My monthly guest post for Steyer Associates is up: 4 Rules of Thumb for Weekly Reports
This series offers insight into managers’ thinking for technical communications professionals who work as contractors — though most of the info also applies for permanent workers.

When I managed large teams, I asked for “5 Up / 5 Down” weekly reports — and tried to model by example. In the guest blog post, I failed to provide an example with the kind of information that managers need to track progress and barriers for individuals and projects. So here’s my progress report for this week.

My week’s status report

3 Up:

• 95% complete 1st draft of next Accidental Heretics title
• Book launch for Nine Volt Heart at The Shop Agora on Capitol Hill, September 28, 8 pm-10pm
  (Come if you can!)
• Updated Jugum Press site with detailed links to online sources for the press’s print and ebook titles

3 Down:

• Goal was 100% for Heretics 1st draft — disappointed in myself
• Haven’t yet posted the 2nd Edition of Bone-mend and Salt and Trebuchets in the Garden — adding maps and glossary
• Living down that I dragged my partner out to Lumineers concert on Friday, when our tix were for Saturday

Next week

• 100% complete on Book 3, Accidental Heretics; launch detail read/revision
• Confirmed Jugum Press strategy for scanning and publishing a new translation project
• Opportunistic posting and marketing tasks for Jugum Press titles

Barriers

• Heat didn’t turn on the first morning it was 42°
• Doctor’s appointments
• The Internet