I’m back!


It’s been an age since I last wrote anything on LinkedIn or my website. I have struggled to find any motivation to do anything over the past month or two. My personal life took a hit, and I just found life overwhelming, but as with everything, the sun keeps shining, the earth keeps going round, and I refocused myself and, I guess, took stock of where I am, who I am and why I am, which was incredibly insightful. I am not out of the woods, but the sun feels warmer and food tastes nicer.

Work-wise, I’ve moved teams and am now in the deep end of Universal Credits. It’s lovely to be back and help make welfare smoother and cleaner. I am still over multiple teams - but it’s manageable and doable.

In fact…


I wrote the previous sentence at the end of the week (25th September), and I am writing this next part on 30th September. I have moved on from DWP and am returning to HMRC to work on a one-Mikey-band project alongside a team of developers. Of course, I can’t share anything more (mostly because I’m not 100%!), but I am looking forward to a new challenge, and pushing myself harder and further into data-led and experience-led design. It’s amazing how life throws hurdles, challenges, and opportunities.

I recently decided to stop gaming (as much as I do in the evenings) and read, and bought “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be” by Paul Arden. Every section is an absolute zinger, I can’t put it down but I need to digest what I’ve just read.
With Emma, she says stop, and we pick a page and read it out loud - it’s been amazing to then follow it up with a story about ourselves to compare where it sits in our career/life. It’s been an incredible coffee/tea chat, something I’ve missed working from home.

Some random updates - but it’s more of a warning, ALWAYS check when your phone contract ends, and your TV/broadband package. I ignored all the emails and warnings and found out my deal wasn’t a deal; both needed to be binned months ago, and it’s shocking how late I looked into this. For example, almost the same deal with Three has chopped off £245.28 per year, which is madness! Also, leaving Sky and going to Virgin for my TV/Broadband means I shall save a whopping £576.12, so in the space of 60 minutes I’ve managed to get a better deal (more channels, EU roaming) and save £821.40! That is either pension money or kids’ savings!

Watch us wreck the mic, watch us wreck the mic, watch us wreck the mic… Psyche


And finally, but not lastly - I kicked off a busy time in my life with a podcast with a fabulous bunch of friends that I am forever in awe of and would ideally listen to them talk (which works well as it’s a podcast!), which I shall be speaking about a lot more in future weeknotes, called 1PixelOut

🎧 Listen & follow:
→ On Spotify
→ On Apple
→ On Amazon

We all have various experiences, in life and work and talk about them openly whilst sharing George Clooney facts (IYKYK).

Thanks for reading. Catch you in the next one. ✌️