It’s crunch time on D&AD. We have a solid idea and we’re dipping at the line to get the fucker done.

In the meantime, my work / life balance is all over the shop. My sock game is suffering as a result.

I’ve got pugs snuggling foxes, reindeer dancing with hotdogs, and stained glass windows smothered with the oily skin of wonderfully suited, but elderly, frogs.

Thankfully though, it’s a time when you realise what you’ve got in your toolkit. And you realise the evaporating weeks and months prepare you for a week like this.

A surprisingly useful section of that is helping us out with time. Not only to manage our own, but to respect that of those around us. Those who’ll be painstakingly reviewing our work.

But whilst I’m getting that right in school, it’s suffering elsewhere. I’m not exercising, collecting dots, seeing enough family or daylight or any of the other things that advertising’s not. It’s a symptom of where we are on the timeline I’m sure, but it’s a terrible habit to allow to take root.

So this week I’ll reunite fox with fox, pug with pug, club sandwich with its long lost half and make a little tweak here and there to occasionally put a healthy distance between myself and the big and burly gut of advertising.