This post is inspired by a journaling prompt from my Flown Take-off session yesterday (Flown is a place where people working alone or remotely can go to be part of a community focussed on helping each other do deep work and be creative). Pause - a still and calm moment. A cessation of sound, noise… Continue reading What does the word “pause” mean to you?
Category: Self-reflection
Coaching space
Last week I took part in a coaching supervision session (something we coaches do to bring and discuss aspects of our coaching practice with other experienced coaches). We spent quite a bit of time thinking about space, which sent this former physicist immediately into a thought train of space-time continuum and parallel universes in one… Continue reading Coaching space
What else can I do? Academics and identity
It seems to me that academics have a particularly strong tendency for "academic" to be a dominant part of their identity. It goes beyond their professional identity and is far deeper. Not a problem, unless you decide that the "what" of doing the identity "academic" is no longer compatible with other things in your lives.… Continue reading What else can I do? Academics and identity
Workload overload alert!
I'm in one of those phases where I am perennially saying to those around me "it will calm down after the end of this week". Only it doesn't seem to be doing so. Sometimes we get into a cycle of being very busy and therefore dealing with the urgent things on a just in time… Continue reading Workload overload alert!
Imposter syndrome and research
"Did you know that you have more citations in the 2 years since you left academia than in the previous 5 years?" My thoughts went: 1. "wait what?" (it's true according to Google Scholar) 2. "well that's because I was working with some fantastic people in the last couple of years on some very relevant… Continue reading Imposter syndrome and research
Maintaining focus
This week has been a bit of a slog at times to be honest. Work is interesting and needs doing soon but for some reason it's felt a bit like wading through mud this week and I've been easily distractable. Which then ends up with me being frustrated with myself come Friday. I've found a… Continue reading Maintaining focus
If music be…
November weirdness - apparently both Clarinet Day AND Saxophone Day exist in November. (There now follows a slightly self-indulgent post - please forgive me). A well known route to writing social media posts is to check and see if there are any "relevant" awareness days coming up. Doing this, you quickly find that there are… Continue reading If music be…
Information overload
I am famous in our house for being unable to cope with two many simultaneous audio inputs. How people can cope with TV, game on their phones and conversation at the same time I have no idea. I get overloaded with audio information about 2 devices ahead of anyone else. But it’s not just audio.… Continue reading Information overload
Balance, blend, whatever! A blog for Work-Life week 2021
In 2019 I wrote about work-life blend rather than work-life balance. I was moving towards recognising that flexibility and agility were important for me rather than a totally strict split. However, it was still pretty much work or everything else because working days and school days dictated certain patterns and separation. Wind forward 5 years… Continue reading Balance, blend, whatever! A blog for Work-Life week 2021
On life as a working parent.
Three things I often wanted my employer and colleagues to understand about me as a working parent: 1. By the time the official working day starts around 9am, I am likely to have been up since 6.30, getting children up and dressed and ready for school/nursery, dropping them off on an extended journey and then… Continue reading On life as a working parent.
Ellie Highwood - Leadership, Career and Personal Development Coach 