My 2022 in Review

2022 was my first full year working for myself and my second year of self employment. The big focus of the year was growth - I wanted to scale my successful solo consultancy into a fully-fledged business. The name Open Velocity came from my desire to speed up the rate of change for myself and other businesses.

I remember talking to my therapist in the middle of the pandemic, a few months before I left my job. We were specifically talking about my goals for 2021 and I expressed the thought that success, in my eyes, would be to start a business and stay self employed with control over my own destiny. This desire for autonomy was undoubtedly a hangover from a year of various lockdowns and restrictions.

The funny thing about working for yourself is that your hopes of total freedom turn out to be extremely naive. Yes, you have greater flexibility and control over your schedule and work, but you also go from having one boss to having multiple as you become answerable to all your clients or customers who (rightfully) demand your best work and attention.

Burnout was a state I skirted around throughout the year, especially the latter half where 6 day weeks became the default. While this weekend working was sometimes driven by deadlines, hustle mentality also played its part in driving me to sit at my computer every Sunday without fail.

"Successful people work at weekends, right?"

"If I put in every piece of effort I have, I can't fail"

"This is what you have to do in the early days of running a business"

My internal monologue was directly lifted out of a badly written business book. The truth is that working harder only guarantees exhaustion. As the classic marketing idiom goes, you can't out-market a bad product. It's the same for hustle - you can't outwork a bad idea. Even if you work every hour of the day, you can't guarantee success.

Another outcome of pursuing growth meant that Open Velocity expanded into a business with employees. These are people who, rightfully, expect me to lead the business and deliver on my promises. Leaders have to lead, you can't sit back and wait for the path to unfold before you or for someone to tell you what to do. You have to take action, even when you're unsure or tired.

It's easy to glamorise entrepreneurship and the idea of being your own boss, but the reality is that it can be a very isolating and demanding experience. As an entrepreneur, you are responsible for every single aspect of your business. This can be overwhelming, especially if you are a solopreneur or freelancer that doesn't have a team to share the workload.

The demands of running a business are also all-consuming and will take over your life. As a classic Type A person, I am prone to lying bed at night worrying about every single issue. My night brain also tends towards severe pessimism as small issues become unassailable mountains in the small hours. It really is true, for me at least, that things look better in the morning. I'm slowly learning to ignore any negative thoughts after 10pm.

If freedom is your primary motivation for becoming an entrepreneur, it may be worth considering other options such as freelancing or finding an employer who offers flexibility in terms of how, when, and where you work. While these options still come with their own set of challenges and responsibilities, they may offer more balance and support than starting and growing a business on your own. At least in my experience.

Outside of work, one of the dominant forces that shaped my 2022 was my ongoing struggle with chronic Achilles Tendonopathy, which crept up on me in Dec 2019 due to overtraining. I'd like to give the excuse that lockdown stymied my rehab attempts, but if I'm honest I just ignored the pain and the lump on my ankle in the hope that it would all go away.

As 2022 progressed, I found myself waking up in pain every single day and the 10 minute walk to our local train station would leave me in agony. The pain got so bad that coming back from a trip to Dublin, Des had to push me through the airport on a wheelchair as I couldn't physically manage the walk through the terminal. That was a bit of a wake up call if I'm honest.

So I went to see a physio. Consistently did my rehab exercises. Took the right supplements. Slowly but surely things have improved and at the very least, I can walk to the station now mostly pain free. My hope is that this improvement continues and I can start running again properly in 2023.

The lesson here is that small issues, when ignored, can become big issues, but also that big issues, when tackled consistently and thoughtfully, can be broken down and overcome.

For me, 2022 was really a year that highlighted the importance of prioritising both physical and emotional health. I've learned that neglecting either significantly impacts my quality of life, and that it takes consistent and dedicated action to maintain a positive trajectory.

If velocity was my word of 2022, trajectory is my word for 2023. There's no point applying effort if you're treading the wrong path.

Should you hire an ex-FAANG marketer?

Ex-tech giant employees come with fantastic pedigree, but are they the right hire for a start-up or scale-up?

