When I look at the blood, sweat, tears and time that went into adapting this website to our new branding, you’d be entitled to look at us in the same light as the plumber with leaky taps and the cobbler whose kids went shoeless.

Obviously our clients and their needs come first. (Sounds very businesslike and responsible, right?). Add some extra tight deadlines, a horde of last minute extras, belated tweaks and other variables and there’s the perfect excuse for taking so long to attend to our own housekeeping.

Never mind the hours spent reading, watching movies or staring at the small amount of TV that doesn’t have me heaving vegetables at the screen. Even gazing at the sky proves exciting and inspirational…if it keeps me from the keyboard.

So. That was just me doing vital research, getting an updated feel for the latest in design and communication — in short everything that would prevent me from chaining myself to the trusty Mac and actually doing something useful.

For all that, there’s some merit to letting ideas cook for a while.

These mostly seem to come when I’m furthest away from my desk. Say when traffic lights change from red to green. Or while in the shower. Or at the movies, trying to hear dialogue over the chip rattlers, coffee spillers, plot explainers and those yet to have their mobiles amputated.

What I most certainly have seen before is the way sitting down to do your own work for yourself can create a sort of creative paralysis. A far more invidious set of symptoms than mere blank screen syndrome. And persistent too.

Why should this happen to someone who is very much in the business of helping clients communicate their brand offerings more effectively? (So effectively, I might modestly add, that we’ve won a decent string of awards in the process).

Here’s the rather mundane secret.

To start working, start working. Whether it’s mapping out a brand strategy, a creative approach, a coherent website map — or for that matter, mowing the lawn, nothing happens until you turn on the motor.

Without putting too fine and edge on it, that’s exactly what I finally did. Aided and abetted by respected colleagues (who were only too willing to point out any limitations I introduced to the project), we arrived at the new improved website you see here.

We welcome your comments, your likes, and the opportunity of getting your next project off the computer screen into the real world.