{"id":18762,"date":"2023-02-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techforgood.cymru\/resource\/weeknotes\/"},"modified":"2024-09-24T08:14:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T07:14:08","slug":"weeknotes","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/promo.cymru\/cy\/resource-articles\/weeknotes\/","title":{"rendered":"Weeknotes: what they are, how to write them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"\">This guide is for anyone. You don&#8217;t have to be working on Catalyst projects or even a non-profit. All you need is to want to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecatalyst.org.uk\/blog\/what-is-working-in-the-open-for-non-profits\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">work more openly<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>This guide covers:<\/p>\n<ul id=\"\">\n<li id=\"\">What weeknotes are<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">Why weeknotes are healthy and cool<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">Tips for writing good weeknotes<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">Platforms to use<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">Styles or types<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">Ways to share your weeknotes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"\">**Update: We added a link to <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1oHdCJ4MCTOg9-ZTijf-DuD9xFHB1cwI8I4jJEfo8Uls\/edit\" id=\"\">weeknote templates<\/a>. You can use any of these templates to make it easier to write your weeknotes.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">Weeknotes are notes, not blogs<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"\">Weeknotes are notes about what you\u2019ve been doing at work this week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">They are personal. They follow no set format. You write them in whatever style you like. There are no set rules. There is no set length.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">You can write them for you. You can write them for your team. Your team can take turns.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">You can write what you choose. You don\u2019t have to write every week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">They don\u2019t have to be everything that happened. They can be snippets or stories. They can be a handful of bullet points, a few paragraphs or even longer if you wish.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">Weeknotes are healthy and cool<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"\">If you&#8217;re running a project, weeknotes can be a good habit to get into. Because:<\/p>\n<ul id=\"\">\n<li id=\"\">They help you reflect on your work, learn from it and make better decisions<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">They create new connections &#8211; people who read them understand what you are doing and can help if you ask for it<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">They show that you are willing to working openly and share &#8211; cool<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">They help you find your writing voice &#8211; very cool<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">People want to read them (we\u2019re curious about people doing work like us)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">Tips for writing good ones<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"\">Giles Turnbull wrote some <a href=\"https:\/\/wow.how\/to-\/write-weeknotes\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">great tips<\/a>. I\u2019ve summarised them here. They are his words and mine, but mainly his.&nbsp;<strong id=\"\">\u200d<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul id=\"\">\n<li id=\"\">\u200d<strong id=\"\">Don\u2019t worry too much about structure<\/strong> &#8211; use the same, or vary it. No rules here.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">\u200d<strong id=\"\">Sometimes there\u2019s not much to say, and that\u2019s fine <\/strong>&#8211; some weeks are full of news, others are slower. Use photos if you want to show something differently.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">\u200d<strong id=\"\">Write on a Friday <\/strong>&#8211; by next Monday you\u2019ll have forgotten what happened this week.<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">\u200d<strong id=\"\">You can include jokes and gifs <\/strong>&#8211; when people smile they enjoy your writing.<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">\u200d<strong id=\"\">If you\u2019re a leader, write your own weeknotes<\/strong> &#8211; don\u2019t delegate it as a chore. Write your reflections on the past week, the way you see it. The more you can write like this, the more likely it is that people will bother to actually read your weeknote.<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">\u200d<strong id=\"\">Let team members take turns to write weeknotes too <\/strong>&#8211; anyone can write weeknotes. People will have different styles.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">\u200d<strong id=\"\">If you treat weeknotes like a burden, they\u2019ll feel like a burden <\/strong>&#8211; they aren\u2019t a reporting tool. They are personal.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">\u200d<strong id=\"\">Be personal<\/strong> &#8211; a genuine personal reflection of the week. Allow thoughts and feelings to creep in, alongside news. Be open, be candid, be the sort of refreshing honesty that most colleagues are yearning for. That will result in excellent weeknotes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">Platforms<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"\">Using a new online platform can put people off writing weeknotes. But it\u2019s super easy, even if you\u2019ve never written on the web before. And it\u2019s free. Here are three good options:<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong id=\"\">Medium<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; probably the easiest place to get started. Simple to use. Beautiful design and easy writing experience.&nbsp;You can even publish on our Medium blog and reach more charities, just <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/wethecatalysts\/how-to-become-a-writer-on-catalysts-medium-97c13a6a3676\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">follow our guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong id=\"\">WordPress.com<\/strong><\/a><strong id=\"\"> <\/strong>&#8211; another good option. Choice of themes. Straightforward to learn. Doesn\u2019t need to be used as a website.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong id=\"\">LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; easy place to get started. Good for reaching networks. Not as pretty as Medium and WordPress.com<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">You could also use the blogging feature on your organisation\u2019s website. But because weeknotes are personal reflections they usually fit better on a place or platform that belongs to you or your team.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">Styles and types<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"\">Sam Villis at Weeknot.es wrote some great ideas for formats and styles. I&#8217;ve summarised them here. See examples of each style on <a href=\"https:\/\/weeknot.es\/weeknote-styles-61d957e58a4a\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">her original post<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">1. The \u2018jump straight in\u2019<\/strong>&#8211; no structure: just thoughts and words. Simple and quick. Hard to do if you prefer to follow a structure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">2. The daily breakdown<\/strong> &#8211; simple. Use days of the week as your headings. Write as much detail as you like. Can feel mechanical.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">3. Lean-notes<\/strong> &#8211; communicate about specific projects or programmes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">4. The \u2018[X] things that happened\u2019 <\/strong>&#8211; flexible, repeatable and concise. Helps you pick out the most important things. For example \u20185 things that happened this week\u2019.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">5. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly<\/strong> &#8211; group by theme, without thinking of themes. Choose your own themes e.g. good things, learned things, difficulties, achievements, or overarching feeling, highlights, lessons<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">6. Stretching questions <\/strong>&#8211; like themes, but framed as questions, to help you think, e.g. What did you experiment with? What was hard? What did you enjoy? What was fun? What did you learn?<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">7. The anti-structure<\/strong> &#8211; feelings over thinking. Stream of consciousness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/weeknot.es\/weeknote-styles-61d957e58a4a\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">See examples of these styles in action<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">Sharing your weeknotes<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"\">Share new weeknotes via their link in all the usual ways:<\/p>\n<ul id=\"\">\n<li id=\"\">tweet the link<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">email the link to people you think might be interested &#8211; both colleagues and people outside your organisation<\/li>\n<li id=\"\">give the link to your newsletter team<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"\"><strong id=\"\">Need some help?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"\">Use <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1oHdCJ4MCTOg9-ZTijf-DuD9xFHB1cwI8I4jJEfo8Uls\/edit\" id=\"\">weeknote templates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">\u200d<br \/>\u200d<br \/>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\"><em id=\"\">Photo by <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@emmamatthews?utm_source=unsplash&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_content=creditCopyText\" id=\"\"><em id=\"\">Emma Matthews Digital Content Production<\/em><\/a><em id=\"\"> on Unsplash<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":18763,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[],"resource-category":[1969],"class_list":["post-18762","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource-category-sharing-your-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Weeknotes: what they are, how to write them - ProMo Cymru<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/promo.cymru\/cy\/resource-articles\/weeknotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"cy_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weeknotes: what they are, how to write them - ProMo Cymru\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This guide is for anyone. 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