Walk On: Another 365 Days of Walking

Summary

I’m pleased to report that I’ve completed another 365 days of walking in 2023, covering a grand total of 1,766km, which is the equivalent of walking to the northern coast of Iceland or as far as Gibraltar near Spain, or to Bratislava in Slovakia or to Stockholm in Sweden.

In total, I spent 291 hours walking the equivalent of 42 marathons (one every 8.5 days or so), which equates to an average of 4.84km per day, or 34km per week, or 147km per month.

This was a continuation of a journey that began in 2022 (see You’ll Never Walk Alone: Reflections of 365 Days of Walking) but with a slightly different (but no less satisfying or motivating) format which I’ve detailed below. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed walking it!

New Year, New Goal

Having walked 5km every single day of 2022, I began 2023 with an open mind about doing the same again. However, due to a combination of bad weather, unfortunate timing and family logistics, I finally broke my streak on 14 January 2023 – a streak that had lasted a whopping 378 days!

While I secretly knew this would eventually happen (walking 5km every single day is ultimately not sustainable because it can mean walking in very wet weather just for the sake of saying you took a walk, which was sometimes demoralising rather than motivating), I was still pretty devastated when it did happen. I took a complete break for several days to mull things over.

With the help of a long-time work colleague (Craig Brookes), who is an avid cyclist and who I’d been sharing my walking escapades with, I managed to find a way to accept and recover from the disappointment of breaking my streak.

Craig astutely pointed out that what I actually achieved in 2022 was to meet a goal that I’d set for myself (where the goal was to “walk 5km every single day”). Craig’s advice was to pick a different goal – one that was equally challenging (and healthy) but which did not bind me to walking every single day – and set about meeting that one instead.

That’s exactly what I did and I duly set a new goal to walk 1,500km over the year which worked out at 125km per month, or around 29km per week.

Activity Tracking

Another recommendation from Craig Brookes was to use the Strava app to track progress toward my goal. While I could have chosen any number of other activity tracking solutions, I took Craig’s recommendation in good faith and it did not let me down.

It added minimal overhead to my walks (where I merely needed to start and stop the app at the beginning and end of each walk), tracked both the distances and durations, along with the shoes worn and allowed me to enter a brief description of each walk which I decided to do also.

All of this functionality was available on the free edition, too, which was a welcome bonus.

Equipment

In my view, walking requires little or no investment in specialist equipment. My essentials are:

  • Shoes: Any decent walking shoes will suffice but I chose Nike Pegasus 40 because they give me the option to try jogging from time to time as well (trust me: you do not want to try jogging in walking shoes, as you’ll learn shortly).
  • Earphones: I use Samsung Galaxy Buds and they’ve been brilliant – really comfortable with no protruding parts, terrific sound and really excellent battery life (one week, easily).
  • Spotify (or equivalent): Any source of music or podcasts will suffice, but I personally could not walk without listening to something as I’d get bored too quickly.
  • Weather Tracker: Doing anything outdoors in Ireland requires careful planning around the weather. I used the RTE Weather service to plan the optimum time (day or night) to avoid the wind and rain, and after two years of using it, I’m very, very confident in its accuracy.

Apart from this, a decent jacket and hat during winter and some breathable t-shirts and shorts during summer should set you up for success.

Diet

I didn’t really (have to) make any wholesale changes to my diet because of my walking routine, but I definitely noticed the impact (or not) of different kinds of food and the impact of my meal times. 

For example, if I went for a walk shortly before lunchtime (having not eaten a lunch), I’d definitely feel the effects of that half-way around, and would struggle a little on the way home. In terms of foods I felt gave more energy, pasta and porridge were top of the list, that I recall.

Taking a drink afterwards is super important too, I learned, as you can easily become dehydrated in the hours and days that follow, which can cause other side effects.

My first sports injury

Some time in late autumn, as the very hot weather had abated and I was really enjoying the levels of fitness I was feeling, I became curious about what it might take to try some jogging (as a natural evolution of walking).

I knew that doing so in tiny bursts (e.g. walk for 400m, jog for 100m) was the right way to start, but I overlooked two very important other factors:

  1. You cannot jog in walking shoes – they’re simply not designed to absorb the levels of shock involved in jogging.
  2. As a beginner, your jogging stride needs to land on the balls of your feet, not your heels.

I paid a very heavy price for overlooking these and was out of action for 9 days, needing a doctor’s visit followed by physiotherapy to recover fully. You live and you learn, right?