The challenges of identifying top talent

In November 2021 I gave a talk at Turing Fest in Edinburgh which explained how leaders should approach building their first marketing team from scratch.

Typically the first marketing hire for any start-up is an experienced generalist. You want someone who can get stuck into both the tactical and strategic layer (they need to be able to do the big thinking but also do the doing).

Alongside a T-shaped understanding of the marketing landscape, I also believe top marketing generalists have the following three traits:

• They need to be able to understand data, turn this into insight and connect this with action. It’s not enough to say conversions have decreased over the last month, they need to be able to diagnose (or at least present a credible theory for) why this has happened and what you need to do to turn the ship around.

• They need to be an exceptional people operator. Much of the role of the first marketing hire is focused on stakeholder management, which requires extremely good emotional intelligence and people management skills. There is also the expectation that this first marketing hire will build out a full marketing team as the company grows, for that they also require mastery of core communication skills and people leadership.

• They need to have a bias for action. It’s not enough to come up with fancy plans, presentations or roadmaps. You need them to execute quickly and ruthlessly to build traction. (This is the hardest trait to identify in the hiring process, but the most important to identify.)

The limitations of big brand marketers

Many start-ups and scale-ups consider hiring a marketing leader who comes fresh from a role within a wildly successful billion-dollar business (think large consultancy or FAANG).

While I don’t deny that many of these people a hugely talented and good at their jobs, are they the right fit for a start-up or scale-up? I’d argue in most cases, no.

Firstly, if you have worked in a large organisation you have had a LOT of resource to play with - people, budget and other teams to lean on. If you have a data problem, you can throw it over the fence to your data team. The same with a design issue, website issue etc.

Marketers from this background are not used to solving problems by themselves or with minimal input from other subject matter experts. They have not had to deal with extreme constraints or operated in an environment where throwing money at the problem is not an option.

Secondly, it is unlikely you can afford to bring in someone who has truly owned strategy development in a billion-dollar business.

There is a difference between being handed a top-level strategy to build upon and working with a founding team to develop a strategy out of a general mission and vision.

Personally, I’d bet on someone who has previously experienced and thrived in a start-up/scale-up environment.

Unlocking potential and growing junior digital talent

Do you remember your lucky break?

N.B. This content was originally delivered as a talk at BrightonSEO in September 2021.

Do you remember your first day at your first job and the sense of anticipation, trepidation, worry even, as you walked into a group of strangers with no idea what you were doing. 

It’s easy to forget how vulnerable people can feel early on in their careers, but everyone has to start somewhere. Even Steve Jobs had a first day on the job after all. 

I suspect most of us had colleagues who took us under their wing while we built up our skills and confidence, or mentors supported our growth and ambitions throughout our working lives. 

I certainly did and wouldn’t be doing what I did today without the support and guidance of a variety of people throughout my career.

The digital talent divide

The UK in particular is heading towards a digital skills disaster, as demand outstrips supply. Anecdotal evidence from my network seems to back this up. A number of my clients report that they are struggling to fill entry level, mid-weight and senior roles.

This skills shortage comes in sharp contrast with the employment landscape experienced by young people, who have been especially hard hit by shifting pandemic workforce patterns. 

This comes on top of entrenched systemic issues in hiring such as “needing experience to gain experience” and the unwillingness of some companies to invest in junior staff.

We have a duty as an industry to nurture the next generation of talent. Not just because we altruistically owe it to young people, but because it is the right commercial decision to make for companies chasing a limited talent pool.

In this article, I’m going to be doing a mixture of mythbusting and setting out some best practices that companies can use to maximise the potential of their junior staff and ensure their staff have the best possible start to their careers.

House of Commons Youth Unemployment statistics

 Remote Working

A selection of industry myths

We worry juniors can’t learn on their own

Companies worry that unsupervised in a remote setting, junior staff will be twiddling their thumbs, sat behind screens in their houses.

This is interesting to me because when you think about the latest cohort of higher education leavers, these are people who have spent the last 18 months learning remotely. Most of them have performed exceptionally well in their exams under extremely challenging circumstances.

