unload/reload the dishwasher, put a wash on etc, those jobs that have a groundhog day quality to them because you never seem to get on top of them 100%.
8 am: Nursery Run
I take our youngest to nursery, and hurry back so that I’m time to set off for the school run with the oldest.
8.30am: School Run
School run with the oldest, and manage to get back to my desk for 9am.
9am – 12.30am: Charity 1 – Policy & Comms
I’m doing a half day for one of my long-running charities today and spend some time working through emails, attending an all-team meeting virtually and creating handover materials for the new team coming in who will take over the policy and communications work I’ve been holding temporarily. It’s a great period of growth for them and I’m loving being part of setting their foundations so that the new permanent team can hit the ground running. A big part of the policy handover is setting the context for where work is now, including its history and ambitions for the future, alongside detailed landscape mapping so the new team are aware of key contacts, partner organisations, government inquiries, publications and key events to get them up to speed.
12.30am – 1.30pm: Swim
I manage to run out of the door to go for a quick swim at the local pool. This has been a big ambition of mine since I started working for myself, to try and use my work breaks more effectively. It’s only the third week running that I’ve been but still progress.
1.30pm – 2pm: Blog Prep
I do another slice of time with this morning’s charity but with a communications focus, preparing a lovely guest blog for release tomorrow, along with the upcoming social media and let the author they’ll see it up tomorrow.
2 – 2.45pm: Business Admin
I manage to squeeze in a rare bit of business admin, updating my cashflow spreadsheet, creating a LinkedIn post, giving feedback on a recent course I attended and checking for updates on a freelance network I’m part of – they’re always in the loop with amazing research, events, toolkits and work opportunities. Nearly get lost down a rabbit hole of incredible things to explore and save another 3 things to my “sometime never” reading list!
2.45 – 4pm: Charity 2 – Event Prep
Event prep for an away day I’m delivering next week. I flesh out the event outline into the rough script I’ll use on the day, start creating resources like the slide deck and handouts, check timing and make an order for some more stationary. I love working with this charity, and it’s wonderful to come back to deliver a 4th event for them.
4 – 4.45pm: Charity 3 – Policy Co-Design
Quick meeting to check in on charity work 3, some really interesting co-design work with a freelance colleague. We meet to reflect on last week’s kick off meeting, agree next steps and check the draft project plan. I’m really excited to be doing this work – the charity are really enthusiastic, it’s an area I’m really keen to deepen my knowledge in as well as working with another freelancer which a rare bonus when working for yourself.
4.45pm: Pick Ups
Rush to do the reverse pick up as my partner’s away in London.
5.30 – 7.30pm: Dinner & Kids’ Bedtime
Begin the dinner/clear up/quick garden games/bedtime as everyone’s a bit frazzled from a long day.
7.30pm: More Event Planning
Try and resist the urge to do some more work while the house is quiet and fail – so put in another hour or so of event prep because next week is looking a bit dicey with sports day, and two school strike days in the mix. While I’ve got the opportunity I get this chunk of work sorted so that I’m ready for next week – all my materials are ready for the event, stationary is on its way and for some extra fun, I add fidget toys to the order. This event is very focused on giving/receiving feedback and personal reflection and there’s something really beneficial about adding movement into the thinking process that can help open people up. Plus they’re quite an engaged lively group so my gut feeling is they’ll go down well. I just need to keep them away from my kids in the meantime
10.30pm: Bed
Too late for having such early risers for kids. But at least now I’m ready for next week given the uncertainty with the school strikes. It’s feeling like a good period of mixing comfort and growth for work at the moment. Go to sleep dreaming of what else would be fun to take to facilitated events….
Photo by Kreeson Naraidoo on Unsplash