I need to keep reminding myself that just over two years ago, I was living in a tiny two-bed flat with Hollie and my first born. We were in the smallest space and it’s absolutely mad that we thought that we would just be able to continue like that, knowing that we actually had another one on the way. It just so happened that we saw the light and were able to quickly turn things around so we’re now in a four-bed house over 100 miles away from the capital.
With this massive change came all of this new opportunity in our home. Hollie has claimed one of the rooms as a walk-in closet. I’ve got one of the bathrooms as my own little grooming centre. On top of that I’ve got my own home gym. We’ve got a space for everything. In spite of all this extra space, both me and Hollie both struggle to settle for a specific place to work from.
As we can work from wherever we like with our MacBooks, we’re not restricted to any specific place, but that’s not as helpful as you’d expect it to be.
I’ve actually got an office, for goodness sake. But it’s rare that I ever spend more than 10 minutes in there ever. With two small people in the house, even when myself and Hollie are great at schedule when each of us is going to take over childcare duties, it’s still a struggle to completely separate from where the action is taking place.
I’m usually sat on the floor in a random place, like in the hallway, stairs, my bedroom, in the garden, or wherever I decide is most convenient for that very time. For whatever reason, my actual office has gone waaaay down on the priority list. And I believe it’s gradually done this since Marlo was born, so we’re talking two years now.
Once the kids are in bed, I’m hardly going to isolate myself in the office when my wife’s in the front room.
I don’t know how I got in a position where I’ve got myself a home office and I’m not using it for anything other than storage, but I’ve got to fix it. I was talking about doing it up a long time ago and I think once I make it a more fun environment to be in, I’ll enjoy going out of my way to head to my private space where I can run tunes LOUD and get things done. The first step is to put in some elbow grease (and I even need a clean skirting), then paint it, then replace all of the improvised accessories (like the stack of paper for a monitor stand).