Weeknotes 2022 #1

Okay here goes nothing.

I’m seeing a lot of people start the new year with writing weeknotes so I thought it might be fun to follow suit.

I started my first week back at Clearleft HQ by helping the amazing Helen Davies wrap up her first project as lead product manager. Kudos to Helen for weathering the storm when Covid took me out the project at short notice. Also a massive thank you to Praise for stepping in to run the research. We signed off with a very happy client. A great start to the working week!

There’s a few new faces at Clearleft too. We welcomed Chris, Carly and Frances to the team and have a few more arriving in the coming weeks. Exciting times.

What would the new year be without making a few resolutions. Weeknotes aside, I’ve been setting up some workflows in Roam Research to try and build some better habits. I’ve got a daily punchcard that I run each morning. It has a few prompts to help me track what’s going on in my world. For example, a mood and energy check-in/check-out, a daily retro for reflecting on my day. Another workflow is the randomised topic focus that helps me discover more things that I’m interested in. I have a button that picks a random bookmark to read, cognitive bias, research method or design principle. This helps me to make the most of any free time I would otherwise procrastinate away.

I’ve also been using a Pomodoro-style timeboxing workflow. It helps me track the time spent on goals and tasks, my focus and lets me record any distractions. I’m hoping this might shed some light on how I work and what changes I need to make. It’s based on Juan Jose Fernandez’s excellent Work Cycle.

On the topic of time, a finally got around to reading Chris How’s article about making the most of your time. His Time Well Spent Canvas is really interesting and something I’m going to try out in an upcoming project.

I wrapped up the week by getting my booster jab and finding some time to work on some personal projects at home. I finally made a start on my coffee pot cold smoker.

Start as you mean to go on.