The Weather

Like in 2022, the weather was an important factor in my 2023 journey. As above, I relied heavily on the RTE Weather service to plan the best times for a dry walk, or to accept that I would not be able to walk at all. I also think that 2023 was a much wetter year than 2022, because I missed around 20 walks due to rain in 2023, whereas I seem to recall walking in heavy rain just 5 times in 2022.

That being said, the majority of other kinds of weather, which included sunshine, warmth, starry nights, full moons, crisp cold, high and low tides, provided no shortage of unique moments to remember fondly, for all sorts of different reasons.

Wellbeing

I’m very happy to say that I’ve continued to develop and discover my own flavour of wellbeing as a result of walking regularly. It remains rooted in knowing that doing so is ultimately good for me, but also extends to a sense of accomplishment (for having met the goals I set for myself) as well as numerous emotions that evoke senses of happiness, sadness, reflectiveness and gratitude about a wide range of topics.

In many ways, I feel that my walks have turned into a form of “me time”, which I happen to spend while taking some exercise in parallel. The time is mostly spent listening to podcasts or music, but is sometimes spent getting lost in your own thoughts (about life and/or people past and present), all of which ultimately feels good for the soul and leaves you feeling quite energised.

Entertainment

I definitely listened to more podcasts than music in 2023.

Musically, I circled around some of the back catalogues of Van Halen, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Smiths, and even some ABBA (their songs actually have nice, regular beats well suited to walking) and Harry Styles, while rediscovering the genius that is John Willams (several times), plus numerous classical offerings which I find quite relaxing and uplifting.

In terms of podcasts in 2023, these ones are now my regulars (in order of frequency/popularity):

  • The 2 Johnnies – probably still my favourite
  • The Rest is Football (with Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards)
  • RTE Documentary on One
  • The Gary Neville Podcast
  • Sky Sports Football
  • Sky Sports F1
  • Crime World (by Sunday World journalist, Nicola Tallant)

While I don’t listen to as many episodes as I used to, the Documentary on One series from RTE remains a treasure trove of fascinating stories, as uplifting as they are sad and as educating as they are enlightening. Crime World is OK (but only OK) and I found the episodes a little repetitive after a while. I’m sure others may feel similar about sport, but that’s just my take on it.

By the numbers

I’ll finish with a few statistics for the other data nerds like myself, most of which I gleaned from Strava but some of which I took from a homegrown spreadsheet that I used to complement Strava:

  • Totals
    • Total Distance Walked: 1,765km
    • Total Time Walking: 291 hours
    • Total Number of Walks: 383
    • Number of Days Missed / Walked: 53 (15%) / 312 (85%)
  • Longest
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Day: 14.3km (September)
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Week: 53.9km (December)
    • Longest Distance Walked in a Month: 206.4km (December)
    • Longest Distance Walked in 7 consecutive days: 63.2km (December)
    • Longest Walking Streak: 48 days (July – September)
  • Averages
    • Average Distance Per Day: 4.84km
    • Average Distance Per Week: 34.4km
    • Average Distance Per Month: 139.2km

Revised Goals

My original goal of 1,500km only required me to walk an average of 4.1km per day. However, as my regular route (to and from Tramore Promenade) was closer to 5.2km, I actually met my original goal in mid-November and was on target to surpass the original by around 200km.

I therefore decided to set a revised target of 1,750km to see how I’d fare. This took a little more perseverance towards the end but was ultimately achievable in the time available.

Even in the final week of the year, I realised that I could reach 200km in a single month, so I tweaked the revised goal once more and ended up surpassing that by a small margin too, all without too much effort.

Final Reflections, in a Word (Cloud)

As I mentioned earlier, I took the liberty of entering short descriptions for each walk into Strava. I didn’t have any particular reason for doing this back in January but did feel that one might present itself as the days and weeks passed by, and so it did.

This Word Cloud was generated from the descriptions I entered in Strava and, on reflection, I think it’s a pretty accurate visualisation of what I remember as the prominent elements of my year of walking.

Until next time…

You’ll Never Walk Alone!

You’ll Never Walk Alone: Reflections of 365 Days of Walking

Inspiration

I began taking some extra exercise at the beginning of 2022, in the form of walking near my home town of Tramore, Co. Waterford in Ireland. After completing 7 days in a row, walking 4 km per day, I decided to keep going to see if I could make it to 28 days in a row, which I did.

