It’s been a ‘noticing’ kind of week. Mostly because I’ve been up to my neck in proofreading of one sort or another. But once you start looking at fine detail in one part of your life, it spills over into others and you start spotting micro-things all over the place
Don’t panic, this isn’t going to be a “take time to notice the small things” sort of newsletter. There’s plenty of that sort of thing on Instagram if you want it. No, this is more about how nice it has been to be untroubled by what’s in my peripheral vision for a few days and how helpful it can be, professionally speaking.
Aside from typos and poorly-phrased sentences, here are some things that I noticed this week:
While out jogging: dogs with human names. I bet you thought I was going to say “birdsong” or “signs of spring” or something similar. Wrong. The thing that I noticed was people calling their pets to heel with some unexpected names: Alan! Tanya! Mario! Susan! - and my favourite - Jason! Is this a thing? Like when old-lady names come back into fashion? It sounds so wrong but it made me very happy.
While killing time, waiting for the kettle to boil: echoes of W1A - specifically the BBC logo episode. First, the current iPlayer logo. It’s probably been like this for ages but I’ve only just spotted how, er, triangular it is. And then Morrison’s new milk cartons. Go star. Go David.
So, how is this remotely related to work, I hear you cry. Well, it’s definitely been good for me to know that I am still able to focus on detail, no matter how trivial. Obviously, we’re all still completely distracted by horrendous world events playing out on our doorstep and, in recent weeks, I’ve struggled to mentally commit to work. Even with a year’s worth of “how to concentrate” tips under my belt.
I’ve tried to analyse how I managed to flip the switch and I’m sorry to report that it’s nothing revelatory - just a whacking great pile of deadlines. But I don’t think that how one achieves a state of attentiveness is particularly important here. What’s important is what you do when you notice something in your professional life.
Day to day, I make pretty low-level use of ‘noticing’: when I notice wonky grammar, I correct it. I have no plans to start selling a range of dogwear, personalised with human names. (Or should I? Who wants to come in on my new business idea?)
But, with one of my other career-hats on, I often counsel clients to take notice of how people react to their work - both in terms of hard data and soft feedback. One good anecdote can bring insight and inspiration.
Put ‘noticing’ to good use and you can make real, positive change. Take the example of the Raspberry Pi computer - 10 years old last month, if you can believe it. This extraordinary little machine is the result of someone noticing a significant drop in admissions to study computer science at Cambridge - and then having a think about why and what could be done. If you watch one thing this week, let it be this delightful little animation - one good bit of ‘noticing’ can change the world.
Badge pinboard
Winnie the Pooh and his small friend Piglet. Looks like they’ve noticed something.