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.
All this usually means that I need to do a thorough Weekly Review and get myself recalibrated, so that's next on today's agenda after sending this.
I received a lovely testimonial this week from the folks at Twenty-Two Digital, who were an early adopter of the Well-Working Index and who implemented our recommended SPOT Ways of Working after a Team Cohesion workshop.
We approached Tim for our recent team-building day as we were sure
there would be many possible ways for us to improve the wellbeing and
productivity of our team.
Tim made the session really fun, connected well with everyone in our
team and engaged them through various exercises.
After exploring potential areas of improvement within the team, Tim
recommended the introduction of daily SPOT meetings within our
departments, where we get a quick snapshot of everyone's Status,
Progress, any Obstacles they currently face, and also any Triumphs
they've had since the previous day's catch up.
Tim's session has had a lasting and profound impact on the company,
the team have really taken ownership of these spot meetings, they
happen at the same time everyday, regardless of who's absent, as the
format is consistent and documented.
We now pick up any issues straight away, are able to deal with any
obstacles, our operation is definitely running much smoother, and we
look forward to making our work work even better with Tim's help in
future.
If you're interested in learning more about how the Well-Working Index could help your organisation or your clients, drop me a line at tim@make-work.work!
I've been enjoying the T20 Cricket World Cup, not just for the satisfaction of England roundly beating Australia, but also for the gutsy performances of qualifier nations Scotland and Namibia. Namibia's victory over India and Scotland's valiant effort against New Zealand were hard fought, but also fun.
The Boy once remarked, as we cut through a snicket overgrown with stinging nettles, that "a short cut has to be tricky, otherwise it would just be The Way". Mac OS Monterey was released a couple of weeks ago, and brought Shortcuts to the Mac. I've dabbled a bit with these on iOS and have a number on my iPhone Home Screen that I use to quickly perform small tasks that would otherwise involve poking around in various menus. I've managed to use it to automate the creation of my podcast episode artwork and simplify a few bits of my workflow for this newsletter. If you're a regular user of any Apple products I'd recommend giving Shortcuts a look, maybe by checking out Matthew Cassinelli's website.
Automating the cover art for 'Do Yourself A Favour' wasn't just about saving time. It's also a job I really disliked, and the friction of that task was always something that made me procrastinate over publishing podcast episodes. Replacing that with something that makes me smile and feel clever is hopefully a good way to improve the consistency and longevity of the whole shebang.
I have another GTD talk coming up at 10am on 26th November, about how Being Organised is as helpful for Fun as it is for Work, and how productivity isn't about being a robot. Here's the trailer!
Do Yourself A Favour... with Charlie Beech
The guest on Episode 8 of our sister podcast was the mighty Charlie Beech, former professional Rugby Union player and founder of Front Row Support
What do you wish you'd learned sooner?
Just how much fun it is working for yourself. I think I spent a year terrified of the idea.
What book or concept made a difference to the way you thought about life?
I was in a webinar - not one of the most inspiring speakers I've ever heard - and there was a diagram of a tree and it was talking about extrinsic motivators being like the sunlight, hitting the leaves as the tree grows.
It's about having a strong internal motivators, like the roots to something deep, to look up some months ago and the leaves fall down and there's no sunshine eating the leaves. You got to look after yourself. You've got to be that strong.
You know, it was a lovely diagram. And it just said, look, no one controls your mindset, but you.
What tool or tools do you use every day?
Little earpiece headsets. Just because they leave your hands free!
What was the last really useful thing you bought or acquired?
A throwing axe. I started doing axe throwing, which is absolutely glorious.
Complete the sentence: Do yourself a favour and...?
Work hard, but play just as hard on the other side. Do something that puts a smile on your face. If it is daft as axe throwing or as lovely as sitting down with your kid and playing Uno, do something every day that puts a smile on your face.
Do Yourself A Favour Podcast - ...And Work Hard, Play Hard (with Charlie Beech) | Free Listening on Podbean App
On this episode Tim is joined by Charlie Beech, former Professional Rugby player and founder of Front Row business development, to talk about performance mindset and the importance of having fun in and outside work. Show Notes available at https://doyourselfafavour.notion.site/
This newsletter's soundtrack
chosen at random by Charlie Beech
Hate Your Friends - Lemonheads (Taang! 1987)
For a period in the mid '90s, I would announce my arrival behind the turntables at every Indie / Alternative night I played records at with the version of 'Amazing Grace' that appears on this, the Buzzcocksy first album from the band that eventually became the one-man cautionary tale that is Evan Dando.
That track remains a classic example of the punk novelty cover genre, but the rest of the album stands up. 'Hate Your Friends', 'I Don't Wanna', Fed Up' and 'Don't Tell Yourself It's OK' give a glimmer of the heart-of-your-sleeve troubadour songwriter that Dando would become, and Ben Deily's 'Second Chance' is a gem I'd completely forgotten.
More in a few weeks, and don't forget to check the podcast in the meantime!
Cheerio
Tim