I then added an extra kilometre to my route and set my sights on 50 days, which soon became 100, which became 200 followed by 300 and finally, today, Saturday, 31 December 2022, I am delighted to have completed 365 consecutive days of walking. With an average of 5 km per day, that’s a grand total of 1,825 kilometres for the year!

While chatting about this with various people during the final weeks of 2022, the questions about why and how kept coming up. As I recounted the same answers each time, I was encouraged to share some insights into what inspired me to undertake this personal accomplishment, how I did it and what I have learned from it. Here are some of those insights.

Why

There were two main reasons why I undertook the journey that has transpired – why I started it (primary) and why I finished it (secondary). On reflection, only the first of these was apparent to me at the beginning of 2022.

The primary goal was to improve the amount of regular exercise I was getting, or not getting as was actually the case. Having an office-based job for all my professional working life, with a busy family life, I had known for some time that I was simply not getting nearly enough exercise. For me, the Covid-19 pandemic made this worse but also, eventually, made it more apparent, so I decided to finally try doing something about it in 2022.

The secondary goal, which only emerged towards the end of January 2022, was driven more by an emergent desire for personal accomplishment – to see if I could actually make it all the way to the end of the year without missing a day and, if so, what might I learn (or benefit) from that.

Weather

Anyone who knows an Irish person will know that we just love to talk about the weather. And so it is only fitting that I begin my insights with some reflections on this aspect of my journey.

Barring a proper bout of snow, which rarely happens in Ireland anyway (even less so in the seaside town where I live), I think I walked in all of the typically Irish weather conditions during 2022, which included wind, rain, fog, hailstones, balmy sunshine and frosty cold.

I think the warmest I walked in was 30C (in August) and the coldest was -4C (in December) and I can say with absolute certainty that, while dry weather was definitely preferable, it was the wind that really, really tested my resolve above anything else. Not only was windy weather significantly more draining on energy levels (burning more calories to walk the same distance) but it ruined any audio tracks I was listening to along the way, while raising body temperatures higher than wanted.

Surprisingly, for a country that sees a lot of rain, I only had to wear full-blown waterproof clothing around 5 times during the entire year and, of those, I only actually got properly wet around twice. This was partly due to the accuracy of the weather forecasting provided by Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, whose predictability allowed me to time many of my walks avoiding any rain.

Ironically, the very last day of the year was one of the wettest of the year too.

Walking Routes

Well over 90% of my walks took the same basic route, which was a loop from my house to the Tramore beach area, along the promenade and then back home again via a slightly different road, which was almost exactly 5 km in total length.

There were some days when, either because of weather or other circumstances, I was only able to manage 3 or 4 km, with 2 km being the absolute minimum I settled for. I made up for any difference by walking a little extra on other days but this was significantly less than 10% of the time overall.

It was only during holidays or day/weekend trips that alternative routes were used and these were usually devised with the goal of keeping my monthly averages ticking over.

Entertainment

Curiously, a key factor in surviving my year-long escapade was avoiding boredom – something that quickly seemed to stymie previous attempts to take regular exercise. In this regard, it was my Smartphone (and Spotify) that made the real difference, in the form of podcasts and music.

I think that, for every 4 weeks I spent listening to podcasts, I spent one week listening to music. The musical themes varied highly, often being influenced by podcast topics, which included:

  • Playlists with songs whose basic rhythm were precisely 120 beats per minute, which seemed to suit my natural stride.
  • Numerous guilty pleasures from the 1970s and 1980s, including Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Metallica, Billy Joel, Queen, Prince, ABBA and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
  • The Soundtracks to several movies (incl. Platoon, O’ Brother Where Art Thou, Forrest Gump, The Commitments, Baby Driver, Pulp Fiction)
  • Relistening to compilations that I used to own on cassette tape (incl. Now That’s What I Call Music Volume 4 and The Hits Tape Volume 2)
  • Rediscovering a wide range of Classical Music (incl. Strauss, Bach and Mozart).
  • Ireland’s own Jack Lukeman, who released a new album on vinyl during 2022 too.

The main podcasts I listened to (which could easily justify an entire separate article) included:

  • The 2 Johnnies
  • The Witness: In His Own Words
  • The Missing Cryptoqueen
  • The Making of a Detective
  • Murder in Mauritius 
  • Why Would You Tell Me That?
  • The Unusual Suspects
  • Red Notice
  • RTE Documentary on One

The Documentary on One series from RTE is an absolute treasure trove of fascinating stories dating back several decades and, with each one being around 45 minutes in length, they are also ideally suited to the duration of most of my walks. I definitely had a lot of favourites here (and skipped a few too) but far too many to list them individually here. This series is absolutely worth exploring in more detail, though, and I highly recommend it.