We simply aren’t giving our young people enough credit. If they're not the group best equipped with the ability to learn in a remote setting, who is at this point.

We worry we will harm the start of people’s career

Over the last year, I’ve overheard conversations with hiring managers who are putting off bringing onboard junior staff until the “situation becomes more stable and we can give them what they need.”

This is erroneous again, in my opinion, because our current pandemic situation is not going to get less unstable in the short to medium term. Yes, there are signs we may be leaving the worst of the restrictions behind, but can any of us accurately predict what will happen this winter and beyond? 

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that uncertainty is the certainty in life. All we can do is act as best we can with the current information we have. There’s no point waiting for a mythical day where everything will suddenly be set in stone to act.

We are damaging people’s careers by not giving them a chance to start one.

We worry about preserving our existing culture

While it is absolutely right to be concerned about whether people are actually happy at work, I do think that when companies talk about “preserving culture” they are often using it as a proxy to talk about being non-inclusive in a supposedly acceptable way.

If your culture can not handle the addition of multiple age ranges, I suggest the problem lies with your cultural expectations, not with your candidates.

The truth is, it wasn’t working before

In an office setting, it’s often expected that junior staff will learn through osmosis. I certainly had roles early on in my career where I was expected to learn the ropes by overhearing office conversations, but I should never ask questions or interrupt the “adults” while they were working.

I was lucky to get 5 minutes for a water cooler discussion, but that was the limit of my structured training. Needless to say, this was an extremely piecemeal and demoralising way to learn.

While I’m hopeful mine is an extreme example, we have relied on this type of ambient learning for far too long as an industry. While I am a big believer in the serendipity of the office and the importance of human connections in person, I don’t believe we should go back to the old ways, which are both unstructured and inefficient.

We can do better.

Ed Zitron, Why Managers Fear a Remote-Work Future, The Atlantic

Remote Work Best Practices

So what does better look like? Here are some of my suggestions on how we can improve remote learning for everyone (not just juniors!)

We need to invest time into training and L&D

The fundamental thing is we need to do as an industry is invest clearly defined and designated time into training and ongoing L&D. It can’t be an afterthought.

A lot of businesses expect people to pick things up as they go, either on the job or slotted ad-hoc around client work (in-house generally is a bit better with allocating clear time to training I have found).

If you want people to dedicate time to training you have to reflect this in your team’s workloads and your overall utilisation rates.

We need to encourage everyone to take collective responsibility for training

Training is not just a manager’s responsibility, the whole team should be helping to train junior employees, including the junior employees themselves! After all, one of the best ways to verify if someone knows a topic is to have them explain it to someone else.

Not only does this spread the load, but it also helps to create a culture of shared knowledge and continuous development for everyone.

We need to treat people as individuals

A lot of companies now offer personal development plans (PDPs), but in some places, there is still a persistent tickbox attitude when it comes to training programmes, especially in larger corporates.

There are of course subjects that require universal/standardised training procedures (first aid, fire safety etc.), however, in a field like digital marketing where there are so many career paths and specialisms to follow, it’s important to tailor training programmes to your organisation’s needs, the career ambitions of your staff and your skills gaps.

We need to give regular, consistent feedback

Six month or yearly performance reviews just don’t cut it.

By the time they roll around it’s often either too late to give positive feedback or too late to resolve performance issues (nobody likes a surprise after all).

Managers should be providing feedback on a weekly basis, monthly at a minimum. This doesn’t have to be an onerous, time-intensive or formal process though.

I stole the following format from Scrum retrospectives and have been using it with my team ever since to run check-ins. I like to do these collaboratively, asking team members to reflect on each point themselves before I provide my feedback. It’s also a great framework for self-reflection and assessing your own performance and even though I now I run my business, I tend to run my own mini-retro on a Friday using the structure.

Start - what should they start doing

Stop - what could they stop doing

Continue - what is working well and should be continued

Increase - what they should increase the amount/velocity of

Decrease - what they should decrease the amount/velocity of

Building Sustainable Skills

Another selection of industry myths

We say that graduates don’t come out of education with “soft skills”

Again, much like discourse around “culture”, I believe soft skills (which will be referred to as core skills henceforth) is another example of how language is used in our sector to marginalise.

