Working from home

Despite working in IT, I had to wait quite a long way into my career before working from home became an option. I remember around 1995 when I worked at Bradford & Bingley, on a rather intense project, I would do some additional work at home in the evenings (on my first PC) but that wasn't working from home in the sense that I mean it.  

I reckon it was a couple of years after that, around 1997, when I was able to spend the odd day properly working from home but I wasn't connected to the office, except by telephone (for talking, not modem). Around 2002, when I went back to do a project for JP Morgan in London, then I had the option of working from home one day a week, although, limited to ISDN, it cost me a fortune in phone bills.

That continued into 2004, when I was asked to work on a project in New York. Obviously I couldn't simply go and work there, I had a family that included children at school, so I would go out there for a few days every six weeks or so, which was pretty much perfect. 

And so, for the first time, I was working full time from home and I have to say that it took me a while to get into it. For a start, I never worried about times in the office when I went for a coffee or chatted with colleagues about non-work topics but now I felt I had to account for eight hours' work - at my desk - every day.

Eventually, I got into the hang of it, though. I'd do a two or three hours at my desk in the morning, have a break for a couple of hours, and then get back to my PC when New York came online. I'd then work until about six pm and only beyond there if I had to join any conference calls (discreetly sipping at my glass of wine). 

These days, I tend to work off my to do list. I select a reasonable number of items that I figure I can get done and that is my target for the day. But I note down other things I do, just so that I don't end up with that situation where I seem to have been busy but nothing's been ticked off.

I worked from home, this afternoon, after going into the office this morning for a meeting. I got the things done that I wanted to do and then, noticing a brief spell of sunshine outside, popped out the front of the house to catch the setting sun through the trees. 

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-10.9 kgs
Reading: 'Jog On' by Bella Mackie