Alan Fowler
February 10, 2026
Brilliant at his work. Losing hours every week to technology that kept getting in the way.
Alan is an academic, trainer, and mentor at the University of Edinburgh — currently writing a book. He’s deeply experienced and genuinely excellent at what he does. But his tech setup was quietly draining him, and a major writing project had stalled.
What Alan said:
“The purpose of using software and apps is to accomplish work, but technology often ends up demanding attention and time for its own purposes rather than mine. Being helped to remove some of those blocks made a significant difference.”
The situation
Alan was getting locked out of his university accounts on a near-daily basis. His email signature wouldn’t stay consistent. His devices weren’t talking to each other. And his book — a major project with a real publisher deadline — had hit a wall because converting his detailed notes into flowing prose was taking forever.
None of these were insurmountable problems. They were just quietly eating his time and energy every single day.
What Charlie did
- Tracked down why he kept getting locked out of Microsoft 365 and fixed it for good
- Sorted his Apple devices so everything synced properly across his phone and Mac
- Set him up with a simple AI workflow to turn structured notes into publisher-ready prose — without losing his voice
- Showed him the small things that make a big difference: clipboard syncing between devices, password managers, trackpad shortcuts
- Provided session notes so the support was useful long after the calls ended
The result
No more daily login battles. No more formatting headaches. And a book that’s actually moving again — in his own voice, at a pace that feels manageable.
“What stood out most was the accurate listening to the problem, openness to follow my own way of thinking and work with it, strong technical know-how, focus and follow-through.”
“Charlie helped drastically reduce the time and effort needed to respond to re-login requests for University and Microsoft security systems, which was a huge relief.
The purpose of using software and apps is to accomplish work, but technology often ends up demanding attention and time for its own purposes rather than mine. That unpredictably reduces productivity, which is frustrating both for me and for the people I serve. Being helped to remove some of those blocks therefore made a significant difference.
What stood out most to me about his service was the accurate listening to the problem, openness to follow my own way of thinking and work with it, strong technical know-how, focus and follow-through, and the provision of notes for later reference. Those qualities made the support both effective and genuinely useful long after the work itself was completed.”
