2025

Over recent years, I’ve wanted to write a year-in-review type post, but never seem to find the time. I’m changing that by giving myself half-an-hour to write this as a series of lists: I’ll update this if there are glaring omissions.

Work

• Continued working with Secure Practice: I’m hoping to have more to share about the design system we’ve been building in the coming months
• Other projects have been collaborations, continuing the pattern I first spotted last year (mostly with Rob and Ben, with a shout out to Marc, too).
• May: Redesigned my studio website and wrote about the process
• July: Started offering Consultations again
• November: Put together a “if I’ve been recommended to you, here’s what you should know” page so that clients don’t have to read my whole website
• December: Got rid of project management software: now I’m all-in on email, GitHub projects and Things

Personal

• Enjoying using my camera more and learning about that whole process (the photos sometimes get used as covers for Studio Note posts)
• Hit a 500 day Duolingo streak learning Norwegian
• April: Migrated my personal site to Kirby
• July: Took a few days to join Ben and Duncan’s Walk-n-Talk in the Peak District – a real highlight of the year
• August: Restarted my newsletter
• September: Started using Ugmonk Analog to track daily tasks. This has been a revelation for focus and organisation of my never-ending list of tasks

Other things

• I’m happily absent from social media: every time I see a Xeet I’m reminded of what I’m not missing out on
• I’ve tried to be more active this year in reaching to people to say “hey, I like the work you’ve been doing” and “thanks for linking to my project” or whatever. It’s a nice way to connect
• Unoffice Hours have carried on at a regular cadence. This continues to be one of the best things I’ve ever done, and the webring recently got a shoutout on ShopTalk Show
• Continued to successfully avoid using any sort of generative AI

Goals for 2026

• I’d love to do more Consultations. I’m not sure the positioning or value is entirely clear, but it’s something I enjoy and would like to do more of
• Maintain my current balance of work between Secure Practice and other projects
• Start publishing a series of design interviews
• Regain more work/life balance: things have been a little out-of-alignment for some time, but I’m hoping to adjust things slightly more in my favour next year