Welcome back to another instalment of our weeknotes… It’s been a very busy time for our team, partially due to our team being short staffed, but also due to the many web-requests we have received so far this month.

bluebells in the woods during spring

Reflections as we continue working in the open

Giles Turnbull, the author of The agile comms handbook, has written an updated guide about doing weeknotes. We are chuffed to be featured in Giles’ list of examples, he said: “This team has been writing weeknotes since late 2022. The notes are very team-specific, but published on the open web, in the public domain. My favourite kind of weeknote.”

He continues: “The notes achieved something else: they made the team’s inner workings visible enough that other people wanted to apply for jobs there, because they had read the notes. It’s not unusual for someone to apply for a job because they’ve heard verbally, on the grapevine, that a team is worth working with – but in this case there was no grapevine, the word wasn’t spread verbally. It was all down to the weeknotes.”

Prospective applicants were able to follow along with our team’s ups and downs by reading the weeknotes, and it let them gauge the energy of our team, and the type of work we do to help them decide for themselves if our team is a suitable fit for them. Some of our team’s newest members read our weeknotes before choosing to apply for a role at NRW.

hands holding a latte

Continued development within our team

To further improve our team’s knowledge in specialist areas, we have been attending courses to dive deeper into topic areas of interest.

Sophie, one of our Digital Publishing Officers, has joined a CDPS community of practice to connect with other people who are in the communicating digital space. CDPS also invites along guest speakers to talk about specialist topics and offers a range of support to other digital teams.

The community is a great place to discuss challenges and how to solve them as a group, as well as how working in the open can be necessary and advantageous to teams.

There are several CDPS communities of practice that bring people together to share knowledge and experience, discuss ideas and form networks to support professional development.

A bit of advice from our Digital Wooficers…

photoshopped image of a Bud the pug and Monty the dachshund in a high-rise office in New York City

It’s us, your friendly Digital Wooficers, popping in with some advice around managing your mental wellbeing in the digital age.

Technology is central to so much of what we do. It is important to check in with yourself and make changes to prioritise your wellbeing and get into good habits to protect yourself from feeling overwhelmed.

Monty the dachshund shares this advice: “Try to carve out some screen-free time at work and at home to give your brain, your eyes and your emotions a chance to calm down and relax. At work this can be difficult, but there are small changes you can make to lessen your screen time. For example, writing your weekly or daily to-do lists on paper notebooks instead of digitally, or limiting digital intrusions while you are focusing, such as using the Do Not Disturb feature, can also help you become more focussed and productive.”

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method based on 25-minute stretches of focused work broken by five-minute breaks. Longer breaks, typically 15 to 30 minutes, can then be incorporated after four consecutive work intervals. Breaking your work day up into bitesize segments can support your mental wellbeing, especially when the work is complicated or challenging.

Buddy the pug says: “Find ways to stay motivated. If you have annual leave to look forward to, or a long weekend due to a bank holiday later in the month, it is worth adding this to your calendar - to ensure you know when a 4-day week is approaching, but also as something nice to look forward to!”

Some of the next holidays you have to look forward to are:

  • Good Friday on 29 March 2024
  • Easter Monday on 1 April 2024
  • Early May Bank Holiday on 6 May 2024
  • Spring Bank Holiday on 27 May 2024

So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it… Make plans, organise to catch up with friends or go on an adventure with your family. What you choose to do is up to you, but having something to look forward to can make stressful days feel more manageable.

bud the pug wearing a sombrero with his luggage for Cinco de Mayo

Other things we’ve been working on:

  • James is working on analysing the marine licensing user interviews after finishing the last interview on Tuesday.
  • This week, our team worked with the wonderful Mary Galliers to source a new splash image for our website, this time featuring a little girl taking a look at the bluebells as we enter springtime.
  • Our Digital Officers have continued to work through the backlog, clearing a variety of tasks from Intranet updates to accessibility audits on documents for the website. If you sent in a content request form recently and haven’t heard back yet, please be patient as we work through the backlog during this busy time of year.
  • We’re looking forward to joining some of the Services Week 2024 events next week.

daffodils in the field

Friday Fun Fact

In the spirit of spring here’s a cute little joke:

What is a flower’s favourite kind of pickle?

A daffo-dill!