Hilary Seabrook - writer, podcaster, musician

It really is the little things that matter. A bit of lining paper hanging and my dining room transformation is really happening.

Thank goodness I found a man who would strip the layers of wallpaper out of my dining room. Good to come home and find progress has been made in my absence.

... your 9:30am meeting runs for EXACTLY the hour you'd scheduled in the diary. Then your dog walk finishes just as a big black cloud breaks over Hitchin and the heavens open as you shut the door and put the kettle on. It's been a productive day, although those productive moments haven't always chimed with what was on my Toodledo list first thing.

Back in my days at Birds Eye Wall's, then together and part of Unilever, it was all about IT. I helped set up a company-wide screensaver, updated daily with share price, news, photos etc. I worked with a team in IT and the idea of anything being 'social' was ridiculous. I can't remember when we stopped talking about Information Technology. Maybe some people still do, but I haven't heard the term for ages. Maybe we're giving less information away now. Have we become more superficial? Is it less about the technology and more about the manner of dissemination? Or is it just a generational, semantic change?

To be fair to whoever created this plumbing, it was originally in the corner of a tiny airing cupboard. Now the cupboard is down, this is how cold water gets to my boiler and hot water gets to my bathroom and kitchen. It's actually quite beautiful.

It's not hard, people. Your job is to decide where you're heading. See what I did there? Sometimes, it seems people are just not checking texts and tweets, but maybe they don't actually know.

I am frequently frustrated by the language women use and how different - usually judgemental and non-motivational - it often is to that used by men. We scupper our own chances of success by talking ourselves down. Even to ourselves. The reason the Nike catchline 'Just do it' works is because it's verb-driven. Whatever it is you 'do', you should just get on with it. Women frequently set goals using 'try' or 'attempt' or 'aim' at the root. I don't want to be sexist, but men don't try to do something. They just do it. Many, many female traits are positive and are certainly as valuable within any environment as their male counterparts. But sometimes, they're self-defeating. If you find yourself saying 'I think ...' too often, ask yourself if you're using that to give others permission to say 'I disagree'. If that comes across as a bit of a rant, I apologise. I enjoy working with women. I enjoy working w...