[00:00:00.00] - Gordon
Hello.

[00:00:09.10] - Taylor
Hello.

[00:00:09.29] - Gordon
My name's Gordon from Drayson Design.

[00:00:12.01] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:00:14.01] - Gordon
And welcome to "This Week With Taylor and Gordon," a weekly podcast and vidcast where we talk about things that have affected our businesses over the last seven days. And thank you for joining us.

[00:00:23.21] - Taylor
Welcome back.

[00:00:24.08] - Gordon
We are in another new location. We are actually in the same location as we were a couple of weeks ago, but in a different place. So we are currently at Taylor's desk, and we're using a light up here. We've got a microphone here, which you can see, and we've got the camera just in front of us, and we've got a light that's going to come on and off all the way through this, which is very, very unusual. But that's because of a sensor, and maybe Taylor will be talking about that at some point. Let us get straight into... I don't like this, actually, You're much higher up than I am. I'm on a lot lower chair, and there we go, if you could slump a little bit. So let's get straight into our topics. Would you like to go first or shall I?

[00:01:11.09] - Taylor
You can go first this week.

[00:01:12.16] - Gordon
So this week, I discovered in my house a room that was empty that I didn't know we had. I know, isn't that weird?

[00:01:21.10] - Taylor
Crazy.

[00:01:21.26] - Gordon
It's funny because it's been empty ever since you moved out. And so we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with this room. So Taylor's room, his old bedroom, has now just got a bed in it, and we have a spare room as well. So we were thinking, what can we do? And we were trying to work out the best use of all of the different options that we had and the space that we had. And we came to the conclusion that it would be nice to upgrade our guest room. So instead of having a single bed in a box room, it was was going to be a double bed in a slightly larger room, which had a wardrobe and space for a chest of drawers and so forth. And so we were going to make Taylor's room into our guest room, and that left our box room with a bed in it and chest of drawers and a few other bits and pieces. And so we got rid of the bed because we didn't need that.

[00:02:21.15] - Gordon
That went on Facebook and someone came and collected it. And we moved the chest of drawers into Taylor's room, which left us pretty much with an empty room. And so we've converted it into a storage room. Now I've got lots of bits and pieces, lots of stuff, like with magic, for example, I have lots of props that I don't necessarily use all the time, but they may be for a specific show or for a specific time of the year, like a Christmas show, for example. So I've got all that. I've got various models that I've been making. I've got lots of wooden models that you either glue or click together, and they've been piling up because people have been giving them to me for Christmas and birthdays, and I've just not had a chance to do them. I also have some magic props that I've purchased that haven't yet gone through the testing and rehearsal stage. Some of them are rather big. And I've got some photography and videography equipment and bits and pieces. Plus, of course, I've got my new 3D printer, which isn't with me yet, but is due to have been sent out yesterday.

[00:03:39.28] - Gordon
I haven't heard if it has or not. It'll be with me in a few days, I'm sure. But that's going to be quite big. And so, I needed a solid surface. And in my current office, pretty much every surface has got something that it houses. So various things have a permanent residence, and they sit there, and there's no room for an extra printer, especially a big extra printer, which is what I have coming. I thought it would be really nice to put it in the storage room. Now, this storage room required a heavy-duty table, like a workbench, because if it's got a heavy printer on it and the printer is going to be moving backwards and forward, the surface has to be quite sturdy. You can't have it on a shelving unit that could wobble. So I looked at that. We needed to get a sturdy work top. We needed some shelving, and we could put that on the side next to the work top and then some more behind me. And then all of the bits and pieces that I've got in the dining room, in the lounge, and just taking up space on the floor of my office, can then all go up into the storage room, and that can be, as it says, a storage room.

[00:05:03.09] - Gordon
So I'm happy because everything is being protected, it's got its own space. My partner is happy because my stuff isn't all over the living areas. And everyone wins out of it. So I sent a message to Taylor earlier this week, didn't I? I said, "Would you come to IKEA with me and help me load up the car?" And he immediately phoned me and said, "I can't believe you want me to come to IKEA and help you," which is quite funny because that's pretty much what I've been doing for two weeks when he moved in. So that was quite funny. And I managed to get all the shelving in. So I got some 'Ivar' shelving from IKEA, and this is all the way across one side and then halfway across the other side. And then you've got the work top, the work desk, and that was quite heavy, wasn't it?

[00:05:56.08] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:05:57.07] - Gordon
So I needed a bit of help with that. Then we brought it all home. And in between Christmas shows, I've been putting it all up, and it's now done. It's all completed. It's all in place. It's all ready for the printer when it arrives.