Reflections

So, looking back at my year of walking, what do I think I achieved from it?

Fitness

I set out expecting that improvements in my general fitness would be the main takeaway from this exercise (pardon the pun) and indeed it was. Back in January, it was taking me 40 minutes to walk 4 km and I was in really poor shape after doing so (aching, sweating).

However, I am now able to comfortably walk 5 km in the same amount of time (40 minutes), which equates to a brisk pace of 7.5km per hour. In addition, there are no particular dramatics in terms of body temperature or major fatigue afterwards (unless it’s very windy or rainy, of course).

For added fun, I also did all of my walking without a fitness tracker and instead gauged my fitness progress based on where, within a specific playlist of a very specific length (e.g. 45 minutes) I managed to complete my walk. When I first set out, I was just happy to get home before the playlist ended but I then set my sights on finishing before the guitar solo in the last song and then getting there with an entire song to spare. Maybe my daughter is right – I’m such a tech nerd after all!

Wellbeing

I’ve heard lots of people talking about wellbeing and using “good for the soul” narratives in the past, but was never quite sure if/how this applied to walking. I’m happy to report that I think I now understand what they were referring to.

Apart from the innate sense that my new exercise regime is good for me (and seeing small wins via improvements in my general fitness), I have found immense personal satisfaction in having completed an entire year of walking. Admittedly, there are a great many people who take just as many steps in an average day during normal life, so it’s less about the distance and more about the commitment I gave it.

The other benefit I felt, which sits within the wellness genre also, was the simple joy to be had in hearing certain songs from a playlist begin just as the ocean came into view, or as the moon appeared from behind some clouds, or as some other aspect of nature took my breath away, all to the sound of a strong musical beat, guitar solo or a poignant lyric.

I found these enormously uplifting, even emotional at times, and drew wonderful energy from them, which is a benefit that I definitely was not expecting when I set out back in January.

Mother Nature

Perhaps less unique to walking and more to do with simply being outdoors, I also found the various sights and sounds of mother nature to be enormously refreshing. From picturesque dawns and dusks, to stunning sunsets, starry nights and full moons, combined with the smell of fresh cut grass, low tide, cotton candy or fish & chips, there was plenty to savour here too.

Education and Musical Rediscovery

At 45-50 minutes per walk, I reckon I spent close to 300 hours listening to music or podcasts. Not only were many of the podcasts hugely educational (far more than I expected) but I also found myself discovering so much music that I’d forgotten I liked too. I had a few guilty pleasures thrown in here for good measure as well, all of which added to the enjoyment of the time I spent walking.

Next Steps

A few people have asked me if I’m going to keep the momentum going by continuing to walk every day in 2023. While I’ll absolutely keep walking regularly, I’ve not yet decided if I can truly justify or sustain the commitment needed for another year.

Upgrading to jogging is an option to consider too, as is walking a slightly longer distance every other day. I’m just mindful of the pressure to walk every single day, which could easily become an obsession that counteracts the other benefits, and there were definitely times this year when it felt a little this way so I’m very keen to avoid this spoiling the underlying purpose of the exercise.

All in all, it was a journey I’m very glad I started and I’m definitely not done, so you’ll definitely see me out and about near my home town regularly in 2023. I’m also immensely grateful to my wife for creating the extra time and space in our busy family life to allow me to venture out at random times during the day, every single day, in all kinds of weather.

You’ll Never Walk Alone!

Fifty Firsts for a 51st Orbit of the Sun

For the day that’s in it, and because today’s milestone will see me commence my 51st orbit of the sun, I have been reflecting on some of the milestones that have shaped my life during the first 50 orbital cycles. In many ways, these are a template for what many life journeys look like over time but where the precise details on how the milestones happen are different for all of us, in good ways and in bad, just as it should be.

In the interest of time (and data privacy, as some of the details could be used as security questions for online systems), I’ve deliberately not divulged any specifics. However, I have enjoyed recalling those to myself and my family, and hope that you enjoy reflecting on your own individual answers with you and yours, no matter what age you are (or are not). 

