Suitcases, chit-chats and a week of Veganuary.
First week of 2022, gone in a second. Before we know it, 2023 will be here 😂 It’s been a week of goal setting, lovely catch ups and me saying ‘Happy New Year’ like 10000 times.
Here are my top five stories of the week:
Veganuary, I tried.
Congrats to me. I have been vegan for a full seven days. I messed up not too long ago, tempted by some calamari, soon realising that I am not built for the vegan life. One thing I have learnt to appreciate though, is the art of intentional eating. Before every single meal or drink I asked myself (and everyone around me) — “Is this vegan?”. It made me really think about what I consume rather than just running to the fridge eating whatever, whenever, without a single thought.
In all honesty, it was not that difficult to do, apart from the times my best friend stuffed his face with my favourite chicken in front of me whilst my mum lied to me about not putting full fat butter on the toast. So will I ever fully transition into being completely vegan? No. But I will definitely try to reduce my meat consumption and think before I eat.
Jump on the design train.
I had a bit of a brain wave a few weeks ago — I popped open a Miro board and started drawing some shapes. Two minutes later it turned into a train which then turned into a design train which has now transformed into cute little profiles. I ran this back to the design community this week and we spent some time adding ideas and thinking about all the ways this could benefit our team. Small little cards that people can fill in with their name, role, location, birthday, things they love, things they are not a fan of, social media links and more, gives a short little snippet of individual personalities, in a quirky effortless way.
We had a go filling these out with a small group of designers and I feel I learnt so much about my lovely colleagues in that hour than I have working with them the past six months! I feel these random conversations and eye-opening insights about each other can get so lost when working remotely, but I am hoping things like this can bring back these moments of joy (and shock when I found out there is a Harry Potter hater in the team 😂!)
Life update chats.
Nic, why is this photo so serious though? Me and Nic use to work together at the BBC and spent a good few hours catching up about design, life and lots about goal-setting and habits. It’s so amazing to have a friend that started in UX the same day as me — hearing the growth and seeing the progress over the last few years is so warming to reflect on! Especially when the things we once wished for have come true 🙏🏼
If there was one advantage of remote working, it’s being able to stay connected to those where location and time has always been an issue. Great vibes and chat always — and thanks for the book recommendation, Solve for Happy, looking forward to read!
Sales process mapping.
I had some time off client work over the Christmas period so asked if anyone needed a hand with other projects. My lovely colleague, Alex, reached out to extend some work I originally started when joining dxw, all about the sales process. I have always been interested in how agencies work, right from the very moment of bidding on a project all the way down to delivery so it’s great to be involved in this extra stuff.
We started by having a little chat to understand the process and some of the frustrations around it at the moment. I then spent an hour this week getting it into a simplistic, minimal visual that will form the basis of a team workshop later this month. I find that these side projects are so important to keep learning and stay connected with the other side of the business. This way we truly appreciate not just the design phase, but all that comes before — the very start of a client relationship. Cannot wait to reveal all to the rest of dxw 😍
Manchester, here I come.
I have been living at home in Leicester for 14 months now, which was the best decision at the time with all the Covid drama going on. Now, I have come to terms that Covid may or may not be leaving us anytime soon. Nevertheless, I still need to crack on with my life so despite the never-ending bad news, I have decided to move back to Manchester.
This time tomorrow, I will be in the sunny Salford ready to re-connect with all my northern friends, have lovely strolls by the river and most importantly, find my peace again.
Enjoy your weekend! 💛
