We have had beautiful weather in Berlin for most of September (and over the past year overall, compared to my past 12 years here). Before meetings in the evening and an evening event, I sat in a park in my t-shirt and without socks, and worked from there. It felt great!
Today, I am working from home, because my eldest daughter is ill. She has been in bed reading Harry Potter (4) the entire day, so I have worked consistently without interruption. Well, we had a small interruption, because we decided to make some chocolate truffles, from her school cooking class recipe booklet. I don't think I've ever made chocolate truffles before. It was fun!
Working freelance has its downsides, but it sure does have benefits as well. I can power away for 9 hours, plus evenings if I choose (once the kids are in bed). But I can also take a walk, go and run at the gym for an hour, run some errands, read a newspaper, or take a breather and play some piano (now that I am taking lessons again, I'm motivated!). In other words, I can sprint (the way I like working), and alternate with breathers.
My office experiences over the past ten years have been different. There's an occasional sprint here or there, but most of the time, it has been an attempt to pace work over a period of time that is too long. I simply don't take 9 hours straight to get my daily work done - because I love working super fast.
And - this is probably my own fault - I'm not able to take breathers at the office. Especially in a shared office, opening the newspaper (which in my case I find essential for my work as a lobbyist and having to small talk about a lot of current politics in various settings!) makes me feel like I'm a slacker. Or taking a walk - or even two or three - a day. Surprisingly, there hasn't been a piano anywhere nearby. Nor my washing machine to run a load in between…
Increasingly, I'm starting to believe that working outside of an office is ideal. I can still have meetings - I simply have to jump on my bike or take the subway, and more than enough people are dying to get out of their own offices, and like meeting at a cafe or over lunch. I can participate in all calls. And I can have a social life, meeting contacts for coffees and lunches, and an occasional friend beyond work settings over lunch.
If I ever do return to an office setting, which is possible - perhaps even likely, I hope that I can transport some of this feeling of freedom, of "this actually is necessary to my work" back in. Instead of feeling caged in.
Sending greetings from my office cubicle! ;) Loved your entry here and would agree on all of it. It made me miss my freedom but then I remembered the downside of that and the upside of this cubicle. The main plus in office-based life, for me, is that closing the office door at the end of the day helps me leave work behind and set definitive boundaries on the work load. Working as a freelancer called for much more self-discipline on that front.
ReplyDeleteBut, many good ideas on how to make the cubicle-life more inspiring! We don't have that piano around at this office either but thankfully a positive and relatively free office culture promotes other creative breaks here. But, there's a lot that could be improved and many interesting ideas out there!