I think, dear reader, I have figured out my time management once again. This week I decided that I would do my administrative sales emails on a Monday so that I could capture the weekend. I had done them previously on a Sunday. That means that on Thursdays I will send follow-up emails. The strategy seemed to work a little bit, though I did notice that all of the people that I contacted with the exception of three or four all had non-Dutch numbers, which meant that on Thursday I was mostly sending emails out. I did get one person who did not want lessons because she found us too expensive which is fair enough. I also managed to get in touch with one other Dutch speaker who wanted lessons and we were able to schedule a getting to know your appointment for him. This was not part of my duties, but I suspect it will be in the future, so it was good to get a jump on learning how to get in touch with the getting-to-know-you team.
On Wednesday, I went to Amstelveen and spent four hours with Brenda and Kerry in-person learning more about how the English Center runs. It is a bit of a change being on a management team. It was interesting because I got a chance to see what went on before the teacher ever gets a class. Marieke, who was the former scheduler was actually there, and later in the day, I joked that I was the new Marike. I can’t honestly remember all the steps of the things that I observed, so I was very pleased that I was able to get one of the sales clients a getting-to-know-you appointment. I also put a new client into the teacher group in order to start getting teachers available to teach them. We were not sure of her availability so it’s on hold until we find out more specific dates and times because we also need to coordinate with the teachers. All in all, it was quite an interesting experience and I hope I am able to handle it when both Brenda and Kerry are away in Australia in November. At this point, I’m kind of wishing that I can go away in November as well, but it is not to be.
Right now at the English Center I only have two clients. I have Slava who is a joy to teach because he is motivated, but it’ll be a challenge to get him there as he isn’t using the languagre at all. Then I have Isabelle who is probably about a high B1 edging towardsB2 and getting better. I may also have a third client starting at the end of this week, but as of this writing have not heard anything yet. This new client is intriguing because she is an ING bank executive and probably speaks fairly good English. She wants help with financial terms, and generally speaking a bit better in meetings and giving presentations. She also only wants five hours but I have a feeling I’ll be able to get her to do a few more lessons.
This week I was able to finish summarising my novel of 33 chapters so that I know know what is happening, what needs fixing, where I have plot holes, and what is working just fine. This was done in a couple of writing sessions with the Writers Group, but also surprisingly, with a bit of discipline on my own, which hasn’t happened in a while. I used to be a pantser, a fly-by-the-seat of my pants writer who would turn on the computer look at the blank page, and simply start writing for good or ill. I am definitely not a planner like many of my writers in the group who literally planned for years before they actually start writing. I am in the middle, a plantser, that is, I have to start writing and then I have to plan, at least that’s how it seems so far. It’s a good realization because it tells me what I need to do next, and where I need to go with the novel and possibly the series. it’s not a bad position to be in dear reader.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But, stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 