Tony Yates

Weeknotes S01E01

Tony Yates -

My First Weeknote

This is my first attempt at publishing weeknotes. I have thought about doing them the last few years but worry about the discipline to write something publish worthy each week. I always write a summary of my week in my bullet journal and reflect on them but there isn't any added pressure. I have also worried over writing them when I am not a NHS/GOV employee but figure that is where my company focuses all it's effort, maybe other suppliers will become more open as a result, if I can keep it up.

The tipping point is that I really like reading other peoples and read Andy Callow's religiously, mainly because we are two pee's in a pod on a lot of things, I spent a decade in an Acute hospital too, so it's nice to read how a digital approach is being adopted, I recommend you take a look at Andy's.

What did I achieve

A foggy start to the year, I forgot what it is I actually do, I couldn't even remember the week leading up to taking time off.

I started a new bullet journal, this seems insignificant to most, but I can't seem to start a new one unless it's the start of a new year so I have been scribbling stuff all over the place toward the end of 2020. I am going to have to get a 2020 part 2 book and write it all in there, otherwise there will be a gap in the timeline of Moleskine and Leuchtturm 1917's on my shelf.

I worked on defining a complex greenfield integration project for a client which will bring a lot of benefits to clinicians and patients, I know the team are going to do an amazing job working on this, it's really exciting. It reminded me a lot of the work I did when designing the NHS 111 Specification which powers the integrations across urgent and emergency care among other things, you can read more about how Interoperability Saves Lives.

Stuff I Enjoyed

Another NHS APP

I attended a session NHS Wales gave about their intention to build an app. It filled me with happiness that people of Wales will hopefully get something similar to the NHS App that a lot of my old colleagues/teams worked on, it's a great app that gives a baseline of functionality for everyone. It also filled me with a bit of sadness, why does it need a separate app? We really need to get better at sharing things in the UK, if anyone has spotted the source code for the NHS App I would be grateful if you could share, I can't seem to find it.

Lockdown 3.0

It seems strange to say I am enjoying it. The thing I am enjoying is that I can see light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine (which I understand a lot more now, see below). It's time to embrace it, do the best work I can in the given circumstances and enjoy how much I see my family under these conditions.  I look back at Lockdown 1.0 with a lot of fondness, even if it didn't feel like it at the time.

Interesting things I read

  • Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine - Perhaps the best thing I have read last year. I devoured this a few times and watched the video, I did so again this week. It's left me with so many thoughts, ideas and questions about work and life.
  • Your Music and People by Derek Sivers - I love the simplicity of Derek's writing and his message really resonates with me. It's help me overcome the fear of imposter syndrome and start publishing weeknotes for one.
  • Twitter on WhatsApp - I watched the interweb go nuts about WhatsApp's upcoming terms of service. It prompted so many groups I am part of and family/friends to switch to Signal. I hope it sticks.
  • Midnight Library by Matt Haig - This book gets recommended to me a lot, it's fiction which I don't usually do, but I have started it and it seems pleasant.
  • The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy - This was bought as a birthday gift in March, I couldn't be bothered to read it, I finally did, it took 20 minutes and is one of the nicest books I have ever read. Recommend