While core communication and people skills are undoubtedly important, often people are using the term as a synonym for extroversion. This is especially prevalent in client-facing roles where there is an expectation that people will adhere to a certain personality type.

As a cohort, graduates are not lacking communication skills, it’s just that the communication landscape has changed and diverse people communicate in different ways.

I’ve worked in organisations with introverts who aren’t necessarily the most vocal in meetings but will send a blinder of an email after that clearly articulates a fantastic idea provoked by the wider discussion. Their strength was in written communication, not verbal, but that didn’t make them any less valuable as a team member.

We say that higher education doesn’t teach the “right” digital skills

I’m going to push back on this one with the question of whether it’s even higher education’s responsibility to teach cutting-edge digital skills?

In an industry where technology and methodologies move at a lightning pace, can we realistically expect higher education to keep pace when we struggle to as practitioners on the front line.

I firmly believe that the role of higher education is to teach people how to learn. It’s up to us as companies to invest in the right training to ensure our people stay ahead of the curve.

We say that young people are “lazy” and “special snowflakes”

Firstly young people aren’t lazy, they are questioning the merits of 24/7 work culture and advocating for better work practices. This isn’t limited to younger generations either, I think the majority of us have realised during the pandemic that we don’t want to go back to cultures of overwork and presenteeism.

Secondly, the connotations special snowflake and the supposed fragility of young people is particularly galling when we think of the resilience and fortitude they have shown throughout the pandemic. It’s not that younger generations are weaker, they are simply more comfortable talking about their mental health. Which can only be a good thing.

(Just because your staff never talked about anxiety and depression in “the old days” doesn’t mean they weren’t affected by it.)

The power of mentoring

Alongside more formalised training programmes, I believe one of the most powerful ways of building skills and capabilities is through offering mentoring. Throughout my career, I have had several mentors, all of whom provided vital support in building my technical and core communication competencies. I genuinely wouldn’t be where I am without them.

The best thing is that companies of any size can set up mentoring programmes, even if it initially takes the form of informal 1-2-1 catch-ups. There are also wider industry programmes which are well worth investigating. I recently took part in the WTS Mentorship Programme as a mentor and found it an extremely reciprocal experience. My mentee Jasmine was incredibly generous with her knowledge and expertise - so the mentor/mentee relationship can definitely support people both ways.

In terms of practically building a mentoring programme in your organisation, I have a few tips:

Try and find mutually good fits

Arbitrarily assigning people to a mentor can lead to poor matches. It’s important to have a process that allows both mentors and mentees to feedback on what they are hoping to get out of sessions (WTS did this really well through an online application process).

It should also be made clear that any party can choose to end the mentoring arrangement at any time if it doesn’t work for them.

Remember mentors need mentoring

There is a real difference between managing someone and mentoring them. In mentoring, the mentee drives the agenda.

It’s therefore important to ensure your mentors understand their role and how it differs from management responsibilities. Ideally, mentors should have an induction process to provide them with the right information and on-going support through their time as a mentor.

Again this was something the WTS programme did really well, as they held weekly drop-in sessions for mentors throughout the programme’s duration.

CIM: . According to Sage.com, of those with a mentor 97% say they are valuable

Providing real progression

A final selection of industry myths

We argue  some people aren’t suited to becoming managers

It’s true, management really isn’t the best or most desirable path for everyone. Some people prefer building their careers as Individual Contributors (ICs), where they focus on becoming a technical expert.

The issue comes when management is the only track for progression. If your organisation only promotes people on the basis of taking on people management responsibilities, then you’re again marginalising people who don’t conform to a narrow standard of what career progression can look like.

Engineering departments have typically been leading the way in offering IC progression routes and have a number of formats and best practices that wider digital departments can borrow from. GitLab offer some excellent details on their Engineering Career Development process and even offer people ways of trying out the people management track before they commit long term.

