Another very very busy week but my planner helped me through it brilliantly

This was another week of scribbles, crossing out, changes, cancellations, long days. You can see that I needed to reinforce several of the holes (I carry ring reinforcers in the back of my planner), and there was a tear and some wear to the pages from being handled so much. It’s not conventionally pretty, but I don’t know what I am doing from hour to hour without it. I have to refer to it so many times a day that I literally wear the pages out!

In October, I broke my company’s record for the number of hours taught (130 teaching hours, 260 total hours worked). It was good for my wallet as well, or else I would not have done it.  In November I am already creeping up to 140 teaching hours (280 hours worked). Without this workhorse at my side every step of the way, I would never manage.

Every Sunday I have a good look at the week ahead, and every evening I look at the day ahead, just for an overview.

Once I have taken a booking in my paper calendar, I issue a Teams invitation to the client. At the end of the day I enter my hours into the company invoicing system. For both of these I refer to my planner and mark them off as I go. If there are queries about late cancellations, I refer to my planner. Three months after invoicing, I remove those pages and add more to the end, so that I always have a year’s worth of inserts in my planner. At the moment I have bookings until spring 2022.

I work for the Nordic branch of The London School of English (the oldest accredited English language school in the world). I have worked in the same job since 2000, first as a permanently employed Director of Courses, and since 2013 as an independent contractor, working primarily in government and parliament, but also in various government authorities. I love working in politics because it is very passionate and driven and you can see the legislative process in action.