What we learnt this week

There’s a saying that “Every day is a school day”, so if this is the case, after four working days completed as I write this, I should be able to give at least four things that we’ve learnt this week, so here goes (in no particular order):

Lesson One – Thinking outside the box

Ok, so this isn’t a new lesson, it’s much more of a reminder to try and think outside the box when the conventional solution isn’t an option or perhaps is more tricky than it needs to be. Twice this week, we’ve had laptop repairs (one with a broken screen, one with a broken keyboard), where it has been easier, quicker and in some cases cheaper to buy a donor working laptop and transplant the customer’s Windows installation and data into the good working one. Certainly, when it came to the keyboard replacement, in this particular laptop it would have meant stripping the whole thing, so thinking outside of the box, really, really helped all parties.

Lesson Two – Even with planning, your day is ever-changing

I’ve been working hard to try and keep to my set plans for each day, and not get dragged into things which don’t need me. Some days though, quite honestly, it’s impossible. This week I’ve had an unexpected trip to the vet which simply had to be my new priority that day, and I’ve had to deliver a laptop just because in this particular situation, it was the right thing to do to keep up a high standard of service. Whilst I really didn’t like not getting all of my plans done on those particular days, looking back I need to remind myself I shouldn’t beat myself up about it. Things are going to come along that you simply can’t plan for – and real life is more important than work.

Lesson Three – Rest is more important than work

I’ve pretty much always been a fan of doing high-quality, productive work on shorter work days, and then getting some rest/forgetting all about work when you’re done for the day. And whilst I’ve not worked late or long hours this week, clearly, for some reason, I’ve been tired and needed a rest. How do I know this? Well, last night I was falling asleep on the sofa from around half past eight, I ended up going to bed at around twenty to ten and this morning I went back to sleep for another thirty minutes after my alarm went off. Clearly, my body is telling me some rest is required. This might be because of running more than normal when I was playing football in the middle of the week, or I simply might be harbouring one of the colds our children currently have. Either way, you need to listen and do what your body is telling you it needs. That will be further early nights over the weekend for me until I feel fully rested.

Lesson Four – Producing content is hard

I started writing this article thinking I’ll bang out four lessons in no time. I wrote the above three lessons quickly, and I’ve just spent ten minutes or so with the cursor blinking at me as I couldn’t think of anything else… so the lesson here is producing content is hard! I like to produce small pieces of content every day, but these longer-form blog articles are a particular challenge. In a similar fashion to one of my other lessons above, don’t beat yourself up over writer’s block. This lesson came to me as I drifted off and started reading the news – and then it came to me that the lesson itself was the production of the article! Try and stay focused and be intentional when producing content is the lesson I wish to convey here.

Gavin Moorhouse is the owner of Lucid Computer Solutions a highly reputable IT Support and Computer Services covering Worcestershire, Warwickshire and the fringes of Birmingham.