There are lots of clichés about the difficulty of breaking old habits and forming new ones. You’re stuck in a rut. Old habits die hard. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Annoyingly, when it comes to changing habits the catchphrase dictionary is stacked against us. When you want to kick something that doesn’t...Read More

I found about Northern Power Women through a very good friend of mine, who has always encouraged me to be true to myself and follow what I believe in. Although I can come across as a very self-assured and confident person in work, life and in social situations, I think I was at a point...Read More

I like new year resolutions. The beginning of the school year often feels even more like a fresh start than 1st January. What’s your resolution for the (unofficial) new year? A lot of the conversations I have in my work life centre on this, and a repetitive theme is time. “More time for myself.” “More...Read More

Note: This post is longer than others to date, and is a one off. We’ve had an editorial check-in and decided this is the right post to write this week. I’m on holiday for the next two weeks and the posts that I’ve written to cover the weeks I’m away are a) shorter and b)...Read More

Since the early 90s when my family moved to the UK, the North has been a place of sanctuary and reconnecting with our kin. My parents settled in Wrexham, which at that time was just a small town on the Welsh side of the border. As pleasant as this was, we still ventured to Liverpool...Read More

When was the last time you did nothing? Absolutely nothing. When did you last sit centre stage in the moment, without anything waiting for its cue to stride on from the wings? Waiting to meet someone with your phone in your hand is not “doing nothing”. Neither is eating. And, as much as I would...Read More

We are woke to time management. Skimming is the new reading. Everything is optimised to the one measure of our work that is truly objective: time. Consciously or subconsciously we make assumptions about how much time things will take on a daily basis. When weighing up how to respond to requests for help, delegating tasks...Read More

My favourite thing on the internet at the moment is a twitter exchange where a news outlet has tweeted an article with the title ‘Should we elect more millennials to congress?’ and someone has replied, ‘Given my understanding of linear time, I’m fascinated to hear what the alternative is.’ I believe we have to invest...Read More

Are you having a productive week? I really hope so. I’ve been writing this blog for nearly two months now, and it’s been a productive endeavour. On the face of it, there are reasons to say it’s not doing that well. That it isn’t producing great results. I don’t get that many retweets when I...Read More

Love it or hate it, travelling for work can take up quite a chunk of the diary. I love the technology that can remove the need for travel, saving time and money and leaving carbon in the environment where it belongs. But sometimes there is no substitute for being in the room – wherever the...Read More