I guess the ordering of the items is somewhat chronological (and telling) in my case, which can result in some curious inferences about my priorities in life at the time 🙂

  1. First childhood memory
  2. First Christmas morning (that you remember)
  3. First day at school
  4. First time riding a bicycle (without stabilisers)
  5. First time shooting a gun
  6. First time visiting your Dad’s place of work to see what he does all day long
  7. First time catching a fish by yourself
  8. First time rowing a boat by yourself
  9. First time riding a horse (or donkey)
  10. First time at Bingo (and winning £25, a small fortune at that age)
  11. First time camping (in a tent without a zip on the doors)
  12. First time swimming more than 5 metres by yourself
  13. First time staying up past midnight to see the clock radio switch from 23:59 to 00:00
  14. First time on stage performing at a music, arts or culture event
  15. First time on TV
  16. First sports day at your parent’s place of work
  17. First state exams
  18. First record/tape/CD (or digital music) purchase, with your own money
  19. First time on an oceanic car ferry
  20. First date
  21. First kiss
  22. First paying job
  23. First bank account not controlled by my parents
  24. First Godchild
  25. First time paying tax (still don’t understand that one)
  26. First time voting in a national election
  27. First pint (Guinness, of course)
  28. First hangover (resulting in lifelong aversion/allergy to a specific alcoholic brand)
  29. First time passing your driving test
  30. First college qualification (29 years ago today too, as it happens)
  31. First night after moving out of home
  32. First professional job (for which you are academically qualified)
  33. First serious data loss due to not taking backups seriously (credit to Heather MayburyRIP for using a blameless culture (before that was a thing) to help me learn from it).
  34. First flight
  35. First sun holiday
  36. First car
  37. First (and only) marriage proposal – when, where, and how?
  38. First house (and mortgage)
  39. First (and only) wife, where your house became a home
  40. First neighbour’s house warming, who would become lifelong friends to this day!
  41. First time being best man at a wedding
  42. First person you’ve met who was born after Italia ‘90
  43. First mid-week barbecue leading to copious amounts of Bulmers cider
  44. First child, and the unbridled joy of calling yourself a Father (followed by abject fear of what lies ahead by being responsible for something so beautifully delicate)
  45. First life loss (and what this can teach you about life) – one I’d rather was not on this list
  46. First College Reunion
  47. First time skiing (on snow), and thinking you didn’t need sun cream because it was so cold.
  48. First time paragliding
  49. First time arriving on a video call, expecting a single colleague but finding half of your extended work team there to wish you a happy milestone birthday, complete with photos from your earlier years that were clearly provided by members of your immediate family!
  50. First loss of a parent (definitely missing my Dad today)

So as I begin my 51st orbit of the sun, I count myself very lucky to have experienced so much good in my life (with a little bit of the bad and the sad to keep me firmly grounded).

I hope you enjoy thinking of some of the moments that have shaped your life, along the same lines as mine above, and I look forward to updating the list in the years and good times ahead.

Thanks for listening!

Reeling in the Tears

I recently came into possession of a rather curious looking spool of tape when going through some old things belonging to my Dad. This surprise discovery (which, amazingly, he never thought to mention when he was alive) was initially met with a mixture of curiosity and excitement, but then tinged with sadness as I remembered he is no longer around to ask about its origins or contents.

Of course the curiosity soon got the better of me and I felt I owed it to him to find out what was on it anyway, considering he had clearly safeguarded it for the better part of 50 years. I therefore set about finding a way to have it converted to some form of modern digital media.

I began by contacting a friend who had recently converted some vintage video reels of the same shape and size, and while he was able to confirm that I was in possession of a Reel-to-Reel Audio tape, he did not himself possess a suitable playing device and neither did any of his hobbyist friends. Fortunately, The Force is strong in this one and so we kept trying.

I then decided to try my luck on the I Am Waterford Facebook page (home to some 20,000 Waterford natives) and was greeted with a delightful array of helpful suggestions, a sizeable majority of which were directing me towards one person, Gary Burns (Audio Visual Technical Officer at Waterford Institute of Technology), who later chimed in himself and offered to do the conversion for me.

As we both live in the same town, I was able to hand over the reel the following day, and within a few days of that I found myself downloading an audio file with the contents of the reel in all its crackly glory – all 35 minutes of it!

Naturally, the anticipation at this point was sky high and indeed, I took a quiet moment to prepare for an emotional reveal. After all, no matter what was on this reel, it was put there for a reason and that reason alone represented an insight into a part of my father’s life that I knew nothing about until that very moment. I consider myself very lucky to have that opportunity, as those in my position will no doubt understand.

