I‘ve worked from home for more than 30 years.
Before the pandemic, I wrote these tips about staying productive and sane working from home. They’re still relevant. But remote working has changed, in the past few years.
Before 2020, I was still fairly unusual. Now, working from home at least some of the time is the new normal.
But I’ve noticed a trend amongst my freelance clients – many of whom have also worked at home for years – for working somewhere near home instead. They’re using cafes and libraries, co-working spaces, renting small offices or workshops, moving to a shed in the garden.
The landscape has changed, for creative work
For starters, we’re less likely to be home alone, when we’re working. A designer client recently told me that not only is her partner now working remotely 2-3 days a week, but he’s also commandeered her desk and office when he does.
“I’m not even sure how it happened,” she muses. “He started doing Zoom calls there during the pandemic because it looked more professional than talking in the kitchen with the kids running about. But somewhere along the line it got taken for granted that when he was working from home, that space was his.”
Her solution: she’s rented a room in a building mostly occupied by freelance creatives and small start-ups. She loves the daily bike ride to and from work. She’s got commissions from some of the other occupants. But mainly, she’s loving the random conversations at the coffee machine, the energy and ideas.
“The rent goes up after a year, but I already know I’ll stay. I’m enjoying work much more!”
I’m still (mostly) happy working at home.
Over the years, I’ve written in bedrooms, cupboards and hallways, on sofas, beds and kitchen tables.
Now I have a big, airy room of my own, set up just as I want it with a huge desk, lots of bookshelves and a big comfy chair for reading. (That isn’t my office above, btw. Mine was too messy for pics today. But if you’re interested in my set-up, here’s my essential kit for working from home.)
I’m an introvert, and I need time alone every day to recharge. I love that quiet hour when everyone else has left for work, the house is silent, and I sit down to write before breakfast. It’s bliss.
Yet I still need to escape sometimes. For planning and thinking, I tend to go to the cafe on the pier in my small seaside town. Looking out to a distant horizon somehow helps me see the bigger picture.
If I’m struggling to write at home, I go to a busy cafe instead, where the noise and bustle seem help me concentrate. (Plus: caffeine.)
I’m not alone in this.
Home can be too comfortable at times, too distracting. It’s hard to make new stuff up when you’re surrounded by the familiar.
JK Rowling hand-wrote the first drafts of her Harry Potter books in cafes, then typed the final version in a hotel room.
Maya Angelou also chose to write in hotel rooms, the plainer the better, to be free of distractions. She wrote sprawled on the bed, bringing a Bible, a notebook and a bottle of sherry to fuel her.
Roald Dahl had a perfectly lovely house in Buckinghamshire but still preferred to write in his draughty garden shed, in an old armchair with a board to lean on – and a sleeping bag he’d pull over his legs on cold days.
John Steinbeck had a stunning home in Sag Harbour, with a writing gazebo in the garden, looking out onto the water. Yet would still often retreat to his fishing boat to write, awkwardly balancing his notebook on a portable desk.
Sometimes, we need a bit of noise to focus our minds, some friction or discomfort.
Working from home can also be lonely
If we work alone, we need to make a conscious effort to connect with others in our industry, to meet up with creative friends, and allow ourselves time and space to go swanning about, having interesting conversations, seeing new things, and opening ourselves to new ideas. (If you are feeling isolated in your work, here are some ideas to change that.)
We should always strive to build our business around the life we want, not squeeze life into the gaps around work. If you want to go to the gym in the afternoon, go on a creative play date, see a film or exhibition, meet friends – create space for that. Make it a priority. Isn’t that freedom why many of us chose to work for ourselves?
It’s good to have some sort of ritual to mark the beginning and end of the working day. Otherwise it’s easy for the boundaries to blur, and to feel like you’re on-call 24/7. Instead of working from home, you can end up feeling like you live at the office.
Some WFH veterans choose to do a daily ‘fake commute’, walking for 15-30 minutes in the morning and again at the end of their working day. On those cold, dark winter mornings, I love walking up to the sea to watch the dawn. In winter especially, it’s too easy to stay indoors all day, but so life-enhancing to get outside.
So where do you work?
- And how do you make it work for you?
- Do you have a workshop, a studio, an office, a specific room or space at home?
- If you don’t have a dedicated space, do you have rituals or tricks to tell your brain it’s time to create?
- Do you ever go to a co-working space, a cafe, library or other ‘third space’ to get things done?
- Do you have things exactly as you want them, or do you spend a lot of time on Pinterest or Instagram, looking at other people’s ideal workspaces, and wishing they were yours?
I’d love to know where you make your creative work – and the challenges you have making space for it. Let me know in the comments below!
What do you think?