For some reason Wednesday felt a lot like Thursday. I’m not entirely sure why.
Yesterday morning was perhaps the most frustrating in quite some time. While picking away at a work project, I thought I might try out the whole “working from anywhere” thing, saw a gap in my calendar, and walked to Wetherspoons – purveyors of the cheapest cooked breakfast known to man. Knowing that I had at least one call with a client, I threw the Apple AirPods into my bag, and presumed I would be able to pair them with Windows on my work laptop. What could go wrong?
It turns out AirPods don’t like Windows – or at least the microphone doesn’t. Without resorting to low level chicanery within Windows – which is locked down on my work machine, there was no way I would be able to take advantage of the AirPods noice cancelling – and as sods law would dictate, the moment I sat down at a quiet table in the pub, a group of perhaps 10 retired gentleman sat down at the next group of tables and started shouting their conversation at each other. You can’t make it up.
It’s also worth noting that in the twenty minutes I was at Wetherspoons – before the call was supposed to happen – I managed to down a coffee, and eat a breakfast. They are remarkably fast, if nothing else.
Moments after giving up on the call and pushing it back until later in the day, another request came in from a client I wasn’t supposed to be working with – asking for a call. Moments later another.
You really can’t make it up.
So that’s how my entire “working from anywhere” strategy lasted a grand total of twenty minutes. Fifteen minutes after it was all over I arrived home, and began calling client after client from the silence of the study, sporting the same decrepit headset I’ve been using for the last several years.
The day turned around mid-afternoon when I was asked something quite unexpected.
For the remainder of my time until January, I’ll be dipping in with a couple of new hires to help mentor them. After working as a developer for the past 30 years, it turns out there’s a fair amount of wisdom they want to take advantage of before I disappear.
I agreed before really thinking through what mentoring might mean – and the cogs have been turning ever since.
My first advice for the unsuspecting victims is probably unexpected. I’m going to teach them about bullet journals – with a view really to encouraging the habit of note-taking – and recording as much as possible throughout the day. Everything you do, everything you think about, and everything you plan to do. I started doing it years ago, and it’s amazing how many times it has saved me. The wonderful thing about the “bullet journal method” is that you can cherry-pick the bits of it that work for you – and adapt it to suit.
Anyway. I’ll stop wittering on.
Time to go fly a pretend aeroplane or something 🙂
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