Switching Off is Important Too

I had a complete day off yesterday, probably the first one for some time as weekends generally involve a fair bit of work as well as some relaxation.

So yesterday was a trip to the lovely city of Edinburgh with a bunch of friends and a number of its hostelries. An early start saw the 8 o'clock train from Darlo which became quite eventful once the ladies from Newcastle on their way to a birthday celebration in Glasgow joined. They introduced me and my to the joys of vodka jellies for breakfast - very enjoyable but not for a workday.

So a great day out, drank too much obviously and didn't expect the beer prices in Edinburgh but sometimes you just need to let your hair down and enjoy yourself. A good day was had by all I think.

How's the New Routine Going?

A few weeks ago I wrote about my new routine:

"I now have a new regime in place, up at 5am (OK 7am on weekends), classical music on the headphones, bit of reflection, do a journal, focus on the day, bit of reading all before getting to work. Going well so far, much more focused and productive at work, generally more positive and in a much better mood but it has one downside, I'm shattered by 10pm."

I can report that is still accurate though occasionally the tiredness has been worse due to World Cup watching. So all good. Also business is really picking up, is this a coincidence? I believe not as I'm more confident and ready to take opportunities as they pop up no matter how big those opportunities are.

So having read "The Leader Who Had No Title" and made a number of changes as a result I have added the following titles and made further changes as a result:

• 18 Minutes - Peter Bregman
• SUMO  - Paul McGee

I'm now reading "The Chimp Paradox" by Prof, Steve Peters and a definite one for me with my "ability" to fly off the handle! Only read section 1 so far but fascinating and useful stuff, at this stage I now understand myself better and therefore how I can live my life to make me happy.

Where do I get all these reading suggestions from? Mr. Russ Sawdon, the Big Cheese (oh OK, Executive Director), BNI Durham & Teesside - many thanks Russ. BNI is not just about finding business but has people, tools and workshops to help make you and your business better but only if YOU want to take those opportunities - it's doing both for me.

Staff Holidays

Peter is having a week off next week so it's going to be a busy one. Hence I'm working a lot of the weekend so a quick blog before the Holland match and a glass of rosé (well it''s obviously not all working).

Interesting how short staffed it will feel one person down when there's normally only 2 of you in the office anyway, though we have had three recently with Jack in via the University of Teesside Boost scheme. The good bit is Jack has finished the project we gave him to do so I can use his services to help out a bit.

As we also run #ClevelandHour on Twitter, Jack's "job" was to create a matching website and the result is at http://www.clevelandhour.co.uk:

:

We're very pleased with it so a big thanks to Jack McIntyre. If you want to register your local business on there it's free so please do.

If all the potential projects we have in the pipeline come off soon we may well have Jack working with us over Summer (though I'll have to pay him rather than the Uni) as well as a new apprentice. We're moving forward and it's a lot of work but very exciting.