We argue we’re a small company and that means there’s no room to progress

This is an argument often heard at agencies, who often solve the problem by giving out inflated titles in an attempt to keep staff, usually without the corresponding pay rise….

Offering progression opportunities doesn’t have to always mean offering pay rises or better titles (though my caveat is that people should be paid fairly for their expertise and skill level and that title changes without pay increases often feel VERY hollow).

Progression can also mean giving people opportunities to work on bigger accounts, or investing in training that will boost someone’s long term skills and career opportunities. Junior employees in particular can gain a huge amount of value from being exposed to multiple areas of the business - could you offer some kind of secondment programme that allows people to spend a day or two in different departments each month?

You also need to accept that if you can’t offer people meaningful progression, at some point they are going to leave.

How to develop an inclusive promotion process

How do we ensure we engage employees in progression opportunities in a fair and transparent manner? These are my top tips on building an inclusive promotion process.

1. The process should have defined, transparent and published timescales

The promotion process can be extremely stressful and obscure for employees in organisations where decisions are made behind closed doors, with little information on how and when people can progress.

As with salary information, a lack of transparency also particularly affects minorities who may be less likely to self-advocate or be affected by the unconscious (or conscious) bias of decision-makers.

It’s therefore vital that organisations have a standardised promotion process that includes clear policies, procedures and milestones which are transparently communicated throughout the entire workforce.

Typically this takes the form of an internal document that can live on your internal wiki or knowledge base. Some companies, like GitLab again, have made their promotions documentation public-facing, which can be a great tool for recruitment (and very informative for anyone looking to develop their own documentation!)

1. The process should include diverse decision-makers

This is really about removing single gatekeepers and lessening the opportunity for biases to influence the process. Developing a promotions panel is also a great opportunity to bring in the viewpoints of multiple departments into the promotions processes and ensures that decisions are made with an appropriate level of scrutiny.

1. Candidates should be assessed against consistent and relevant criteria

This is again about standardising things and ensuring a fair process.

(Also if it’s not in their job description, why are you assessing them on it?)

1. People should be able to self nominate for a progression opportunity

All employees should feel empowered to put themselves forward for internal opportunities (this should be made explicit when new job roles are posted).

However, it’s important to note that some groups are again less likely to self-advocate and put themselves forward. This is why it’s important that every employee is regularly reviewed and assessed so that amazing people aren’t overlooked simply because they don’t shout the loudest.

Microsoft Work Trend Index Report 2021

See the full slides

Unlocking potential and growing junior staff sustainably | Bethan Vincent | Brighton SEO Sep 2021 from Bethan Vincent

A New Chapter & My Next Adventure

Like pretty much everyone else on the planet, the past year has forced me to reassess my priorities, in both life and work.

Far from diminishing my ambitions, 2020/21 strengthened my resolve to think bigger. Widen my impact. Dare courageously. As Marc Andreessen said, it’s time to build.

I have always been driven by the impact I can have - whether that’s on people, companies or industries. 

That's why, after two and a bit amazing years leading Netsells' marketing efforts, I will be stepping down as Marketing Director at the end of May. 

In all honesty, it's a bittersweet moment. I will be leaving behind a company that has given me so many opportunities to grow and a fantastic team who are going from strength to strength. I can’t wait to watch the company continue to grow and thrive.

So what comes next? 

I am founding a Marketing Consultancy to provide strategic marketing support to ambitious technology companies looking to scale.

Developing my own marketing outfit has been an ambition of mine for a long time and I can’t tell you how excited (and let’s be honest, terrified) I am to finally jump out of my comfort zone and strike out on my own. 

If the pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that there is no perfect time to take a risk. There will always be curveballs and unexpected events - the important thing is your ability to stay agile and able to adapt. 

Alongside the “if not now, when?” question, I’m also driven by the fact that our industry is filled with mediocre marketing. Every company looks the same, speaks with the same buzzwords, and utilises the same website layouts. It’s boring for our customers and hardly sparks excitement for our staff or investors. 