So what was on the reel, I hear you ask? Well, I had given this some thought during the previous few days and thought it might have been a recording of him (or his family) singing or playing the accordion, or perhaps a recording of someone describing some of the video reel footage I’d converted some years earlier.

In the end, it was actually none of the above and instead was a collection of 14 songs recorded from the radio, ranging from 1969 to 1974. There were occasional hints of the voice of Brendan Balfe along the way (a popular RTE Radio presenter at that time), so I’m assuming it was his radio show that was being recorded.

Here is a full catalog of the extracted from the reel, which was derived after several hours of painstaking listening for recognisable lyrics, against a backdrop of electrical noise and melodic crackling. I’ve linked each one to a YouTube video of the original song for you to enjoy also:

  1. No Matter How I Try (Gilbert O’Sullivan @ 1971)
  2. Goin’ Down (Jeff Beck @ 1972)
  3. Sing a Song of Freedom (Cliff Richard @ 1974)
  4. Soley Soley (Middle of the Road @ 1971)
  5. Softly Whispering I Love You (Congregation @ 1972)
  6. The Sunset Years of Life (Slim Dusty @ 1965)
  7. Cotton Fields Back Home (Credence Clearwater Revival @ 1969)
  8. Big Strong Man (The Wolfe Tones @ 1970)
  9. You Can Get It If You Really Want (Desmond Dekker @ 1970)
  10. I’ll Take Care of Your Cares (Frankie Laine @ 1967)
  11. I Will Follow You (Dana @ 1970)
  12. Sweetheart (Engelbert Humperdinck @ 1971)
  13. Banquet for the World (Freshmen @ 1970
  14. Which Way You Goin’ Billy (Poppy Family @ 1969

Apart from the curious variety in musical styles (and fashion), I was actually rather impressed with the coolness of some of the tracks, especially Jeff Beck and Credence Clearwater Revival. He certainly kept a few of those guilty pleasures quiet for all the years that he instead lauded the dulcet tones of Foster & Allen!

All in all, this was a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit very emotional, few days that, thanks to the help of people I had never even known one week before, is now set to become part of a new chapter in our family memorabilia that I hope will last for another 50 years, and more.

Thanks Dad, and thanks Gary!

Building a Cloud while in the Clouds

So you’re heading to the US for some business meetings with your Chief Architect then you get upgraded to business class where there’s free WiFi and you’ve got 6 hours to kill. You options are watch movies (seen them all before), drink wine (a given) and/or have an in-flight hackathon to test out the quality of the WiFi.

And so we did just that and went ahead and provisioned an instance of the latest Aerogear Mobile Services powered by OpenShift Origin, resulting in very own cloud platform built in the clouds!

Indeed, the Internet connection was spotty at best but in between the spottiness, our installer script did run to completion…

…and we did (eventually) get the all-elusive OpenShift Console with the Mobile tab in all it’s beautiful glory.

We also needed to get very creative in order to share the screen shots (which involved USB-C cables and several other travel accessories that only an Architect and Director would have) despite physically sitting beside each other, but such is life. And for good measure, we also published this blog article from the air!

So what have you done to test your in-flight WiFi and how was it for you?

More Effective Meetings with Google G Suite

There are plenty of spirited articles that outline techniques for more effective and efficient meetings. But assuming you’ve done the basics that the theorists recommend, how can modern software tools help you squeeze that little bit of extra time and effort out of your meetings?

In this blog post, I’ll show you some simple tips on how to use Google’s G Suite (a.k.a. Google Docs) to reduce the running time of your meetings, efficiently identify and assign actions, as well as ways for attendees to get more value from the meeting and track what actions were assigned to them (at this and other meetings they attended).

And please don’t be tempted to give up after reading the first 1-2 items, thinking you know this stuff already. Trust me, the rest of them will be worth it.

Google G Suite

Originally named Google Docs, G Suite is the current name of Google’s web-hosted productivity software offering. Along with the usual Email (Gmail) and File Sharing (Drive) services, it also comes with a variety of “office” software products, including (but not limited to) Docs, Sheets and Slides, each of which support a wide range of very neat collaboration features.

There are, of course, similar offerings from other vendors but I’ve not used those as much as G Suite. But enough about thats, let’s get your efficiency up!

1) Sharing

Because Google Docs are stored in the Google Cloud (and not on your local laptop), more than one person can access them at the same time. And in terms of what these people (a.k.a. collaborators) can do, they:

  • Can View – people can see/read the contents of the document but cannot change it.
  • Can Comment – people can see the contents of the document, can make comments on that content but cannot make changes to the document itself. Their changes need to be reviewed (and approved) by the document owner.
  • Can Edit – people can edit the document directly themselves, or make comments on content created by others.

