Jonathan Myers | Personal Scribblings

I usually work from home, occasionally going out to meetings or to run workshops for clients.

The great side of that is that I can walk the dog, and come straight in and sit at the desk and start thinking, working or whatever. The down side of that is that I often sit in my dog walking clothes all day long. While that’s definitely slovenly it too has its obvious advantage in that I’m already dressed for the next dog walk which comes just before dark (because she doesn’t like the dark much, but is better if it becomes dark while we’re out, rather than venturing out into the dark). And truly I guess it doesn’t matter, but given that I used to be oh so smart at work, it’s a bit of a come down.

Today though I have an important and scary telephone meeting where I’m pitching to do some consultancy for a small Swiss bank. Small they may be, but they are big enough as a business to get involved in Formula One sponsorship.

I started writing my notes early this morning, then at 7.30 I took the dog out for an hour. I came in, showered, tidied my beard (if i said I had a shave people would expect to see me clean shaven rather than just a bit neater), quick squirt of perfume (Penhaligons Castile) and then dressed in an ironed shirt and great trousers, I even put shoes on.

And it has worked. I feel ready to take on the call. In fact I’m really looking forward to it. But I am scared as hell. It has been years since I did something like this. I’ll be reporting back. 20 minutes to go.

There’s a huge amount that I like about working from home.

If you get up late, so be it.

If you look like shit, so be it.

You want a coffee. Guess what? You have a coffee.

You play with the dog.

You call a mate, or your mum (must do that after this little blog).

But then there’s the downside.

The biggest of which is that all the above is possible, which means that you don’t work as much as you could most days.

Then comes the fact that your other half always treats you as if you’re just at home watching TV and asks you to do everything under the sun.

Like last night the talk moved somehow to getting a new shower enclosure. Do we need a new shower enclosure? Well, it’s only in the second bedroom’s en-suite, and it isn’t like we have people staying very often. Nonetheless I actually like using that one if I get up early for some reason as it means I can pretty much sneak out of teh house without waking the sleeping beauty of my wife.

So yet another day has been lost. This morning I was at the dentist. Pain and expense! Then this afternoon I’ve been scheming how to get a pump put on the shower at the same time and actually make the job worthwhile.

See? Last night it was a waste of time so far as I was concerned. Today I’m doubling the price!