Last time, Rose challenged Charlotte to leave us with words of wisdom before her maternity leave.

I’m not sure how wise I feel at nine months pregnant. My brain is filled with items for my hospital bag and swaddling tips… 

But be open to life’s absurdities. If you look closely enough there is usually a moment of surreal joy – or amusing irony – in a big disaster, at home or work. I’ve found trying to laugh at those things can make weathering storms a touch easier.

I am challenging myself to watch more films.

I used to be an avid film watcher. Art house. Mainstream. French New Wave. You name it, I watched it. I even had a Mubi account.

But in the last year I’ve found myself slipping under the spell of social media and short form content more and more, destroying my attention span in the process.

I’m about to have a baby, so I’m not sure how realistic this is, but I plan to spend more time watching quality cinema when I can. And hit my stride on those Letterbox reviews.

I am challenging my colleagues to ideate with a pen and paper.

They don’t just have to be for to-do lists. In one of my first jobs I actually got told off for using the company-branded notebooks outside of client meetings. Something about “digital efficiency”. But all my good ideas seemed to come from my wandering pen, so I kept doing my thing.

To this day I get through notebooks at a rapid rate; writing things down has always helped kick my brain into action. I know Ross is already championing this, but I challenge all Frameworkers to try working into a notebook before hitting the Google doc on at least one project.

I am challenging my clients to practise less is more.

The kneejerk reaction of many businesses is to shoehorn every single idea or function into their writing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “They like the copy, but we just need to add in X, Y and Z.” Sometimes it is an important addition, but often it doesn’t have a true place there.

Confident brands don’t reveal everything at once; they understand that their audience will soon switch off if they overcomplicate things. I’d love more clients to take that leap of faith and stick to the essential points. That’s how you entice your reader in.

I am challenging the industry to not lose sight of creativity.

AI is really exciting, and I love hearing about how it’s accelerating progress across critical industries like healthcare. At The Frameworks, we’ve used it to transform client projects with outstanding results, too. But we can never forget that original ideas come from people. Our human spark is better than any LLM’s output – and the industry needs to remember that.

I am challenging you to take a social media break.

In solidarity – it might help me with my mission to do the same!

I am challenging Dale, the man who keeps us all on track every week, to give us his top tip for staying on target.

What do you say Dale?