Have had to bring home some work this weekend (argh!), due in part to looming deadlines and the fact that I go on holiday next week and have quite a bit to mop up. So, what happens? The weather turns nice, after a week of rain, cold and misery – and I lose all ability to knuckle down, and spent half the morning watching cooking programmes on television.
MAN. I need to reclaim my Saturday and soak up some sunshine… as you can see from my new masthead photo, my tan is fading somewhat ;)
So, like most people in service industry, the vast majority of my significant correspondance is managed via an email client. Like the majority of the world, this happens on Windows platform, using Microsoft Outlook. Again, like most of the waking world, this results in a tediously large inbox.
Most days, this isn’t too much of a problem. Whatever else can be said about my work ethic, I generally clear things quite quickly, and am so able to respond to / deal with enough of the mails such that I end the day with a manageable inbox – the ‘actioned’ emails get filed neatly somewhere for Google Desktop to retrieve when I need them. Recently – and at various points in my career – the inflow far exceeds the outflow, and today my inbox swelled to 140 emails – a lot of pending actions! I’m aware that there are clever ways to tie tasks to emails, set reminders and flags, and have the whole lot integrate nicely with your Outlook calendar. I’m also aware that the vast majority of people – myself included – just click snooze to get the annoying reminder bubbles out of the way and then get on with our days. Clearly this is not ideal… but there’s another useful feature in Outlook: categories.
Have never used these before, but, especially as I have clearly defined projects (multiple clients as a basis for demarcation, if nothing else) – it was pretty swift for me to set up categories, and indeed to categorise my inbox. This now doubles as a ‘to-do’ list, sparing me the tedium of managing a separate tasks list or, indeed, writing a new one from scratch on whatever scrap of paper is at hand. So am quite liking it; if anyone has any thoughts on improving the system, let me know… but it definitely helps me juggle the multi-tasking. Now, if I can combine this with reminder flags, I may never miss a deadline again… or not. We’ll see.
One thing I don’t quite understand: having 14,000 emails in your inbox and counting. That’s fine if you’re using Google Mail, but given how mediocre the native search functions in Outlook are…
So, I’m a big fan of interesting virals. The problem is, the vast majority that I see are rubbish, recycled content (ebaumstrash), or just no fun at all. Then two good ones came my way at once, and I spent rather too much time on them.
The first, Software Cluedo, is a Business Software Alliance (one of our agency’s clients) initiative designed to raise awareness of the likely causes and locations of software piracy. It is worryingly addictive, and actually not as easy as you might think to solve.
The second, more of a test of manual dexterity than detective skills, is courtesy of my friend James at World Cancer Research Fund, who is trying to raise awareness of the ‘five-a-day’ initiative, to get people to eat more fruit. Pip’s Fruit Shoot and Pip’s Target Practise are available here. Or, you could just beat the banana.
Anyway, a good way to waste some time – spread the Friday Fun!!
(Yes, I know its Thursday. Whoops…)
I really hate the task tracker in Outlook – the reminders it fires up are irritating, and I haven’t found a useful way to track sets of actions. Googling around revealed nothing satisfactory, but I’ve found some cruddy freeware client that lets me do hierarchical task management – which makes it slightly easier to keep track on what I’m working on, stuff I’ve delegated, etc.
What I really need is one that (1) lets me print out my task list (a limitation built into the client I’ve downloaded, the premium version costs money and (2) I can access from anywhere. This local client model really doesn’t work for task management.
So really I probably want Google to design one.
The reasons I haven’t linked to the software I’m using are twofold: firstly, I’m not sure I want to even implicitly recommend it to anyone and secondly, I can’t remember the search string I used to find it. I didn’t deem it worthy to add to my Linklog…
Went to “Lucky Voice” with work last night, a flash new Karaoke joint in Soho. Whilst the beer was probably not the best of ideas on a weeknight, the singing was incredibly fun and uplifting, and I went with a great bunch of people from the office – all of whom were (a) moderately talented and (b) utterly shameless, so we all got into it properly.
Particular favourite moments were us singing “Combine Harvester” by The Wurzels and “Without Me” by Eminem, although the more tuneful numbers demonstrated more skill… I did, of course, sing my signature “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by the Crash Test Dummies in a tuneful baritone.