What I offer my clients is clarity and creativity. Clarity on their proposition, positioning and ideal customers, coupled with creative approaches to expressing their unique value and reaching the right audiences with messaging that hits the mark. 

My approach to marketing doesn’t consist of one-time hacks or repackaging generic marketing advice. It’s based on years of experience, agile methodologies, rigorous focus on the data and a deep understanding of what it takes to design and execute on marketing strategies that actually generate ROI. 

Initially this will be a solo venture, but my ambition is to tap into the amazing talent we have in Yorkshire. I want to build a business that provides opportunities for young people in the region to break into the world of technology and marketing. 

I’ll be sharing my journey as I work towards this goal, so make sure you check back for updates as I progress (you can also sign-up below to get news directly via email).

The Brave & giving back

Alongside building my consultancy, I’m also excited to continue growing my podcast, newsletter and speaking work.

There’s a lot of hype around the creator economy at the moment and while I’m unlikely to make a full living from my writing or speaking, I’m extremely passionate about sharing positive, inspiring stories and championing the people, initiatives and companies that are building a better future for us all.

(If you would like to get involved as a guest or sponsor, please do get in touch!)

I’m also proud to be continuing my work as a member of City of York’s Skills and Employability Council and help mentor the next generation of marketing leaders as a Women in Tech SEO mentor. 

I’ve always been a big believer in giving back to my industry and wider community. So many people have helped me throughout my career, so it’s only fair I pay it forward. 

Interested in working together?

I’d love to hear from you! Please get in touch on bethan@bethanvincent.com, or contact me here.

Working From Home and Mental Health During Lockdown

The past six weeks have been challenging. As someone who thrives off social interaction and throwing ideas around in a room of people, working from home has been a huge shift for me both mentally and professionally.

This transition to working from home has not been one of choice. We have been forced pretty much overnight into unfamiliar working patterns and spaces, often with the additional burden of childcare and other responsibilities.

If that wasn’t enough cognitive load, we are also collectively struggling with feelings of loss, fear and uncertainty. Getting anything done under this kind of pressure is an achievement.

At the beginning of lockdown and working from home full time, I really struggled without the structure of a commute and clear definitions between work and non-work time. My thoughts slipped back into old anxious habits and to be perfectly honest, I started to worry about my mental health and whether I could withstand the weeks to come.

As time has gone on I have found ways of protecting my mental health and am actually starting to get into the remote work lifestyle. These are the things I think make a real difference in protecting your mental health during lockdown:

Get outside once a day (if safe).

Even if this just involves sticking your head out the door and feeling the wind brush past your face, I believe it’s important we constantly remind ourselves that there is more than our current four walls.

I also can’t tell you how important my daily walks have become in allowing me space to think and process what is happening. Some of my best ideas come from these periods out and about, which is unsurprising as a change of scenery works wonders for creativity.

Create a clear start and end to the working day

Without a commute I initially found it quite hard to define the boundaries between work and non-work time. This made it extremely difficult to relax, as I felt like I had to be constantly “on” and attached to my computer or phone.

I’ve tried to replicate my previous routine by incorporating clear “commute” time into the beginning of my day. As I used to walk to work and listen to podcasts or music, I’ve just started doing this for 30m before I sit down at my computer. It makes a real difference in preparing me to start work in the best possible mindset.

I mark the end of the day with a walk or some form of exercise. Again, this gives my mind space to decompress and think. Even if burpees and squats aren’t your thing, I highly recommend doing something active, even if it’s just a vigorous cleaning routine.

Decorate your workspace

Numerous studies have shown that workplace surroundings have a huge impact on both your productivity and emotional wellbeing. One of the things I’ve actually enjoyed about working from home is the fact I can make my workspace fully my own.

I’ve moved my desk to where I can best see out the window, put up prints by my partner (shameless plug: you can see and buy them here) and ensured I’m surrounded by my favourite stationary.

Ideally you should try to create a dedicated area that you can work in which can be shut away at the end of the workday. If that’s not possible, you can at least tidy things away out of view so that the space has some separation. (This is a top tip I’ve stolen from my cousin Kate who is an HR expert).

