The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly — notes
As part of my #weeknotechallenge I have decided to challenge myself to doing a different style of weeknotes every week.
Today is weeknote #41
The list of weeknotes is just ridiculous now. I feel like my last one will be ‘i have lost my mind — notes’
The many other weeknotes in the challenge are linked below, i hope that even one of them will inspire someone to write or do something differently with their weeknotes/blog in future.
‘Traditional’ Weeknotes , Gif-Notes , Sketch-Notes, Shanty-Notes, Week-quotes, Animal Crossing — Notes , Poster — Notes, Haiku — notes, Achievement — notes, Hanami — notes, Meme — notes, Retro — notes, Comic — notes, Story — notes, Slang — notes, Tweet — notes, Blog — notes, Hansai — notes,Show & Tell — notes, Taskmaster — notes, Lyrical — notes, Rap — notes, Wellbeing — notes,Football — notes, Superhero — notes,Hot or Not — notes, Olympic — notes, Lesson — notes,Hamilton — notes,Poké — notes,Limerick — notes,Lil’ — notes,Emoji — notes,Bin it off — notes,Festival — notes,Mental health — notes, Idk what this is called but it looked cool on YouTube- notes,Guy Fawkes — notes,Green — notes, Choose your own adventure — notes
This week i am breaking out the ol’ classic weeknote method. ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’ (yeah, I’m an Oxford comma user…Deal with it!).
I have been doing some intense and creative weeknotes the past couple of weeks and this week i just didn’t feel up to doing anything major. Like many people this week, this month, or the past year. I am tired.
So, without any more jabbering…
The Good:
You know it’s not great when this is the area you struggle with writing at the moment!
Collaboration is a huge part of the work we do in the Digital team and that often takes the form of working together on a piece of work. Helping and collaborating with others in the team is great because of everyone’s varied experiences and backgrounds. This week there has been a few occasions where everyone has come together to help someone.Which has been really uplifting and interesting. Everyone approaches things differently ( i know what a shock…)
This week i also started initial planned for Digital Dorset’s Christmas. I kind of set the bar with the video i did last year so this year the challenge is to meet or pass it. I gathered a crack team and we chucked every idea we had at the wall. It was fun sticking on some festive background and brainstorming ideas.
I ended the week with a walk which was great because it helps get that work/life disconnect and gives you a chance to talk about something else for a change!
The Bad:
A real pet peeve of mine and something that i will try to improve on is waiting. When working on a large piece of work there will be times where you have lined all the dominos up and are just waiting for something to come into place. Then you must…
This can be a bit annoying and frustrating when you can’t move onto other things, but it is just a part of design. Supporting others and giving them time is an important part of getting everyone on board with the work, so the wait is worth it in the end. After a few chases sometimes!
Getting people involved in work is my real challenge at the moment and i know i am not alone in this. Engagement and involvement are something the whole Service Design team is struggling with. Our role should really be to guide/support teams & services through change with them taking the leading role on their own journey. Often it feels like ‘the service design show’ leading show and tells, chasing for information and sometimes doing project management.
In my current piece of work the struggle is getting the team to really prioritise and see the value in the work. This is an ongoing ‘battle’ but im slowly making progress though open communication. I hope this progress isn’t lost over Christmas break…
The Ugly:
The big thing that strikes me as ‘Ugly’ this week is mental health and wellbeing in the team. I find that people wellbeing at the moment seems to be dropping off and has been on the decline for a while.
Some people don’t feel like themselves, others aren’t engaging and are being quiet (a tell-tale sign) I’m hoping that Christmas break with reenergise everyone!
There are a few things i recommend helping if you feel your wellbeing dropping:
- You need to shut off your brain after work and not ‘bring it with you’ this means finding something that takes your full concentration. For me its playing videogames, i can’t think about that email i sent and try to get a good killstreak at the same time! Find what works for you.
2. Go outside for walks and take some time away from the tech.
3. Know when to log off. You’ve had a bad meeting, you feel drained. Log off! 99% of the time whatever you are worrying about can wait. So, make it wait.
I’m not sure i like ending on the ugly so im going to end on this!
Fun Fact:
Did you know that Clint Eastwoods character (The man with no name) in the ‘Dollars Trilogy’ was intended to be 3 different characters but was later changed to be the same character but with 3 different nicknames!
That’s it from me this week.
Sam out!