Last night, we celebrated our win of the CIPR’s PR agency of the year award with a great dinner and evening at Soho House. It does continually surprise me how well we get on as an agency, and at how much genuine happiness there was for each others good news – the award, engagements and pregnancies and such like.
Although this is my first workplace, I suspect that David Brent, Ally McBeal and the like had prepared me to be a bit more cynical about the office environment… And its nice not to have cynicism justified, for once.
Was a huge achievement for the agency; as a relative newcomer (5 years old this year) and a specialist agency to win the overall agency award. We really do rock.
It’s been damn hot the last few days. It might seems pitiful that someone who gew up within spitting distance of the equator swelters and whinges about a mild hot spell in London, and in truth, I’m not complaining – the hot weather was great over the weekend. Lazing around in the sunshine in Regent’s Park, reading through my thesis (grrr – if I ever see a professional philosopher again, I don’t know what I’ll do!) was really quite wonderful.
I’m not looking forward to having to spend most of the day cooped up in a hot office building though – that’s less than 100% Colombian fun. Don’t get me wrong – I love my job – but I think they should call siestas for the summer months.
But, coming to the point of this post (insofar as it has one): all is well with me; I’ve watched a lot of movies of late (The Punisher, Brazil, Brain Dead, 13 going on 30, High Fidelity and Grosse Point Blank (again!) and more), read a little (finished Timoleon Vieta come Home – brilliant – and about to start Fortress of Solitute, once I get this thesis dealt with), and been working a lot. New client started at work last week – Cisco Systems – which is great, but obviously its been a bit busy at work dealing with the additional load.
Not much else is on. Results of the MRI come in tomorrow (woo), I’ve taken to saying “woo” a lot (woo!), and think people should stop singing “Armand David” to the tune of “Craig David” when I call them. All else is good in Armo’s world.
Off to Cambridge next weekend if I get enough work done this week. Wish me luck.
So, near complete silence for two weeks? Ya-huh? That’s what gainful employment does to you, I guess. Yup, I am now a full member of society, I have colleagues (who are all very nice), a job I enjoy and the world of pain that getting up at 7.15 every day gets you. But its going well, and its funner than an evening with Michael Eisner, as they say.
That’s not to say that my mind has been idle; the reason for the emptiness of the blog has entirely been due to exhaustion and not at all to do with an under-active mind. In fact, the new people, the new stimuli, are great for my grey matter. Don’t expect genius from this blog, though; in fact, lower your expectations as far as you can, and prepare for a veritable onslaught of blog-entries.
It’s been a busy few weeks, so sorry for lack of contact. The Job is taking up most of my time, and rightfully so – all is good, though.
Our regular presentation will follow soon.
It’s been a pretty busy and stressful couple of months. Job applications, work experience, tidying up the MA, participating in the creation of a whole new language and group-psychology based entirely on injokes: there’s not been a lot of time for even idle blogging.
But, it’s Christmas now, and I’ve been trying to get a rant out onto the site for a few days now; something lambasting the symbolic non-event Christmas has begun, a tool for marketers and a time when innocent consumers get kicked in the wallet for caring about other people, or at least how other people perceive them. I have, however, failed for any number of reasons.
First and foremost among them, though: I am not a cynic. No matter how hard I try to see the world through jaded eyes, my rose-tinted spectacles keep falling over my face and I keep trusting and hoping beyond hope for the best in people. Only it’s not beyond hope, and every year I get infused with Christmas spirit and turn into a hyperactive zealot for (non-denominational) good cheer.
And I’m a consumer, and I know the con, and I still go out and spend money on decorations and booze and candles and presents and Christmas music; I’m throwing a party and celebrating first with my adoptive family – my friends, a substantial number of whom were at College with me – and then with my literal family. When I get back to Malaysia next Thursday, we’re going to spend a lot of time shopping, and singing, and eating, and hanging out in each other’s houses; and watching the new Lord of the Rings movie with about 16 first cousins. It’s pretty exciting.
Merry Christmas y’all. Have some good tidings, yuletide cheer and mince pies on me. There may be more ‘blogs over the season; there’s going to be photos from the part-ay tonight and it might be necessary to put some of them on display. We will see… – Oh, and look out for my Christmas single, coming soon to a website near you!