[00:06:12.20] - Gordon
I've got plans to bring all my filament up there as well, or most of the filament up there, so that I've got a proper storage area for it, maybe on doweling above the printer so that I can still get to them and I can see all the colours and maybe label where PLA is and where PETG is, etc, which is really cool. It's basically all coming together along with lots of other things. We had our Robovac arrive during the week, which I set up, and we're having a brand new front door put in, which is not cheap, but is very necessary. It's going to be a great front door. It's going to be a composite door, really well made. We're going to put a smart lock on that as well. It's all your fault because you're the one that got the robovac and the smart lock on the front door. Me and my partner both looked in it and went, "Oh, that'd be quite nice, wouldn't it?" Having it going around and doing that for us and just hoovering and mopping as it needs to without us having to do it. So, yeah, we got all that.

[00:07:22.03] - Gordon
Door's not due to be fitted until February time next year, so we got a bit of time of that. But they're going to send it for manufacture. We've had the guy come around and measure it up. So that's all ongoing, another project. It is funny how when something changes, in this case Taylor moving out, all sorts of other things happen. So we've got a storage room now, we've got a bigger guest bedroom. All these things happened because Taylor moved out, and they have a knock-on effect. I wouldn't have really considered getting myself another 3D printer, were it not for the fact that I had a feeling I knew where it was going to go and I knew we had the room for it. I wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't got the room for it because that's just daft. So all these things are happening because of one event or quite a big event in this case, you moving out. So I think the business thinking on this is take advantage of opportunities that present themselves. The box room that we've got was very small, and it seems huge now because we've got rid of the bed, which took up most of the room.

[00:08:44.08] - Gordon
And now there's a lot more room for storage, and I can fit everything I need up there, plus things in the future, which is going to be great. It keeps everything in order, which is going to be a big bonus for me because I'll know where everything is, and I'll know that everything is being protected and is being safe rather than just shoved somewhere and something else put on top of it and other people not knowing what it is and not taking care of it and stuff. It's all down to me now because it's in the storage room and that's my storage area. So, yeah, have a look at the opportunities that a change in your business will give you, anything that will present itself to you. You might find that you could have huge changes like we have that will make things a lot better because we're going to have a new front door. We're going to have a bigger guest room. We're going to have a storage room. Everything's going to be in its place. An extra 3D printer, a robovac. All these things have happened because you've moved out, and it's great.

[00:09:50.14] - Gordon
If you got the time, the energy, and the money to do it, then definitely look into it. That's my takeaway from this. What would you like to say? Anything on that, first of all?

[00:10:00.17] - Taylor
I think it's expensive.

[00:10:05.07] - Gordon
Oh yeah.

[00:10:05.24] - Taylor
Me moving out is expensive for you, which is not normally the case.

[00:10:11.12] - Gordon
Having said that, we've got a soft water box. It basically has salt you put in it. So it has soft water around the house, and it helps with making things cleaner with less detergent, basically. And ever since you've moved out, the salt seems to be lasting a lot longer. So we haven't got as many people having showers. We haven't got as many people using water or making coffee. The water consumption is not as high as it was before. Therefore, these are lasting a lot longer. And the fuel costs will go down a bit as well because of you moving out and not using up any electricity, although I've taken over that with the 3D printer. But yeah, you're right. One big change leads to lots of other big changes, not quite as big as moving out, but big changes for us as well. And a huge expense. It's been something like seven grand I've spent, something like that on the door and the printer and all sorts of things just because you moved out and showed us there were better ways of doing things, I guess. There you go.

[00:11:25.26] - Gordon
Right, what would you like to talk about?

[00:11:27.22] - Taylor
So I wanted to just talk about what things I've been doing. I've been doing lots of little jobs here and there, learning how to do stuff. I'll start with what I've been doing at the flat. I installed new door handles on all of my doors, which was interesting because I'd never changed a door before or a door handle. I got brand new black door handles.

[00:11:55.11] - Gordon
If you move back a tiny bit, there we go. Look, if you can see, those who are watching it, there's a door handle on the door behind us.

[00:12:01.21] - Taylor
So I had to figure out how to take the old ones off and how to install the new ones and screw them in and stuff like that. I got a new toilet seat, which is very exciting. And again, had to figure out how to take a toilet seat apart and put it back together, essentially. I have been building a couple of plug-ins as well. So I built a plug-in the other day for a client of mine who sells products on an e-commerce shop and wanted orders that have been placed to pop up every now and again, like social proof saying, Jane bought X products or whatever, just to show that people have been purchasing and show that it's active. And that was quite fun because there are lots of plug-ins out there, tools, services that offer this. But I just wanted something really, really simple that just showed the little pop-up and then would disappear after a couple of seconds, but was using real data as well. One of the things that I thought was very important is you can't just make up fake orders and say that you're more popular or people are buying products that they're not.

