Weeknote 49/2020
Even while a thing is in the act of coming into existence, some part of it has already ceased to be.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
This week, having paused Thought Shrapnel for this month, I published three posts here. All of them, for some reason, were questions:
The third references a decision I made on Wednesday morning, with the aid of my wife, to stop working in the middle of next week. I’m going to take the rest of the year off and recharge.
I started this week in a very pleasant way, going for a walk on the beach with my mother to celebrate her birthday. It was cold, but the light was beautiful and the sky was clear.
Work-wise this week, I’ve been collaborating with Outlandish on productisation, Catalyst bids, and new products and services around ‘Building OUT’ (Openness, Understanding, and Trust). On Thursday evening, a group of us from Outlandish did the online version of the Amsterdam Catacombs event room, which was mildly terrifying (but fun!)
On Wednesday afternoon, I attended an interesting Co-op College workshop called Let’s Talk About Race. In the morning I’d participated in the internal testing version of a Building OUT workshop on team communication, so I had a very professional development-y kind of day.
Other than that, I’ve been purposely working more slowly than usual, which I actually find difficult. In my twenties, I worked close to 100% speed all the time, which led to burnout. In my thirties, I’ve managed 90% much of the time, with occasional migraines forcing me to pause. Now, as I approach 40, I’m looking for ways to work both quickly and sustainably.
I don’t usually write weeknotes in December, and I want to liberate myself from things that I feel I should be doing, so I’m going to make this the last one of 2020. It’s been quite the year, hasn’t it?
Photo of Druridge Bay, Northumberland.
