Month: June 2021

Weeknote 24/2021

Posted on June 19, 2021June 19, 2021 by Doug Belshaw

This week, Hannah, my wife, has again been away at the other end of the country looking after an ill relative. It’s her third trip in the last couple of months and, as we come out of lockdown, it seems the traffic is getting worse. It took her almost 10 hours to get home yesterday! While we’ve coped OK with her being away, we’ve certainly missed her; the house just isn’t the same without one of the four of us.

I’ve realised over the last few days just how much of my work is one stepped removed from organisations and people who are mitigating the effects of late-stage capitalism. Whether it’s assisting charities who help people claim welfare benefits, or working with a global NGO fighting against ridiculous government climate policies, I’m very aware that all of the time and energy we’re spending fighting against wrong-headed business people and politicians equals time and energy we’re not spending building a better future.

But perhaps the two go hand-in-hand? I do enjoy building things that change the conversation, which is what I got to do at Mozilla and Moodle. I guess I’d just like to get my teeth into something substantial again. That will all have to wait until after the summer, though, as I’m determined to spend more time outside than inside.

Laura was back from her three-week holiday this week, which is good. We got stuck into various projects, both new and existing, tag-teaming, collaborating, and synchronising as necessary. Our co-op has started helping eight charities with some Catalyst-funded light-touch digital support which you can read more about here. Speaking of Catalyst, I facilitated this week’s Network Engagement Working Group session, introducing many of the group to a WAO favourite: etherpad!

Other than that, I did an hour’s consulting call about LMS strategy, recorded Episode 4 of the Tao of WAO podcast (this time featuring Bryan), and added interesting things to Thought Shrapnel and extinction.fyi. In total, that added up to 21.5 hours, which left me plenty of time for housework and exercise! I particularly enjoyed running and swimming this week. I’ve upped my activity levels as I’m currently the heaviest I’ve ever been. In addition, and after listening to this podcast episode, I’ve boosted my metabolism (two cafetieres of coffee per day) and reduced my calorific intake (only eating dinner).

Next week, I’ve got more Catalyst digital support to do, some iteration on our Participate work, and other bits and bobs such as a user testing session for OpenLearn. Hopefully Hannah’s NHS contract will finally start (bureaucracy!) as this weekend she’s converting the weird ‘room’ at the top of our loft conversion into an office.

Image by James McDonald

Weeknote 23/2021

Posted on June 11, 2021June 11, 2021 by Doug Belshaw

I’m trying my best at the moment to take Wednesdays off as part of my plans to return to the four-day weeks I enjoyed from 2016-18. This week, I pretty much achieved that, apart from about one hour’s worth of work.

I like getting up early on days I’m not working, as it feels like I’m carpe-ing the frickin’ diem out of it. This Wednesday, I got up early and drove to the coast to do a 10k run on the beach. I forgot my running trainers, so I ran barefoot and listened to a great podcast on Plato’s Republic. There was hardly anyone around, the weather was perfect, and I ran like the wind.

The only trouble was that, unlike the late, great Dai Barnes (whose feet resembled a hobbit’s) I ended up getting blisters on three toes on each foot. I spent the rest of the day hobbling and trying to find blister plasters. Still, I managed to go out for lunch with my wife, Hannah.

This was Laura‘s third and final week of being away on holiday, so I’ve been cracking on with stuff for Participate and Greenpeace without her. I also attended some Catalyst meetings related to some new work we’re doing with a cohort and also the network engagement working group. We’ve got some work scheduled for a new client, and I caught up with Philo at Gradu.al and Harry at Outlandish.

In total, I only racked up 21.75 hours of paid work this week, but that still got me to the target amount that my wife and I set last year as a minimum. As I wrote last week, I’m interested in trying to make the world a better place, but I’m also interested in not just working for the sake of it! This week I’ve greatly enjoyed returning to swimming, as well as reading some philosophy, and posting to Thought Shrapnel and extinction.fyi.

