Today was productive. I completed our presentation on how to use behavioural science to improve communications with local communities. This will be presented by our partners at a workshop on Monday. I’m attending to observe discussions.

Communication

I created a checklist for using behavioural insights to improve public health communications. I included a case study from a randomised control study that I ran.

The rest of the day, I had a meeting with the colleagues who are going to be leading the workshop. I took them through the slides I created. I made a couple of changes based on our discussion and also feedback from my team. I then emailed our colleagues the final slides.

Cyber

I had another meeting with a colleague as well as the consultant who will be coming on board to create the second version of our online training game. Excited to be starting this work in earnest!

Team meeting

We had our team meeting. We had been getting into a bit of a rut, at least for me, where week in, week out, we were having a lot of PowerPoints. Because it’s been a year and a half of remote meetings, it was starting to get a bit stale for me. However, one of our colleagues did a great exercise getting us to reflect on how we use data in our randomised control trials, and it was lots of fun.

This has given me an idea that I will float to some of our team. It would be good to share examples of what works well to liven up online workshops, the technology that helps, group exercises, and anything else that might make online discussions more engaging.

Mini-break

I’ve got the next two days off from my paid work, which I am super excited about.

I’ll be working on my own research, which is going to be a lot of fun. I will also catch up on a whole bunch of new horror films! I’ll make the most of my one hour a day where I’m allowed to walk outdoors within 5 km of my house (due to COVID-19 restrictions). Such is life in lockdown. I’m pleased to have my health, and a little time to stimulate my own professional curiosity.