[00:13:16.11] - Taylor
So I made sure that all the data was accurate and being pulled in correctly. The client was really happy with it, loved it, thought it looked great. It was a little hour, two-hour job that I just threw together. This other one was a complex shipping method calculations. So, a client of mine, well, someone I do work for has a client and they have really complex shipping calculations where they have courier service, but they also have pallet service. So they ship things just from a general shipping courier, or they send things on a massive pallet up to, I think it was 1,000 kilogrammes. And the idea was that certain products could be sent by pallet and certain products could be sent by courier. Now, the issue or the complexity came where if you had a 600 kilogramme product or products that had to be sent by pallet and then you bought a couple of items that would be sent by courier, if the weight was low enough, it could be sent inside of the pallet and just included and you would then save on shipping. But it had to work out, is there enough space on the weight of it?

[00:14:39.05] - Taylor
Is it something that can actually be sent by the pallet? There were a couple of items in there that were too big for pallets and just couldn't be sent. No matter how light they were, they just physically couldn't be sent in the pallet. Then we had a couple of others where they took up a lot of space on a pallet but weren't heavy per se. So, we then had to factor in these extra service and delivery for special products and just trying to work out the number of palettes, the number of, the courier if you need it, and then just the total price and showing that as a breakdown so the customer can see that when they're ordering. It became really, really complex because as soon as you hit over the pallet threshold, you would then use a courier service rather than ordering another pallet because you don't need another pallet just for an extra couple of kilogrammes of items that could just be sent by courier. The customer is really happy with it. They need to check that all of the logic and all of the different transformations and systems that they could have or permutations work and they're happy with the way they want it to work.

[00:15:53.23] - Taylor
But that was a pretty fun project because it was about an hour that I spent just working through it and trying to figure out what do I need and how does that look. You have to basically race to the bottom to find the cheapest solution. I've just been doing lots of small bits and pieces, learning new stuff and just building tools that are helpful that aren't massive projects, because a lot of the stuff I do is usually just big projects that I do from start to finish with design all the way to development. But it's actually quite fun sometimes to put something together that isn't, hasn't got a big structure, hasn't got a big plan. It's these are the very few brief requirements, how quickly and can I get it done essentially.

[00:16:42.11] - Gordon
And some of these plug-ins can be built so that they can be reused on other sites and for other customers as well. So you're building yourself a toolbox, if you like, of different plug-ins and options you can give to people or things you can use in your full builds, which again is going to save you time where you may have some changes to make, but you've got a basis of a plugin that you know works well.

[00:17:09.13] - Taylor
Yeah. And then the last thing that I wanted to touch on, which was something that was inspired by Kyle Van Duzen. In The Admin Bar, he has a little cube on his desk, and he posted about it in his newsletter, and I thought it was brilliant. It's a non-technical, no internet, just timer that has gravity-based timing. I got my own one for my birthday. The idea is that you have a screen on the front for those who are watching. Then on each of the sides of the cube, you have the time of the duration of the timer.

[00:17:52.17] - Gordon
You've got 5, 10, 30, and 60.

[00:17:55.23] - Taylor
Yeah. You basically put the time that you want at the top, and then it will just start counting down. Simple as that. And the idea is that it allows you to focus and say, "look, for 10 minutes, I'm just going to work on this one thing." Because I think it's very easy to context switch and be switching between stuff when you're waiting for things to load or if you're trying to download something, you go, "Oh, let me just check my email while I'm doing that." And then you end up going on to another task, whatever. And by the time you've done that, you never go back to the original thing that you do. And so the idea is to try and slow down a bit and focus on one task and see that through. Because sometimes it's really difficult to keep track, especially when there's so many different apps, devices, people trying to get your attention for all different reasons, whether that's social media, friends, family, clients, etc.

[00:18:49.14] - Gordon
Yeah, very good. So lots of little projects for you.

[00:18:53.07] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:18:53.16] - Gordon
Working your way back up to full speed in your new environment and your new way living, where some of it requires you to change toilet seats that you never had to do before.

[00:19:06.13] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:19:07.05] - Gordon
Yeah, very interesting. That's it from me.

[00:19:10.28] - Taylor
And me as well.

[00:19:12.01] - Gordon
If you have a location that you prefer watching us from, whether it be this one or on the sofa or in our previous place in my house.

[00:19:24.24] - Taylor
Or a hotel room.

[00:19:26.08] - Gordon
Yeah, we've had a hotel room as well. If you've got a favourite, then let us know. It'd be really interesting to know if one of these locations is better than the other for the viewers. It doesn't really make a difference for us, does it? We pick and choose as it suits us, but we can very easily settle on one and do it from there most of the time. Thank you for joining us. As always, we're on YouTube. Please like, share, and subscribe.

[00:19:56.07] - Taylor
You can also go to our website thisweekwith.co.uk to find all past episodes.

[00:20:01.01] - Gordon
And if you would prefer to listen to us instead of watch us, then I completely understand. And we are on all the major podcast platforms. Plus, you can ask your smart speaker to "play This Week With Taylor and Gordon." We'll be back with you next Friday at 1pm. Until then, my name is Gordon, and I'm from Drayson Design.

[00:20:21.12] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:20:23.28] - Gordon
Goodbye.

[00:20:24.12] - Taylor
Bye.

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Show Notes