Well It’s a month into 2015 and things may have seemed to have been a bit quiet on the TechnicalNature front…..but…. I’ve had my head down, focusing on lots of exciting upcoming developments (that I’ll share in more detail soon).
Including:
- The London Circular Jam – #JAMbition talks and drinks at The Proud Archivist
- Open Source Circular Economy Days 2015 #OSCEDays and building the London foundations
- The Peoples Design Lab development & Resource Event workshop
- Ambassador training with STEMNET London and IMechE Our World in 2050
- Editing and design of the London Area Pituitary Foundation Newsletter.
- Oh and running my first 10K race for a long time……….
And on the way I’ve been meeting some fantastic and inspiring people, making new friends, finding supportive peers and getting energised and creative. Hopefully lots more to come!
With a background both in design and research I’ve always taken an immersive approach to understanding user needs, and now as a startup it’s interesting to look at my new working life through this lens as well.
Here are a few thoughts and practical tips that I thought I’d share on some things I’ve learnt so far along the way……….
- Get out and get talking, break out of your usual conferences, talks and same old circles. Stepping just a bit to the side can take you on a great new journey of inspiration and opportunity.
- Go for what really drives you and you’re passionate in. If not it will show and there are plenty of others out there that it’s their number one aim. I need to feel that what I’m doing contributes to social and environmental impact so have created my own aims and objectives to guide development projects, choices of those that I partner with or jobs that I apply for. This creates clarity and when sometimes you may feel frustrated at the speed things might be developing at, you can step back, revisit these and reflect on how far you’ve come.
- Get organised, link, sync, get your files in order and get templates ready. You’ll soon be inundated with a variety of different google drives, drop boxes, hack spaces, logins, expense logging and passwords so it’s good to be prepared.
- Become flexible and creative about where you’re working, whether it’s inspiring views from the Southbank, a coffee with a canal view or some friendly hotel lobby spaces. Oh and get ready for lots of international skype or evening meetings (possibly in a quiet pub).
- Learn where the power plugs are around London. You can spend a lot of energy and waste time looking for them!
- Take advantage of your time. It’s easy to work all hours when outside of a traditional office hour culture, but make sure you build in time to get outside while it’s sunny for a run or shuffle your week so you can spend time with family and friends (especially my wee nephew), while you have the opportunity.
Like many things in life it’s a continual learning experience so I have no doubt I will be adding to these over time.