Weeknotes 4 August, 2023

Besides moaning about the weather (I am British) I’ve had lots of focus time this week, which is a welcome change. Here’s some of how I used that time.

Loads of sketching. In our monthly creative session, we decided to design updated icons for ‘save’, ‘auto save’, ‘sync’, and ‘share’. We discussed how out of date the ‘floppy disc’ icon is for ‘save. And also the telephone icon. Think about it – no one has had a phone like that in millennia.

I started off thinking about how Instagram uses a flag-like icon for ‘save’ and built around that before moving on to the other icons. I wasn’t the only one to draw a kitchen sink for sync (surprise!). I soon had a whole page of doodles, which made me happy to see how well my sketching is coming along. Sort of.

In another session, I sketched some ideas for a welcome screen for software. Adding a ‘woo, you’re all done’ screen (not the official screen name) for when the user completes all tasks.

I love the little acknowledgments apps, software, and tech give you when you’ve completed stuff. You’ve got this, you’re bossing this – and we’re stopping to recognise that? I welcome those affirmations all day long.

Fewer meetings so much more focus time. This has been amazing. I often average around 12-18 hours a week of meetings and this week I’ve had 7 1/2 hours of calls. That’s roughly a 30% drop – giving me 30% more focus time. Can it always be like this, please?

Recording and sharing knowledge via Loom. I’ve started using 5 min recordings to take colleagues through things I’m working on. This week I shared some of what I’ve been building in Ditto Words. I took a colleague through this last week on a call and thought it’d be more efficient to do some recordings. I can build on them, re-share them, and not run out of steam. Win.