How I feel when people are proud of how many hours they work http://t.co/nnWFpWTpb0
— Andrew Ducker (@andrewducker) August 3, 2015
Category: Work
All work and no play
Too long. I’ve been busy though. Well, busyish. What have I been up to?
At work I took a trip up to Newcastle to see Northumbria SU before the Easter break and since we’ve been back we’ve moved back to the SU*. As a farewell treat I undertook a two-night baking marathon and churned out (slightly disappointing) lemon cupcakes, not bad vegan truffles, and bloody awesome breadsticks (half baba ganoush, half roasted pepper and tomato).
At home I’ve reclaimed my office and my garden. I threw out a *lot* of crap, I think I’m almost through the boxes from my house-move 5/6 years ago, and the garden is tip-top, just need to decide what to plant. Salad leaves and potato sets for definite and I’m thinking beetroot for something interesting?
I’ve backed a hell of a lot on Kickstarter. Viking worker placement, witch trials, surviving (or joining) the mutant apocalypse and, most importantly, Rahdo Runs Through probably the best online board game resource you’ll ever find (still 12 hours to back!).
I ran the Leam 10k, 53:18 this year (I guessed I’d do 53-54 minutes this year based on how much training I’d done) so some work to be done for my next run. I’ve got 10ks lined up in May and June but I think May is my best shot.
That’s probably it for now! Oh, and I’m getting really excited about Age of Ultron :)
* Mixed feelings about this, which seems silly given how reticent I was to move out. I think it took so long to settle at the new place that once we were settled the idea of fresh upheaval wasn’t too attractive. Also in our new office I got to sit next to Lizzie who’s pretty badass and now I don’t anymore. Anyway. On the bright side my hairdressers is just downstairs so I can stop cutting my own hair…
These terms are used and misused quite a lot in my life atm: planning business direction at work and spend too much time watching board game videos on Youtube at home. The misuse is mostly when they’re used interchangeably and there are plenty of pithy aphorisms to explain the difference like:
Strategy is undertaken before the battle. Tactics are implemented during battle.
Or:
Strategy is the what. Tactics is the how.
But by far my favourite way to think about it takes me back to the early noughties when the only time I/we would use the word tactical was in reference to ‘going tactical’:
If the strategic aim on a night out was to make it to Sugar for the £1 pound vodbulls and I was too pissed too early I’d go for a tactical chunder to help sober me up.
You wind up taking work that at the end of the day you’re not proud of and over time that will eat your soul.
Great talk by Jim Coudal about how they moving from client work to your own projects, or to put it another way:
You know that idea you have? Do it now. Not in 6 months. Don’t squeeze it in at the end of the day. Treat it like it’s a paying client: give it the resource it needs, meet the deadlines.
Also don’t worry about failing. Some of Jim’s (as it turned out) not-so-great ideas in this talk are wonderful.