This weeknote doesn’t carry much about the work I am doing. I was finding my weeknotes about work probably worked better as their own standalone blog posts. If I write any work related blog posts I will link out to them from my weeknotes.

Half term so the kids were away, while I kept working. I need to stop doing that.

There is probably a direct correlation between the kids’ absence and having a bit more evening time than usual, so a trip to the cinema (Bad Boys For Life, which was a guilty pleasure, and feel free to judge for I am cool with this decision), some episodes of my rewatch of The Americans (always overlooked but such super TV), and Picard, which is good fun. I finished reading I mean listening to Rise of the Ultra Runners. I need to tie up another read before I start anything new.

The quietness of the house has meant I’ve had a lot of time this week to think, and some of that led to a couple of small DIY jobs around the house. I always find this is where quiet time to think leads: Fixing something.

Some other thinking came after decisions for two permanent roles I’d gone for. My contract on NHS Jobs finishes in mid-May so I am looking at what could be next. This means getting on with talking to people and looking around now. One of the roles I missed out on after interviews. I got some lovely honest feedback (which I always try to give when I’ve interviewed people so nice to get some at the other end of the process). I never set myself up thinking You will get this role but it felt like a good mix, especially as it was something I really cared about but… Disappointing but when you’re going for a role you’ve gotta expect failure. Anything else is a bonus. The other role I was offered and again something I am really into. We had some chats, and some right proper chats at that. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel the right fit. I always feel slightly bad after the people you’re talking to have been super open about the state of things, but if I am giving up doing my own thing it needs to feel right. (I am maybe super attuned to this after my time at Home, but hey.) Lovely people. I hope they find the right person for them.

I am trying to run 2000km in 2020. To do this I need to try to run around 40km a week, roughly 170km every month. At the start if this week we were at the midpoint of the month. I’d done 46km. I was ill for the first week of February (and getting back going after illness took a little effort) so my average weekly running needed nudging up a touch. I thought for this week I’d try to run 60km over the seven days. That would be a tough ask, but doable. If I fell a bit short I’d be cool, but at least try to push as much over 40km as I could. It’s just ahead of the weekend: I ran 47.4km, which isn’t disastrous, a decent return, and a couple of rest days in there too. Looking ahead to the weekend I want to get 20km run and hopefully that’ll put me on course for 150km for the month. 20km short of 170km can be made up with a little bit more effort next month.

You can now get a place for Leeds Gov Design meet number 14.

I published a post that’s been lurking in my drafts for a short while, on maps. You can read it here.

I believe in giving back. Camp Digital is a great little conference and this year I again want to help someone from an underrepresented group attend. I put a shout out on Twitter. Shaun from Sigma said they’d offer another place too. I’ll be picking two names next Friday. If you’re interested, here’s the tweet. (That tweet might not be there if you are reading this a month down the line: My tweets are deleted after four weeks.)

Also I’ve the time and space to mentor someone. Again I put a shout out on Twitter. If you’re interested let me know.

I switched my public Twitter handle from ermlikeyeah to OfficeOfWilson. It’s just slightly easier to tell people.

I enjoyed reading this Barnett Freedman piece on the Design Week website.


Did you like these weeknotes? Maybe looking for some that are better? Give these a try: Mark Boulton, Mark Hurrell, Matthew Solle, Chris Thomas.

Original source – Simon Wilson

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