Weeknote 40/2025

TL;DR marvellous metadata, 2025 reflections and staying on an even keel…

The low winter sun spreading through the trees on Edinburgh’s Meadows, snapped on a lunchtime walk from the office.

What is this?

Writing weeknotes help me reflect on the working week. They are also part of an effort to work in the open.

What happened this week?

This note covers December so far, as this month has been predictably hectic.

The last couple of weeks saw us hit the traditional ‘everyone getting ill in the lead up to the holidays’ period in our house, and I’ve been slowly running out of energy after an intensive period through November.

With all that in mind this’ll be my last weeknote of 2025 before finishing up for a break, and 40 feels like a nice number to end the year on.

December has been packed

I found it hard to write regularly this month due to the aforementioned illnesses, and folks beginning to disappear for festive breaks from the middle of December. But our team have managed to do some good prep work to make sure we start January in a good place.

We’ve also had our son’s nativity (very cute and funny with half the kids yawning and/or picking their nose), a flying weekend visit down south for a pre-Christmas lunch & presents with family, and this coming weekend we’re heading to Fife for a family wedding. Then I’m looking forward to my birthday and staying home for Christmas.

So, what else has been happening?

Metadata Catalogue

I’ve been working with colleagues in the data team to write a pitch for funding which we hope will improve the RDS Metadata Catalogue in early 2026.

The platform work has largely been on hold (for my team) since we completed the migration to MetadataWorks a year ago, and we’ve been in an ongoing support/small releases phase for most of 2025. So I’m looking forward to — hopefully — delivering some of the changes which researchers have been asking for in 2026.

I’ve also been working on a positioning paper with colleagues with the aim to get alignment on the content approach to the catalogue before we start the dev work. The content has grown organically over the last couple of years, so we’re aiming to clarify the intended audience and scope for the catalogue.

Refining our ways of working

As we close out the year I’ve been working with the scrum team to tweak our sprint ceremonies and line up the right slots for next year so we start 2026 in the right way.

We’ve been planning our delivery roadmap for the coming 5 months which will include the target areas which came out of our November sprint zero sessions. The buy-in and focus across the partners is quite high at the moment since those intensive in-person sessions so I’ve tried to strike while the enthusiasm is there and lock-in people’s time while we have momentum.

Reflecting on 2025

Auld Reekie looking all festive, featuring an Italian Christmas crane (what could be more festive!)

2025 has been a good year for me personally, and building a writing habit was a goal of mine at the turn of the year. I was determined to write weeknotes regularly, with a goal to work in the open and to share the work my team are doing at Research Data Scotland.

So, looking back through 2025:

• I wrote 33 posts this year, 32 weeknotes and one racenote
• My most viewed (clicked on the post) and read (read some of the content) post was Weeknote 22/2025 in May, which is probably because I used the line “I got a new job” in the social posts which teased news of my promotion to Digital Delivery Lead at Research Data Scotland
• I averaged just shy of 3 weeknotes per month which I’m really happy with
• I published 4 weeknotes in January, March and November when I had a little bit more capacity in my week
• I managed between 2 and 3 in the other months when things were a bit busier

What happened in 2025?

Here’s a quick lowdown on a few big things from this year:

A big adventure race

I spent most of the winter and spring preparing for the Scottish Islands Peaks Race which took place in May. It forced me to train hard as I was quite terrified that I wouldn’t reach the level of fitness required to finish, and I didn’t want to let the rest of the crew down.

I wrote at various points in my weeknotes about how I was really enjoying the focus it gave me, and it had a huge positive knock-on effect on my mental health and general wellbeing (more on that below).

A new job

Jen moved on in May and in June I started my new role as Digital Delivery Lead at Research Data Scotland. It’s been a good change, though it’s not been without its challenges. So far I’ve really enjoyed the first 6 months and I’m grateful to have found a role I feel well-suited to, in a good culture, with a lovely team, doing positive work.

A road trip

In the summer we hired a motorhome and went on a Highland adventure, and it was amazing! We swam in rivers, lochs and spent a stunning few days with friends on the west coast around Skye which included swimming in the sea with dolphins!

In the summer we had an epic adventure, with the west coast of Scotland at it’s best —dolphins in the foreground with Skye’s Cuillin ridge in the distance

Exercise = happy head

I’ve been really active this year.

The biggest revelation for me has been around exercise, diet, alcohol and mental health.

In January I read a book about processed food which made me think more about my diet. As I was training and getting up early for runs, I also cut back on alcohol and felt so much better for it.

Doing all of this together had a big impact on my sleep, mood, energy and drastically improved my boring middle-aged back pain.

I’m writing this deliberately to remind future me when I slip out of the good habits I’ve built. Since the summer I’ve eased off a bit but tried to keep the momentum going as the mental improvements have been huge — I now really notice when I’m not getting enough exercise, and crucially know what to do to stay on an even keel.

100hrs of activity and 10k metres total elevation feel like nice round numbers to celebrate

Weeknotes

I’ve really enjoyed getting into the discipline of writing weeknotes this year too, so my only resolution is to continue writing next year. I’ll be doing well if I can maintain the habit and continue to write — I’ll target reaching another year of weeknotes through to November 2026.

See you in 2026!