I don't like Mondays

Bob Geldof isn't the only one. Monday is column day for the FT, often preceded by some report or book reading on the Sunday night as I get my ideas together. Why don't I write the thing the previous Friday? You could ask that of any journalist.

As a colleague once tried to explain to an unreceptive chief executive who was trying to introduce his own management ideas, you can't produce news like tins of beans on a conveyor belt. Journalists work to deadlines, the closer the deadline, the better the concentration and focus.

Removing a deadline is akin to releasing a mental shackle that prevents the mind from wandering randomly around its favourite places where we learn new things and nourish our thinking.

I love that feeling when, in writing terms, I get on the back straight. By that time the thoughts and words are in full flow and sometimes it's an effort to end things. Then there's the checking and double-checking. Even then, mistakes sometimes still creep through.

I remember once, an FT production management mantra called "right first time", probably related to the Six Sigma principle of continuous improvement. I don't believe that anything is ever right first time. An aeroplane take-off must be right but pilots are working within margins for error. A word or name is spelled correctly or it isn't.

I have mild dyslexia and often transpose letters. There are certain words - necessarily is one - that I might spell correctly nine times out of 10 only to see the 10th attempt flounder miserably. So spelling and writing is a constant struggle.

This week I have written something relating to the Leitch report on skills. Part of me had wanted to write about job interviewing but Leitch won out because, I suppose, it's important. It's easy to get on your high horse, writing a column criticising this and that. But everyone out there is trying to make the best of things aren't they? We're condemned to improve. No-one gets anything right first time.