I started the week by emailing a whopping three people on my team about my priorities for the week. That helped me look at my diary and move or cancel things that didn’t help me meet those priorities. then tonight I looked through them and sent a follow up with green ticks or sad face emoji. you’ll be pleased to know that all my P1s were met (as of 5pm tonight), and I got four sets of bonus points.
- part way through the week, I looked around and thought, god, what a lot of people, and I bet loads of them are having good days, and loads of them having bad days. so many tiny systems sitting inside a bigger one!
- Three, my mobile phone network, seems to have been having a mare recently, to the extent of data networks being down completely for most of Thursday. I’m really trying to ignore the impending apocalypse but my mobile network isn’t making it easy for me.
- hot desking and open plan for more than 15 people: a modern tragedy. the best workplace I’ve ever had was 54B, home to With Associates, where there were just enough people to make it sociable but not noisy and distracting. while I’m rating workspaces I have worked in, second best prize goes to Co-op Digital’s Federation House. in at 3, a tied Gail’s Bakery - cold in the winter, but Roy made me cakes and bacon sandwiches when I was hungover - and Pivotal Labs, a reasonably harmless corporate office but also with snacks. you can do the math as to where GDS sits in this ranking. I don’t even think it’s that bad an office in the grand scheme of things. I guess I’ve just been jammy.
- so many good things to read this week, or maybe I read the same amount as usual and just forgot to close all my tabs as I read them
- went to the Apple Store at the weekend to try to recycle two old laptops while C was picking up a new one she’d bought online. the pick up was easy. recycling an old Mac: wait for 20 minutes. then: “have you cleaned the data off it?” “on one, yes. but not on the Powerbook cos it needed a disc and I didn’t have it” “right. I can take the one you’ve cleaned the data from. the other one, you’ll need to book a Genius Bar appointment”. we had a lunch reservation at Bocca di Lupo, so we left. maybe I should’ve just said “yes” to both and handed over the machines and run off.
- last week’s post led to a great chat with Mark (yeah him again) about Hipster Runoff, which I had a ton of thoughts about midweek and no time now to write down, but: that era is how I learned to be on the internet, so I guess that’s why starting sentences without capital letters feels ~authentic to me
- also turns out at least two other people here put therapy in their diaries openly, yes! nice one everyone!
- I’m going back to an airport again on Monday morning, but not before spending the weekend hunting for little egrets and Old Town jackets