I’m an expert at what to do when I’m feeling rough (body wide pain, brain fog, exhausted). But everyone can improve, at least that’s the message of Heidi Grant Halvorson: The Incredible Benefits of a “Get Better” Mindset (video at the end of this post) I have to agree. When...
After lots of walking and dieting over the last few days, I’m tired and needed a day at home and some time catching up with my domestic chores. I also have a huge and growing backlog of work reading. I try and keep up with several broad areas of research,...
I had a lot of reading to do today, and needed to finish my think-week audio book, Dogfight, so I needed somewhere close with good walking and cafes so I chose Cleveleys. I love Cleveleys, it’s close, has a great beach, fun sculptures, good practical shopping, a great cinema and...
I’ve tried a few of the so called ‘virtual assistants’ over the years, crude applications that run in the cloud, on my smartphone or both and they never fail to disappoint. I’m afraid my expectations are high, set by the character Jane, created by Orson Scott Card in the Ender...
Debbie and I have a Saturday routine, I walk to Caffe Nero for a couple of hours, do my reading, play some games and then do some shopping. Then we drive to Cleveleys, go out for lunch and then watch a movie. Today was the Monument Men, which is probably...
I my personal life I’ve always been most comfortable with predictability, I like my habits and I’ve worn deep grooves following them. It’s slightly ironic then that in my job I’m the complete opposite, striving for novelty, building new things, navigating my company through disruptions. Over the last few years...
I came across a nice article on the The Creativity Post blog with 21 tips for working smarter, not harder. The tips are nice but I thought it would be interesting to see how I’ve applied them in my life. 1. Complete most important tasks first. Yes, I do this,...
The picture on the right is very important to me. I came across it about 10 years ago and found it both beautiful, thought provoking and the more I studied it more the meaning and subtlety I got from it. I pinned it to the whiteboard in our dining room....
Last night just as everyone, except Anna, had got off to sleep she managed to set off the fire alarm upstairs, the first time it’s ever gone off and through a pretty weird series of events. Anna was in the bath, relaxing by candle light when all the wax managed...
During the last weeks holiday I’ve accumulated a huge work and personal reading backlog which I was determined to clear today, that meant some serious cafe time. I started at the Beach Terrace Cafe first thing, I’d not been for 10 days and they’ve changed their philosophy a bit, apparently...