Last Sunday, Team Belshaw went kayaking up from Amble to Warkworth, which was great. One slightly surreal moment was when some mourners came and tipped some ashes over the side of a bridge we’d just paddled under. I’m just glad we didn’t arrive slightly later 😧

I managed to somehow lock myself out of my Nextcloud instance this week, and then realised I was paying a lot of money to host it when all I really use it for is as a feed reader. So I’ve switched back to Feedly, which I’m enjoying, although I haven’t yet upgraded (I used to be a paying customer).

On Thursday and Friday this week I was relegated to working on my laptop(s) as the builder I forgot was coming arrived to re-felt my office roof. It’s difficult getting workmen at the moment as the UK emerges from COVID restrictions, so I’ve been working in the lounge mostly. It’s easy to underestimate how valuable it is having your working environment set up exactly as you like it until you haven’t got access to it!

Next week, I’m looking forward to recording Episode 4 of the Tao of WAO podcast, cracking on with some client work, and meeting 1:1 with the Catalyst cohort who we’re supporting over the summer. I’m also looking forward to spending next Wednesday with my head in a good book while sitting in the garden, hopefully with the sun shining down on me.

Photo of my son in front of me in a two-person kayak paddling down the River Coquet in Northumberland. The urn was emptied over the left arch!

Weeknote 22/2021

Posted on June 4, 2021June 4, 2021 by Doug Belshaw

black and white photo of sea fret coming inland over fields and trees

I’m sitting writing this, one beer in, listening to lofi.cafe. Despite a couple of work meetings yesterday morning, I’ve been on holiday all week ⁠— including three nights away last Bank Holiday weekend. My stress levels are low enough that I’ve stopped taking L-Theanine. I’m not sure if this is a permanent thing, or whether I’m just experimenting with what I feel like when I’m not on it.

If you asked me, I’d say that I’ve been taking L-Theanine “for about 18 months” but, given that I reference it in this post from January 2018, I guess it’s more like “at least 3.5 years”. This is something you can buy over-the-counter (or, my case, from Amazon) so we’re talking a mild, but nevertheless noticeable, effect. It’s found naturally in cups of tea, which makes me wonder if there’s a correlation between that fact and my maternal grandmother being effectively a walking tea strainer while she was alive. I’ve never seen someone drink so many cups of tea in one day.

It’s quite discombobulating to realise that it’s now June 2021. To me, it feels like the year has just started. Yet here we are. My son’s school moves all the kids up a year after this half-term, so he’ll be officially in Year 10 and starting his GCSEs. It doesn’t feel that long ago since I was doing mine, so this, and the fact that he’s now the same waist size as me, is a bit of a shock to the system. Yes, I’m (getting) old.

There’s not much to report on the work front other than the aforementioned meetings. I wasn’t really planning to have this week completely off, but it just made sense to do so given that my wife starts her new NHS Digital contract next week, the kids are off, things are a bit quieter, and colleagues are away (or taking things easier).

I’ve taken the opportunity to write here and also post a bunch of things on Thought Shrapnel. I’ve hooked up the RSS feed of the latter to both Twitter and Mastodon, so you can subscribe for updates. Alternatively, you could sign up for the monthly roundup email. I’m not sure if I should say “you’re welcome” or “apologies in advance”…

The things I’ve written here are:

As ever, I’ve been merrily (well, perhaps not merrily) posting away at extinction.fyi. Despite what you might have read or watched elsewhere, the world is still completely shafted. I recommend you watch all 24 minutes of this video if you’re in any doubt:

Next week, I’m back to work. Hannah and I will be in the brave new world of both working remotely but on different projects. This is likely to be, as the young people say, ‘a thing’ from now on, so we’re changing a weird half-room / half-landing in our loft conversion to an office for her.

Laura will still be away, so I’ll be heading up most of the new and existing client work. We’ve just got a small continuation contract with Catalyst to support some charities embed their innovation work, so I’ll need to schedule some of that in. In general, I’m happy to keep things ticking over during the summer, as it’s the first time Hannah’s worked full time since before our eldest was born, and (as a former teacher) the first time she’s worked over the school summer holidays. I might need to be on-hand a bit more over the coming months!

Header photo is my poor attempt at an arty photo of the sea fret coming in near St Abbs while we were on holiday last weekend. Interestingly, the fishing village features in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (the highest grossing film of all time) as New Asgard.