What a year 2020 was.
I’m posting a shorter version of my usual review here, because quite frankly while I achieved a lot last year, I’m absolutely exhausted. As with most people, the move to working remotely full-time has been difficult because the boundaries between home and work life have been even more blurred than before. I’m no stranger to burn-out, but this particular way of working, staying at home enforced by law for some of us in the UK, has been a mental challenge.
I’m incredibly grateful for my health, and I know many people were affected terribly by the pandemic last year. In addition to dealing with the uncertainty and pressures of the pandemic myself, the added weight of trying to support those around you also takes its toll. I am grateful that I’ve been able to continue my work remotely where others have not been as fortunate. As I’ve said before, our industry is made for this way of working.
At the start of the year, I started a longer-term engagement with a new client which turned into a much bigger project, something I can get my teeth stuck into. As the pandemic hit hard, they’ve been a model client regarding how they’ve moved everyone to remote and supported the workforce. I’m fortunate to have engaged with Covéa Digital when I did, and I’m excited for that relationship to continue far into the future.
My desk became the space for a whole manner of things, not just working on client projects but also a production studio for Hey! and All Day Hey! Live. I won’t repeat what I’ve already written about those events, but 2020 was a year that I poured my heart into making the online versions of those events the best they can be. That meant my desk looked like a part-time studio for most the year as I juggled producing events with client work. I’ve learnt so much while doing the live-streamed events, and I’ll continue to polish them as we move into what looks like another year of socially-distanced events.
I also started a small side project to document some of the food I’ve been cooking in my spare time. Cooking has long been an escape for me, but I always struggled to remember the exact techniques and recipes for the things I’ve made. So the cooking notebook aims to resolve that.
The biggest news of the year for me has been that we welcomed another member to our family. We had wanted a dog for years, and 2020 was the year it finally happened. In April last year, Louie took his first step into the Nesbitt household.
Louie has by far been the best improvement surrounding our mental health last year. Ensuring we got out for walks and generally taking a moment to take stock of everything that’s going on. It was such a happy moment welcoming him into our family. That said, he’s also destroyed a Chesterfield sofa and many other things in our house, so it’s not all rainbows and sunshine! He’s coming up to being one year old in a month, and we look forward to many happy years with him.
I’m excited for 2021, to continue putting on high-quality events and conferences, remotely for now, and continue working with Covéa Digital to mature their engineering function. There are some other projects I’m hoping to surface too, but for now, I’ll keep them under wraps.
Here’s to a safe and prosperous 2021!