Plan things to look forward to during the week

This current period can feel expansive and unending in many ways. I’ve been particularly struggling with the fact my weekends very closely match my weekdays, resulting in a big blob of undifferentiated time that seems to pass slowly and painfully.

Taking my cue from interval training, which always seems to go a lot faster than slogging it out for an hour, I’ve started to break up the week with clear chunks of fun time which are planned in advance that can be looked forward to.

Everyone enjoyed different things and I personally love food, so culinary treats have become part of my “looking forward to things” package. I’ve also scheduled in quizzes with my family, luxurious hour long baths and bought the odd video game or two to be played at set times.

Combat Video chat fatigue

If you’re finding all the video meetings, remote family quizzes and chats with friends a bit much at the moment, you are not alone.

Zoom fatigue is real and I think we are all collectively realising 8+ hours of back-to-back calls are just not sustainable in the long term. I’m also getting pretty sick of looking at my own face (pro tip: you can usually hide yourself and this helps a lot, especially if your roots are currently as bad as mine).

During our recent chat for GitLab’s Universal Remote Webcast, Darren Murph (GitLab’s Head of Remote) made a great suggestion on how to break out of interactions that keep you glued to a screen. He advised that where possible, try switching over to a voice call. This way you can get up and move about while talking and even go for a walk if that works.

I’d also suggest that it’s an excellent idea to make sure you get a break in-between calls, even if it’s 5-10 minutes to get up and make a cup of tea or go to the toilet.

Take a break from the Screen

Speaking of breaks, my screen time has slowly but surely increased during this lockdown period. Usually at work in the office I like to go for a walk at lunch to try and get some fresh air and force myself to look further than 30cm in front of my face.

At home there can be a real temptation to jump from device to device, especially as you try and stay connected with friends, Twitter and the news, alongside staying on top of work. However it’s important to disconnect, the same way you did back when in-person social plans and travel were possible.

I’ve set myself a hard rule that I don’t look at my phone after 9pm (also beneficial for sleep) and I spend at least an hour a day doing something that isn’t screen based, be it drawing, reading or listening to an audiobook.

Make post-lockdown plans

This is extremely cheesy, but as I’ve got older I’ve become a believer in the power of hope. “This too shall pass” and all of that.

It’s along the same lines of planning short term things to look forward to, but I think it’s also important to keep your mind focused on the fact that this unusual period will have an end. I can’t promise you things will go back to the way they were, but we should be able to travel again and see friends and family.

That thought is what keeps me going. I’m already starting to research the trip to Orkney I’ve been wanting to take for years. I’ve started thinking about things I want to do at work and the people I want to try and meet when in-person meetings and events are possible.

Be really, really, really, kind to yourself

This again, is something Darren bought up in our conversation. We all have to remember this isn’t the normal working from home/remote working experience. This is working from home during a global pandemic which has upended most of society.

We all need to adapt to these new conditions, but we shouldn’t pretend that’s going to be easy. If you’re struggling, reach out to colleagues and friends. You’re not alone in finding this hard and actually, in some ways, this experience has bought people closer together as so many of us find ourselves in the same situation.

I’ve always found that people actually love being asked for help and there’s no shame in it.

I’d also like to add that if you’re actually doing OK and enjoying working from home, you shouldn’t feel bad about that. We are allowed to make the most of the situation we find ourselves in and enjoy every single thing possible (this is true anytime, not just now)

Finally, celebrate the wins, however small

This builds on the idea above that it is OK to enjoy the good things about this period. Perhaps you’re getting more time with loved ones, or have rediscovered old hobbies. For the first time in my adult life I’ve managed to keep plants alive for more than four weeks.

Professionally speaking, I’ve actually become more productive in some areas, as I’ve been able to get my head down and smash through my to-do list.

Obviously taken on their own, all of the above are satisfying in their own right. But I do this it’s important to celebrate them too. Even if that’s just by mentally congratulating yourself and having a commemorative biscuit.

Most of the big positive changes in my life are a result of consecutive small achievements, not big movie style make it or break it moments.