Week 30 of 2020 brings my first week off since Christmas, offline time in Rhodes, sci-fi books, loads of podcasts, the joy of magazines, swimming nearly 10km, Mindnodes and Leader Readme's.
- Time off from work – no computer, tablet or TV
- Instead, it was time offline with Kindle, podcasts and magazines
- We apprehensively booked a last minute flight to a friend's hotel in Rhodes with flight restrictions lifted this week.
- Flying through the lockdown was strange; Birmingham Airport was a ghost-town compared to the first Saturday of Summer Holidays every other year. The flight was at a hugely reduced capacity too – whether it was intentional or not – but certainly eased any concerns, even with face masks on permanently.
- I read some sci-fi for the first time in ages and enjoyed it more than I expected; finished Aftershock by Marko Kloos (fantasy multi-planet thriller) and started reading The Man Of Legends by Kenneth Johnson (another curious thriller, this time with some funky time-travelling happening)
- Caught up on my podcast cue in Overcast; Adapt (on the reality of working solely on an iPad), Super Managers (on meeting formats and leadership), Wired (general news and science, obviously very COVID-focused), Defected (I need some tunes whilst I'm chilling), Off Menu (and a giggle) and Lockdown Parenting (plus a bit topical humour)
- Enjoyed flicking through some paper-based mags; Total Film to catch up on the year's (delayed) movie releases and T3 to perv over some luxurious tech.
- Swimming. Lots of swimming. And, according to Apple Watch, more daily fitness than when I'm working during lockdown.
- In-between relaxation, I started using MindNode on my iPhone, creating mindmaps for iPad setup, Mac setup, On The Side, Make Life Work, travel history (following a chat with the family) and any thoughts about work.
- On the flight back, after listening to Michael Lopp on Super Managers, I started thinking about writing a Leader Readme (like my Manager Readme but with preferred semantics and shift in career focus). I started outlining my thoughts and will return to it next week.