Hello! I'm Tim from Make Work Work Better, and welcome to my brilliantly-named newsletter, The Make Work Work Letter.

Make Work Work Better exists to transform Workplace Wellbeing, by focussing on the working practices and processes that lead to stress and burnout. I'll be using the newsletter to compile thoughts, material and links around this mission as well as recommendations and tips on working and living smarter, not harder.

Autumn has kind of passed me by this year. Hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes are usually reasonably big deals in our house, but they've not had the energy they would usually have had. Now the invites for Christmas Dos are starting to circulate, and I'm finding it hard to engage with the necessary logistics. And I want to fit in a couple of pre-Christmas brew days as well.

Hello! I'm Tim from Make Work Work Better, and welcome to my brilliantly-named newsletter, The Make Work Work Letter.

Make Work Work Better exists to transform Workplace Wellbeing, by focussing on the working practices and processes that lead to stress and burnout. I'll be using the newsletter to compile thoughts, material and links around this mission as well as recommendations and tips on working and living smarter, not harder.

It's been a while since the last newsletter, so this might get a bit meaty. I started a new contract (I am a Coach at National Express lol), and have felt so welcomed by everyone I've met.

Hello! I'm Tim from Make Work Work Better, and welcome to my brilliantly-named newsletter, The Make Work Work Letter.

Make Work Work Better exists to transform Workplace Wellbeing, by focussing on the working practices and processes that lead to stress and burnout. I'll be using the newsletter to compile thoughts, material and links around this mission as well as recommendations and tips on working and living smarter, not harder.

I've been trying to optimise my own workflow of late. I start a new contract in October which will monopolise my time, so am trying to take my own advice and reduce the non-value-adding activities in my day-to-day.

Hello! I'm Tim from Make Work Work Better, and welcome to my brilliantly-named newsletter, The Make Work Work Letter.

Make Work Work Better exists to transform Workplace Wellbeing, by focussing on the working practices and processes that lead to stress and burnout. I'll be using the newsletter to compile thoughts, material and links around this mission as well as recommendations and tips on working and living smarter, not harder.

We took a family two-week break to North Wales at the start of September, to a cottage that I first went to when I was five. It's joyous to take my young family somewhere that was so special to me as a child, and see them forming similar memories that I know will similarly persist into their adult lives. That particular area of Welsh coast is resolutely unfashionable, but exceptionally beautiful and restorative in its own (bleak, slightly damp) way. I also learnt the hard way to not post a podcast episode 10 minutes before leaving for holiday...

Hello! I'm Tim from Make Work Work Better, and welcome to my brilliantly-named newsletter, The Make Work Work Letter.

Make Work Work Better exists to transform Workplace Wellbeing, by focussing on the working practices and processes that lead to stress and burnout. I'll be using the newsletter to compile thoughts, material and links around this mission as well as recommendations and tips on working and living smarter, not harder.

Stephen Fry once descibed the difference between US and UK comedy through this scene in Animal House where John Belushi smashes a folk singer's guitar. "The American comic hero," Fry explains, "would want to play the John Belushi part. The British comedian would play the folk singer". Whether the cultural divide can really be summed up that simply, it's certainly true that schadenfreude is a central element of much comedy. Empathy not so much.

Hello! I'm Tim from Make Work Work Better, and welcome to my brilliantly-named newsletter, The Make Work Work Letter.

Make Work Work Better exists to transform Workplace Wellbeing, by focussing on the working practices and processes that lead to stress and burnout. I'll be using the newsletter to compile thoughts, material and links around this mission as well as recommendations and tips on working and living smarter, not harder.

As lockdown continues to ease I've been trying to get out and about a little more, having meetings in person where possible and even venturing out of Warwickshire to see friends and family. It's led me to reflect on some of the nuances of interaction that we've been deprived of this last year: how a simple and spontaneous change of venue can affect the energy of a meeting; the babble of cross-talk that is a sign of engagement and enthusiasm in-person but a cacophony on Zoom; the forgotten stress of having to be at a place at a time.

Hello! I'm Tim from Make Work Work Better, and welcome to my brilliantly-named newsletter, The Make Work Work Letter.

Make Work Work Better exists to transform Workplace Wellbeing, by focussing on the working practices and processes that lead to stress and burnout. I'll be using the newsletter to compile thoughts, material and links around this mission as well as recommendations and tips on working and living smarter, not harder.

I got away for a week's holiday with my family during half-term. We were in gloriously sunny Cornwall, with desperately spotty wifi coverage, and I noticed that it was the first time since working for myself that I'd fully switched off. I realised there's a whole category of tasks (such as this newsletter) that I don't really think of as 'work' and that I therefore wouldn't prioritise in 'working hours'. These tasks often end up being picked up of an evening, and when my wife asks "are you working?", my response is a sheepish "Not really. But I'm not not working". I honestly never mind these tasks - they're usually creative or involve tinkering, which is very much my jam - but before holiday I was beginning to notice the impact of extended screen time on my sleep and mood so I'm taking the opportunity to try and reset that element of my routine.

Hello! I'm Tim from Make Work Work Better, and this is the first edition of my brilliantly-named newsletter, The Make Work Work Letter.

Make Work Work Better exists to transform Workplace Wellbeing, by focussing on the working practices and processes that lead to stress and burnout. I'll be using the newsletter to compile thoughts, material and links around this mission as well as recommendations and tips on working and living smarter, not harder.

If there's been a theme to the conversations I've had this last few weeks, it's been the Return To The Office. The Nowhere Office is an ambitious attempt to "describe the future of work, the revolution we find ourselves in, and ask both what it means and where it is actually going to end up", while this article at Workplace Insight challenges some of our fundamental assumptions about work. I like this bit: "Leonardo da Vinci once proclaimed that a piece of art was never finished, but merely abandoned. For the majority of people that is now the ultimate outcome of each day at work."