Here it is. My very first week note 👏🏼
So, I have always been into regular reflection but had no clue weeknotes was an actual thing until my line manager, Gaz Aston, introduced me to them. Cheers Gaz!
Here are five short stories from my week:
Dream come true. A real office!
All I can say is, wow. I have never been so excited to go into a real place, with real people and real post-it notes. The feeling was amazing and my body experienced a tiny sense of normality. Even though our team are still working in a remote-first routine, it feels warming that there is an option for those of us who need that live space to visit every so often. I also made the most of the office swing, the nespresso coffee machine and the smell of a fresh meeting room. Leeds, I’ll be back!
See you later, code monster.
The code monster is something that lives in my head rent-free. If anyone refers to code or mentions anything to do with html my brain goes into absolute meltdown. As a designer, I want to be comfortable with code so that I can communicate clearly with my developer friends but also respect this core process in design. My work mate Beth Dixon set up #code-club for us to learn and practice code so here is a little screenshot of something I was very proud of. Major win!
Spreading energy to the wider design community.
I am a big people person and love spreading energy, creativity and all things positivity. One thing that has helped me in my career so far is being active in a design community both inside and outside of work. I kicked off a few workshops with our interaction designers a few weeks ago and then broadened it to the wider design discipline to think about what we truly value in design-meet ups. Everything from skill swap sessions, paired facilitation to hot topic debates and innovative external speakers; a few of the many things we crave as a design team. I will be sure to share more on this stuff very soon.
Had a little binge, but that’s okay.
Last week, I was pumping it in the gym but this week I drowned myself into loaded donner fries, beef bao, carbonara, pink samosas, white chocolate martinis, the lot. Think I got far too excited about visiting the office and leaving these same four walls so decided to spend my evenings after work like I was on a beach in Barcelona. Perfect weather for it though.
More me-time than we-time.
One final exciting thing that I introduced into my week is a life coach. I spend a lot of time pouring my energy into external things and want to spend the same (if not more) into my internal being. After a very deep thinking session with the lovely Gaby, I came out really open-minded and self-aware of the things I want to develop.
Starting with the dreaded mornings. I usually wake up at 8.30am then swiftly rush around to drop my sister off to school by 8.35am. My bed won’t let me leave, not my fault! So my first goal is to create (and stick to) an energising morning routine. 7am starts let’s go. ☀️
