Experimenting with different hybrid huddle models, launch Make Life Work S08, loads of TV and books recommendations and Covid finally caught Jobling Manor.

Work

  • Completed my Engineering Manager competency review to identify key areas to focus on for rest of FY22 objectives including more coaching training and mindful of being over-empathetic/approachable
  • Excellent Lunch & Learn talk by Nat about women’s periods, talking about the realities of what women go through and how men can help support better
  • Miro training to understand how to use it for virtual (hybrid) white boarding sessions, interesting to see all the integrations possible with popular team-based tech tools like Azure, Trello and Confluence
  • Three visits to the London office over past 2 weeks
  • Trained the tech podcast hosts how to setup recording equipment with Zencastr
  • Started a monthly engineering huddle to share demos of recent technical deliveries, showcase different team’s ways of working and recognise efforts by nominations, who win a custom mug and coaster
  • Attempted a joint team strategy session in a hybrid environment but very low turnout due to Omicron cases surging around
  • Ordered some custom pin badges from Sticker Mule to hand out as additional recognition (such as annual anniversaries)
  • Useful workshop in the office to form a plan reviving the Tech Grad Scheme – nice to use my old Post-It’s and Sharpie set for the first time in a while
  • Met up with Engineering Managers from our new Northern Ireland hub for some lunch
  • Blown away by Dylan’s excellent Team Designer – a brand new custom app to truly understand the teams, people and skills across Tech with mixed sources of data causing confusion

Life

  • Body MOT with a hearing test (all good, just reduction on higher frequencies) and much needed podiatrist treating my neglected Hobbit trotters
  • Booked a long weekend away to Munich with Mrs J, our first romantic getaway in years
  • Visited Richard III’s resting place in Leicester after collecting a taxidermy duck (previously a family pet) from a local expert
  • Realised I’ve been on the wrong tax code for the best part of the past tax year so overpaying now to make up for it
  • Covid took over the house with the other three being struck down last week but I’ve managed to dodge it (so far)

Sides

  • Released S08E01 of Make Life Work with Dustin Miller PolyInnovator and S08E02 with Andy Yates about F1 Calendar
  • Updated the MLW and House Finesse Mailchimp email templates with clearer CTA’s and optimised content, now plugging the merchandise
  • Released Disco 77 and Black Dynamite’s shows for February on House Finesse
  • Explored cryptocurrency more, possibly using it for kids savings instead of ISA’s
  • Started a new (mini) series podcast called Make Life Work Bitesize – a weekly 10min monologue of my highlights, frustrations and learnings – pilot and second are live for feedback
  • Started migrating Calendly to Cal.com, offering Make Life Work bookings and consultation time for anyone looking for help
  • Fixed the Monzo feed into my Personal Dashboard following a bug I introduced, optimising and tweaking some of the data visualisations over weekly spends
  • Created a dedicated Instagram account for my Archive Collection, conveniently called @the.archive.collection – now to work out how to migrate the history across
  • Added 90s vocalists Kym Sims and Shanice on 7” to the collection

Watching

  • The Responder on iPlayer – Martin Freeman playing quite a believable character for once
  • Toast of London on iPlayer – Matt Berry doing his thing but in Tinseltown
  • The Curse on All4 – Tom Davis and the boys from People Just Do Nothing in a comedy crime jape
  • We Are Lady Parts on All4 – great comedy about a Muslim female punk band
  • Chaos Walking on Prime – enjoyable sci-fi movie with Tom Holland’s mind getting away with him
  • The Invention of Lying on Netflix – easy going (although some unnecessary sexual references) comedy with Ricky Gervais
  • This Is Going To Hurt on iPlayer – brilliantly dark comedy about a doctor struggling through hospital duties
  • The A Team on Disney+ – ridiculous action flick reminiscing over classic 80s Saturday evening entertainment
  • Sicario on Netflix – Emily Blunt plays a brilliant CIA agent trying to break the drug trade

Reading