Winter 2024โ2025 โ
w52
End of the year! Time to get ready for 2025 and do a new 'quarterly review' ๐. For this week though:
๐ง Understanding:
- The uphill battle of working on my โleadership planโ
๐งถ Creating & cultivating:
- Finished the floor! Well, mainly
- ๐จ Curtains & shelving throughout the house
- A beard, temporarily anyway ๐งโโ๏ธ
- 2025's personal planner (Sterling Ink, Common Planner N2-H Compact)
๐บ Consuming:
- A lot of food especially ๐ช gingerbread and takeaway curry
- ๐บ SNL clips on Youtube
- Re-reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman
๐ Connecting:
- โ Grimdark Future Gang Wars (tabletop miniature wargame) with my brother
- Lotโs of ๐ Christmas connection with my extended family and my sister-in-law
๐น One thing for future self:
- I kinda missed a bit of 1:1 time with my wife
2024-12-30
w51 (and w50 sorta)
It's been a tough windown before Christmas this year. To be honest it almost always is. On the really positive side: the builders handed back the keys for the final time ๐พ!
๐ง Understanding:
- Spent a bit of time with my sponsor going through notables for 2024.
- Leadership qualities ๐น that my company is looking for.
๐งถ Creating & cultivating:
- A Leadership Development Plan because of โ.
- Still that floor ๐ ๏ธ grrr!
- A better way to do task management analogue style ๐๏ธ. I think Iโll be more in my happy place this way compared to a task app (where things go to die).
- ๐ธ a little bit of guitar again after a long break.
๐บ Consuming:
- Reviews of Japanese 2025 planners on YouTube ๐ณ
- Local ales ๐ป and a lot of panettone.
- Eric Clapton: โIt hurts me tooโ.
๐ Connecting:
- Office Christmas party! I can only last so long...but I did get to chat to some people I havenโt had a chance to in a while.
- ๐ my in-laws pre-Christmas gathering. Was nice to have some easy banter for the day.
- Met up with someone for a drink, whom I hadnโt seen in ages.
๐น One thing for future self:
- I can challenge myself with: โwhat is the most strategic thing to do?โ
2024-12-22
w49
๐ง Understanding:
- Thinking about leadership and a potential future new role at work. Found this very interesting: 6 mistakes new managers make. Wrestling with the dopamine and delegation aspects.
๐งถ Creating & cultivating:
- ๐ Still working on that floor!
- Playing around with Markwhen as an Obsidian plugin. I thought it might be useful to map out team resourcing.
- (Having to) write a leadership plan ๐ for a promotion opportunity that may or may not actually happen; but if it does, they wonโt give me enough time to write it before an interviewโฆlong story.
๐บ Consuming:
- ๐ Mighty Ducks with the kidsโฆ nostalgia trip!
- ๐ถ Rebecca St. James.
๐ Connecting:
- Had some family friends round for lunch ๐ท and spent a good 5 hours hanging out and talking about life in a way we can't with everyone. Was a really nice time of connection.
๐น One thing for future self:
- Focus on pushing my team to the next level; create a place where they can come up with new ideas and do great work. And replace me.
2024-12-08
Autumn 2024 ๐
w48
๐ง Understanding:
- Some good ideas for connecting at work and meditation from the Happiness Lab podcast.
- The need to block out my time, not for focus, but to reign in how much I am spending on
difficult project.
๐งถ Creating & cultivating:
- ๐ฒ good to be back cycling again after the snow has melted.
- Flooring for eldest child, still working on it!
๐บ Consuming:
- ๐ฆ Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I overate and it was worth it.
- Completely pointless YouTube clips.
- Yacht Rock.
๐ Connecting:
- โค connected with a colleague who is struggling with stress; I was able to share a bit of my own history.
- ๐ช Sharing snacks with my team was nice.
๐น One thing for future self:
- Youโre not going to finish everything, especially in December of all months.
2024-12-01
w47
Odd to post this in quick succession after w46 but I'd like to get a little more in sync with the weekend. This week I am trying out adding a "connecting" category to help me be more thoughtful about how much connection with others I am having in the week.
๐ง Understanding:
- Learning what extra teams to engage on
difficult project - The need to extending my daily work shut-down routine to allow myself to digest and reflect
- Learning how to lay laminate flooring
๐งถ Creating & cultivating:
- ๐จ A new laminate floor for my daughter
- A new project notebook for myself for
difficult project, to use with my routine - Running at the gym twice
๐บ Consuming:
TV Tropes
- โ Diamine Writerโs Blood
- I cooked cornbread
- A whole pack of fig rolls for lunch one day ๐ณ
๐ Connecting:
- I sat in a different location at work (too cold ๐ง in normal place) and chatted with some different people
- An unusual 1:1 meeting at my book club, and had a great discussion
๐น One thing for future self:
- Taking each day as it comes
2024-11-24
w46
I'm enjoying these week notes ๐.
๐ง Understanding:
- Learning about electrical engineering โก terminology including switchgear and what AC phases are.
- Recognising some of my recovery work miltestones with my sponsor.
๐งถ Creating & cultivating:
- I developed a template for making notes in Obsidian for my larger projects.
- Starting to enjoy running again at the gym ๐โโก๏ธ.
- Tweaks for my website. Unhelpful distraction at work!
- (Finally!) wrote my 2024 Personal Development Plan over a beer ๐บ. Hard to write as every time I sat down to do it I got tied up in knots thinking Iโd rather be a taxi driver or something else completely different.
- ๐๏ธ Painting our extension with my brother. Also making a loft bed for one of my daughters (I am stiff today for sure!).
๐บ Consuming:
- Lord of the Rings background videos on YouTube (In Deep Geek channel).
- A lot of Stuff you should Know podcasts including buried Ferraris and Cake.
- Plenty of Life in Pieces watching ๐บ with my wife ๐ง.
๐น One thing for future self:
- "I am a good
job title; I have a lot to offer. I am not expected to solve everything, but people trust you to look into it."
2024-11-20
w45
I've been trying to spend some time at the end of every week, reflecting on how it's gone. I sorta use the weeknotes idea, but sorta not ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ . I've decided to post an exerpt each week on the week before. So this is from week 45 (i.e. week commencing 2024-11-04).
๐ง Understanding:
- Reminder of the benefits of my weekly reflections
- I donโt like to stay in the abstract for too long; humans like tangibility
๐งถ Creating & cultivating:
- Colour scheme for our new kitchen
- Unpacking into said kitchen, pantry & utility: figuring out where to put stuff ๐งฉ
- Toying with Obsidian themes
- Regular checkins with my wife ๐ง
- Finally cooking again!
๐บ Consuming:
- USA election news ๐ฒ
- Re-reading Gridlinked, by Neal Asher
- Bought a ๐ 2025 weekly planner from Sterling Ink
- Got a second hand leather couch
- Italian and Spanish ๐บ largers
๐น One thing for future self:
- โIn 12 years no one will careโ
2024-11-13