My blog has been a little stagnent since I moved to New Zealand a few years ago. Its amazing how much it takes out of you to build a new life with very few support systems and friends around, but I finally feel like I am starting to get on top of things again. I figured month notes would be a good way to start recording my thoughts and ideas without feeling like it was becomming too burdensome to keep up with.
Work stared off at pace this year, we are testing a new system for front-line staff through an iterative test and learn approach. In most countries its a standard practice to do some iterative testing, but alas working in the New Zealand Government it can feel lilke you have stepped back in time, this isn’t somthing you see that often. I have hopes that if we run this test well we can continue to encorage best practices in this space and make strides forward.
In my personal time I have been pushing forward writing my book on Service Design, things are going really well and I think I will soon be ready to speak to publishers. Pulling together 6-7 years of personal research, notes, examples, new approaches and thinking has not been a small task. Logsec has been a blessing here, I was really struggling to align my thinking into cohesive patterns and logic that I could simply explain to others.
The act of writing itself is addictive, and I have come up with a great way to steal time and fit writing in between life things. I use Scrivner to write the book on my iPad and Mac, the data syncs across dropbox which is super helpful to steal time and whip out the iPad when travelling or at lunch. Similarly Logsec for pulling together my research notes and making sense of them ready to be written up is working well. I think I struggled working out how to write a non-fiction book in the beginning because it felt like too many steps all at once, unlike a blog post which can be around a single idea, a book can be about many things all at once. I’ve learnt that it is important to have a space where you organise your ideas and determine their priority and connections with a separate space to formalise those ideas into something teachable. I’m definately learning as I go, and I’ve booked myself on several writing courses next month hoping to improve my technique and approach further.
I rounded out the month by going on holiday for a week to New Plymouth. My son loves boogie boarding and there are some great beaches there. So while the family bounced around on the waves I relaxed with a beer, and read a few good books. A holiday was a great way to start off the new year…Maybe I’ll make this a regular thing!