So assuming that you’ve already/recently created a Google Doc to track your meeting(s), and assuming you’ve outlined a very basic agenda therein, the first thing you should do is share that document with the others attendees, giving them Edit access.

That way, they can add their comments/updates ahead of time and give a verbal update during the meeting instead. Not only will this be a more engaging experience for them and others (allowing for a more focused discussion) but it will also save the chairperson the time of having to minute their verbal update, which will keep the meeting moving along. This could also give the chairperson just enough time to record actions relevant to those updates there and then, also saving them time after the meeting.

Once the meeting has concluded and once you’ve made any final adjustments to the notes/actions, you should then share the document to the final, wider audience with Can Comment access. This will automatically alert them that the meeting notes are available for review, but also allow them to ask any follow-up questions they might have but without consuming the time of all the original attendees – just the document owner.

2) Comments

Anyone with Can Edit or Can Comment access to a Google Doc can select sections of text and make a comment about them. These comments are then recorded in the document for others to see (or respond to). The document owner is also alerted (by email or mobile alert) when a comment is made in one of their documents.

It’s also possible to reference another collaborator when making a comment in a document (assuming they have access to the document). This can be done by referencing their email address (with a plus symbol before it) in the comment body. In this case, that collaborator will also receive an alert (as will the owner).

Once a comment thread (or discussion) has concluded (i.e. the question has been answered), the document owner can Resolve the comment, after which it will no longer be visible. It will always be recorded in the document history but only visible to the document owner thereafter.

3) Introducing Action Items

This is where it begins to get really interesting, so thanks for sticking with us until now.

In more recent updates to G Suite, Google enhanced the commenting functionality so that when referencing another collaborator you have the option to Assign the comment as an Action Item to them. The difference between this and an ordinary comment may not be entirely obvious yet, but keep reading and you’ll see the value shortly.

4) Auto-Assignment of Action Items

In order to initiate a regular comment (or Action Item) in a document, you first need to select some text, choose the Insert, Comment menu option, address the intended collaborator and tick the to option to Assign as Task. That’s a lot of typing and clicking, when you’re otherwise trying to listen to meeting attendees give verbal updates and transpose those into appropriate notes and actions (for them or others).

Fortunately, G Suite has a very clever feature that can help (subject to certain conditions). If the document owner (or another collaborator with Edit access) phrases an update to the document in a certain way (e.g. “John to follow up with the Sales team”) and the document has been explicitly shared with someone called John, then G Suite will automatically attempt to assign that piece of text as an Action Item to John (prompting you first of course).

This is not only another excellent time saver but another reason to share the document ahead of time (to the right people). It’s also a strong incentive to be more prescriptive and succinct in your narrative as the meeting chairperson.

5) Revealing and Reviewing Your Action items

So you and your colleagues are a few weeks into your new G Suite regime and you’ve personally chaired a good few meetings and attended several others. And in doing so, you know you’ve amassed a sizeable number of action items but have no idea which documents they’re in or how to find them (since your last browser restart did not preserve your open tabs).

So give this a try instead:

  1. Go to your Google Drive home page.
  2. In the Search box at the top, enter the criteria: followup:actionitems (or click the Search Options, scroll to the bottom and select the Follow up drop-down menu and select the Action items only option).
  3. Voila! You now have a list of all Google Docs where there’s an action on you (including ones not owned by you).

Note that this does not work for ordinary comments – you need to be sure that the original comments were Assigned as Action Items in their respective documents.

You’re Welcome!

A Simple Model for Managing Change Windows

One of the more common things we do in the Cloud Operations team at Red Hat Mobile is facilitate changes to environments hosted on the Red Hat Mobile Application Platform, either on behalf of our customers or for our own internal operational purposes.

These are normally done within what is commonly known as a “Change Window”, which is a predetermined period of time during which specific changes are allowed to be made to a system, in the knowledge that fewer people will be using the system or where some level of service impact (or diminished performance) has been deemed acceptable by the business owner.

We have used a number of different models for managing Change Windows over the years, but one of our favourite approaches (that adapts equally well to both simple and complex changes and that is easy for our customers and internal stakeholders to understand) is this 5-phase model.

