Back on the CPD Wagon

It's been almost six weeks since my last post and wow, it's been a busy 6 weeks. It started with an amazing US road trip, starting in Vegas, driving over to San Diego and working our way up the breathtaking Californian coast to San Francisco.

Oh, to be back at Venice Beach...

Since getting back it's been non-stop at work and all I've wanted to do at the end of the day is crash. Niggling away at me though has been the feeling that I need to get on with the final 5 things of cpd23 and get my CV finished so I can start contacting potential mentors for my Chartership. The fact that I've only managed a few tweets (mostly holiday related) and read a handful of blog posts in the four weeks I've been back has made me realise a few things I need to do if I'm going to take my continuing professional development seriously. I need to:

• Plan my cpd - I need goals and some kind of structure to my cpd, otherwise my development gets neglected. My PPDP for Chartership will of course provide structure for my cpd over the coming year or so, but I will need to think carefully about my objectives and how I'm going to work towards them. Oh no, I'm uttering the words SMART objectives! 

• Set deadlines, otherwise cpd will always, but not intentionally, slip to the bottom of my to-do-list. 

• Put aside time each week to blog, catch up on my professional reading and generally have some me time for my development.

NB. I'm not talking about day-to-day development which almost happens by itself (the above would be overkill), instead I'm thinking about cpd that will make a real difference to how I work and how I interact with the profession and will hopefully make me start thinking about my career again rather than my job.

Reading this back, it's no more than the plan-do bit of the plan-do-review cycle, but thinking about what I need to do in my own words should help me get on and do!