Week 17 of 2020 brings remote working normalisation, fitness apps, Lockdown chat groups, another Make Life Work series, hair colouring, Windows 98, Little Warden, The Big Night In, Gorgon City, Colin Furze and Gangs of London.

As I’m continuing to try a suitable balance and format for these, I’m going to reference my weekly Twitter Digest for some points to flag in the typical sections.

Work

Week 7 of remote working. This is starting to feel like the norm, despite nearly 20 years of working in an office. Things will be different once we’re through it all.

(Twitter)

I realised this week I’ve spent more time at home than in the office with the new job. Many of our challenges around communication and collaboration have been addressed but I’m still trying to find the right balance between meetings and productive time.

Life

This week, I managed to get a 4 day streak of exercise in (thanks to my TickTick habit tracker). Three of them were runs around the village and one “PE lesson” with Joe & the boy. I’m not measuring the outcomes (naughty me) but I definitely feel a sense of satisfaction from it all.

One run even inspired a quick Twitter poll on popular fitness tracking apps with Apple being the favourite followed by Strava.

Apple most popular fitness tracker, possibly biased considering my Twitter audience

As the family continue to adjust to Lockdown Lifestyle with most of us spread around the house doing our respective work, the Boy used his initiative to get our attention…

Our house has reached a new level – the boy has asked for a cup of tea from his bedroom USING WHATSAPP

(Twitter Source)

However, with Mrs J back in her school supporting the keyworkers’ kids, she missed the opportunity to get herself tested for COVID-19 when registration passed so quickly and during core hours.

In light of all the home isolation though, I realised times have certainly changed quite rapidly when it comes to weekend socialising for myself and the kids…

I can’t believe my Friday night is arranging Zoom calls over the weekend for friends and family. #SocialDistancing

(Twitter)

Sides

I’ve been toying with the idea of a Make Life WorkHome Edition” (hat-tip to Dom for the name) but need to work out all the logistics of it. Considering it’s all about finding a suitable balance between professional, personal and side projects, I need to practice what I preach with my own situation and be mindful of others too. At least there’s demand for it though…

9 out of 9 people said they would like a new series about wellbeing and challenging times.

I’m not the only one getting on the side project hustle now though; Mrs J and Princess made their very first Youtube video, “Lockdown Guide to Hair Colouring“.

Amongst all this, I’ve been doing some (Youtube) research on some manual labour projects such as making a pizza oven in the garden and sorting out a loft conversion. In the mean time, we’ve just sorted out the summer house to make it more comfortable for possible outdoor creative time which could give me space to record Make Life Work.

Tech

A few things caught my attention from around the tech circuit this week:

  • Avodocs offers free legal documents for startups so you can focus energy on making your product – 3 free docs a month should get you going
  • Anyone else miss simpler times of Windows 98? I’d love to reminisce over some websites using this Win98.css style guide
  • @AnnieAtkins created some lovely “lockdown posters” with some clear messages

Plus, I got a lovely little surpise in the post from Robot Dom off of Little Warden fame…

View this post on Instagram

Loving all the #littlewarden shwag @ukdisdad sent us in the post – the webcam privacy shutter is a great touch.

A post shared by Si Jobling (@sijobling) on

Entertainment

Like many across the UK on Thursday evening, we watched the Big Night In on BBC to see what they had to offer with some creative ways recording and broadcasting the material. We made our obligatory donations and grabbed a few copies of the Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These” cover (despite only half the proceeds going to the cause).

I then spent Friday evening enjoying another Defected Virtual Festival from the comfort of my own lounge along with thousands of others. Gorgon City’s set was on point and a great way to wrap up a (boozy) night in.

Amongst all this, I’ve also discovered Colin Furze’s YouTube channel with his bonkers inventions. I don’t think I’m the only one in awe of his dad pad(s) and crazy antics – plus it’s giving me some great ideas for home renovations and other YouTube content.

Finally, the latest boxset to grab our attention is Gangs of London on Sky Atlantic. The opening scene and episode are brilliant, instantly hooks you in, and some of the fight scenes are phenomenally filmed. We’re only one and a half episodes in but definitely one to watch.