Now

Last updated: May 2026

The /now page is something proposed by Derek Sivers. The idea is to write something short, something “you'd tell a friend you hadn't seen in a year.”

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Hello! So I spent 2025 trying to figure out what was wrong with me, after developing sever exercise intolerance. This year, in February, I got a diagnosis: Stage 3 Overtraining Syndrome.

Also termed as Parasympathetic Overtraining. A serious end-stage of overtraining linked with the exhaustion of nervous and hormonal factors.

So I've been taking it easier. And I've, inevitably, put on a bit of weight...

After a decade of collaboration, we decided to wind down We Are Open Co-op as Laura wanted to take a sabbatical, John wanted to find a job, and I couldn't run a co-op by myself! So I'm doing all of my work through Dynamic Skillset, my consultancy business.

As usual, it's digital strategy, credentials, and literacies. Although I do want to put my PGCert in Systems Thinking into practice a bit more. Watch this space, etc.

I've created a whole host of tools using a folk software approach. It's been great fun, and led to some which I'm now using every day. Check out my /tools page for the full list.

My family is well. My wife, Hannah, is continuing to work as a User Researcher at Newcastle Building Society, my son Ben has decided after a year of Sport at Northumbria University that he wants to switch to Geography, and my daughter Grace is in Year 10 and has been playing this season for a football team in the Junior Premier League.