The Friday Thing #707

Wow…the Tour de France has thrown up some real surprises this week including two gigantic crashes on Stage 1. Best of all though, Mark Cavendish is back. For those following along, you will know how incredible that story is….one for a future edition.

The Friday Thing #707 is a bit of a remix of the long history of this newsletter/blog/whateveritis with the last few months of more introspective writing from me. By that, I mean that the first 600+ editions were generally focused on me sharing something fun/cool/interesting etc. that I found on the Internet that I thought worth sharing – that was the genesis of the Friday Thing way back in March 2007. Over the last few months, things have shifted to me sharing thoughts on storytelling, books, leadership, and more. 707 is going to be a mix of both.

Let’s start with the fun piece so you can just get to that part should you choose. It’s a website called Noizer . I have shared similar websites in the past that create ambient sounds of coffee shops, or rainforests but what I like about Noizer is:

1. It lets you choose your mood – Productivity, Focus or Relax
2. It’s more relevant than ever given we are in the era “hybrid work” – be that working from home, office, shed, under a staircase, in a coffee shop, in our cars….

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Pick a mood and Noizer will dial in some sounds for you across the spectrum shown below. Check it out – I think you’ll like it. Right now, I am enjoying some airplane sounds which is where I have had some of my most productive hours over the years. Well, until planes got Wi-Fi of course.?

Okay, that’s part one of #707 dealt with.

Part 2 is what’s on my mind as I think about the return to the office that is on the horizon here in the Pacific Northwest at least.

I anticipate being back in the office quite a bit more in September, but that word office has always been quite fluid for me. In fact, even before I began my professional work career, I would think about where to work to best suit the mental state I needed to be in to get that work done. Focus? I would take myself to Bebington Central Library. Creativity? I would find somewhere I could lay out all the magazines I used to buy/borrow from my paper-round. Relaxation? I’d lie on my bed or ride my BMX for that.

Accelerate forward 30+ years and things haven’t changed too much (apart from the BMX part). Before I moved to Microsoft’s HQ in Redmond, Washington I would regularly visit from the UK. During those visits, I would spend time exploring the sprawling Microsoft campus to find new places to work that would meet my productivity + energy needs. That only accelerated when I moved here 11 years ago. The library on campus was initially a good spot for focus. Then I found a creative studio that some friends from Zune inhabited in Pioneer Square; then I found another friend who worked in Smith Tower who had an amazing view and all the grandeur of that building; then I found Studio C where the designers lived. Then I found the café areas in our Bellevue offices with amazing views across the mountains and lakes. And on it went – local coffee shops that had just the right vibe, a co-working space in Capitol Hill with great coffee. The list goes on.

I also found the places I didn’t like to work – meeting rooms that were long and thin and completely useless for brainstorming because the whiteboard was in the wrong spot and the light shone badly in the room after 11am. Shared workspaces that had no natural light and meeting rooms that were like goldfish bowls and full of distractions.

All of this is on my mind as I begin to plan my return to this office – matching spaces and places to the mode and mood required both for me and my team. I’ve always thought of myself as a bit of a nomadic worker – which doesn’t mean I am planning to work on the Appalachian Trail – more that even within a small circumference it’s possible to find (or create) different vibes to support the work I need to get done.

There is a whole book on this that I wish I could give you some tips from – but I have yet to read it, so Change Your Space, Change Your Culture ?has now been pushed up on my Audible playlist because very soon I will be in my car and then on a plane. More nomadic places to be productive.

That’s all for this week. Hopefully some useful food for thought.

Happy Friday and Happy 4th of July looooooong weekend. I’m off to get it started….

?-Steve