Planning

The planning phase is basically about identifying (and documenting) a solid plan that will serve as a rule book for all the other elements in this model (below). In addition to specifying the (technical) steps required to make (and validate) the necessary changes, your plan should also include additional (non-technical) information that you will most likely need to share externally so as to set the appropriate expectations with the affected users. This includes specifying:

  • What changes are you planning to make?
  • When are you proposing to make them?
  • How long will they take to complete?
  • What will the impact (if any) be on the users of the system before, during and after the changes are made?
  • Is there anything your customers/users need to do beforehand or afterwards?
  • Why are you making these changes?

Your planning phase should also include a provision for formally communicating the key elements of your plan (above) with those interested in (or affected by) it.

Commencement

The commencement phase is about executing on the elements of your plan that can be done ahead of time (i.e. in the hours or minutes before the Change Window formally opens) but that do not involve any actual changes.

Examples include:

  1. Capturing the current state of the system (before it is changed) so that you can verify the system has returned to this state afterwards.
  2. Issuing a final communication notice to your users, confirming that the Change Window is still going ahead.
  3. Configuring any monitoring dashboards so that the progress (and impact) of the changes can be analysed in real time once they commence.

The commencement phase can be a very effective way to maximise the time available during the formal Change Window itself, giving you extra time to test your changes or handle any unexpected issues that arise.

Execution

The execution phase is where the planned changes actually take place. Ideally, this will involve iterating through a predefined set of commands (or steps) in accordance with your plan.

One important mantra which has stood us in good stead here over the years is, “stick to the plan”. By this we mean, within reason, try not to get distracted by minor variations in system responses which could consume valuable time, to the point where you run out of time and have to abandon (or roll back) your changes.

It’s also strongly recommended that the input to (and outputs from) all commands/steps are recorded for reference. This data can be invaluable later on if there is a delayed impact on the system and steps need to be retraced.

Validation

Again this phase should be about iterating through a predefined set of verification steps that may include examining various monitoring dashboards, running automated acceptance/regression test tooling, all in accordance with two very basic principles:

  1. Have the changes achieved what they were designed to (i.e. does the new functionality work)?
  2. Have there been any unintended consequences of the changes (i.e. does all the old functionality still work, or have you broken something)?

Again, it’s very important to capture evidence of the outcomes from validation phase, both as evidence to confirm the changes have been completed successfully and that the system has returned to it’s original state.

All Clear

This phase is very closely linked to the validation phase but is slightly more abstract (and usually less technical) in nature. It’s primary purpose is to act as a higher-level checklist of tasks that must to be completed, in order that the final, formal communication to the customer (or users) can be sent, confirming that the work has been completed and verified successfully.

 

Google Apps free account limit being reduced

If you’ve been considering moving your domain to Google Apps, and you are likely to need more than 10 accounts, you might want to consider moving before 10 May 2011 as they are tightening the rules on the maximum number of user accounts you can have on the free account from that date.

Here’s the official announcement I received from Google earlier today:

We recently announced upcoming changes to the maximum number of users for Google Apps. We want to let you know that, as a current customer, the changes will not affect you.

As of May 10, any organization that signs up for a new account will be required to use the paid Google Apps for Business product in order to create more than 10 users. We honor our commitment to all existing customers and will allow you to add more than 10 users to your account for xxxxx.com at no additional charge, based on the limit in place when you joined us.

Still though, a 10 user limit is probably good enough for most personal uses and to be fair, $50 per user per year, it’s still very good value for money.

Samsung Galaxy Tab: First Thoughts

I got the opportunity to borrow a brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab for a day this week. Nice!

The extra screen real estate really make a lot of difference when you’re trying to stay in contact with the office, and I setting up my Google account on it was a complete breeze (as it us on it’s aby brother, the Galaxy S). The absence of the physical buttons across the bottom on the front screen took a little getting used to but the power button on the side began to work better for me as the day wore on. They’ve also put a little more thought into the quick access icons which are easier to use.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

If I had any criticism really, it would be that removing my Google account settings from the device after I was finished with it was not very straightforward. In fact I had to do a complete factory reset of the device to do so, losing all the installed apps and configuration settings in the process. Now I know there are ways to speed us the recovery process here (AppBrain, for example) and that it’s probably not a very common thing to want to do with a portable device (certainly not with a mobile phone).

However, the increased screen size on this tab (and other pads) might tempt some small companies to buy a shared one for ad-hoc travelling employees to share, so perhaps it’s not that unreasonable after all.

In any case, it’s a really great device and did exactly what I needed it to on the day.