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To set the scene, I want to transport you to my world right now.

I have been up a couple of hours now since about 6 am. That was when the last belt of rain came through.

It is raining now. It is raining a lot and isn’t forecast to stop for the next few days. Rain is thrumming off the roof of my tent as I type. My three kids are snoring gently, just a few layers behind me on camp beds that, if they are anything like my experience so far, feel like they are a medieval instrument of torture rather than something to help you go to sleep. The wind is blowing towards me, not in some wistful romantic way, bringing some aromatic scents from the sea. No, this is Yorkshire rain, and this is Yorkshire wind. This is the rain that soaks you in an instant, despite you having every waterproof on and it being “only a passing shower.” This is the kind of wind that finds every gap in your tent and clothing and somehow funnels itself towards your skin and freezes you in an instant. Yorkshire weather has this unique ability to let you know it is there and demonstrating to you it’s power, might and majesty.

My wife is blowing her nose from the depths of the tent. I think the cold has already got to her too. She is about to go for a 5k run which will make her happy. I hope she remembers to bring jam back.

I’m sat on a tough plastic bench wearing too many layers to be comfortable, cold, typing on my tablet, tethered to my phone with whatever connectivity I can muster, on a slightly wobbly table that shifts with every keystroke. My trusty mug of hot chocolate steams next to me, and the rain seems to be easing for the moment.

A shivering man has just walked past with an equally shivering long-haired dog. He says “hello.” I think I know how the dog feels!

This is my new office.

This is my home from home.

This is where I work.

… and I wouldn’t swap it for the world.

Not because it is Yorkshire, you understand, although that is reason enough, but because when you have te right kit, you can work anywhere.

Tip

Jam goes with most things.

The new normal

Yet, despite Yorkshire trying to drown me and freeze, here I am, three and a half hours into my day and quite a few hundred words done already. The new ‘normal’ means I can be here, sat in a field, sheltering from the weather, cold to the bone, with my family feet away from me, listening to the world wake up, the smell of bacon on a grill next door and I can get on with work.

Tip

Man may not be able to live by bread alone, but when camping, you can survive days on bacon butties! 

I understand that I am lucky. I am fortunate that my skills, role and workload mean I can work anywhere that has an internet connection. I also know that this flexibility in workspace is good for some of us in other ways, and with this fabulous view of the countryside ahead of me, it certainly kicks into touch the creative juices.

The Lockdown of 2020 has taught me that I need to be more creative about the way I work. I was balancing being “Dad School” with Webinars, cooking tea while recording a podcast, writing a blog while writing a shopping list.

Work is what interrupts life.

Tip

Life is a balance between home and work. Home should always win. No-one lay on their death-bed and said “I wish I’d done more overtime.”

Creative me

I suppose the big question is why? Why am I sat here, writing in the cold and rain? The simple answer is because I can. In all truth, we had the camping trip booked already, and due to Lockdown protocols, we had been sheltering from the very start of the Covid19 situation and had probably travelled a maximum five miles from home the whole time. One hundred and thirty days of the same four walls does limit somewhat your experiences. It reduces your scope for new ideas likewise as well as dampen the creative spirit, so I took the opportunity to bring some kit with me if there was an opportunity.

Tip

If you are working from home and you are hitting more and more brick walls, move. Move room, move position on the desk, stand up for a day. Whatever it takes, change your working environment.

You the creative

I appreciate that some of you reading this will be thinking

“Well, that’s alright for you though, what about me?”

“I can’t do that!”

And I agree with you.

This blog is what works for me. I am hoping you may be able to use some part of this content, maybe not all of it, but some portion of this may give you the inspiration that might just change things for the better for you. So let’s see if some of these tips can directly improve your day, starting today.

What do you need

Grab a piece of paper and work out what you need to do your job. Here’s some suggestions:

• Internet connection – fast enough to do online calls and stable enough to not keep dropping in the middle of an urgent call.
• Device – this may be your works’ laptop, a tablet or even just a phone.
• Software – for me, Office365 has worked very well as it has meant I can sync via cloud to all my devices. You may use Google office, whatever is comfortable for you to use.
• Desk – unbelievably, my wobbly table in a field is more comfortable than the desk in my home office. The desk you use has to be at the right height for you to type at. Think about standing also as an alternative. Always, always, always check the height of the desk you are buying is going to match your posture.
• Chair – you potentially could be sat on that seat for eight hours or more a day, so do not put up with an old dining chair, this has to be comfy and support you. The wrong chair can cost you days of pain with back problems.
• Keyboard – this is the interface between your brain and the world. This is the thing that converts your thoughts into something the outside world is going to judge you on. Be sure it is comfy to type on and accurate to type with. You need to be able to type “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy fox” quite a few times accurately. Consider an external keyboard if you cannot change the keyboard on the device you have.
• Mouse – I’m a big mouse fan, and I have a big heavy mouse as I have big hands, so I need something comfortable for me to use. On this tablet I’m using now, I have a travel Bluetooth mouse, and I hate it but some applications I just can’t use the trackpad with. I find trackpads are OK for short stints.
• Monitor(s) – having one screen to work off is just fine. Still, multiple monitors can be helpful if you have a complicated job that requires many things to be open at the same time (also install Windows 10 PowerToys and use the FancyZones feature to create custom layouts on your screen). The monitor should be at the right height, not too bright and clear. It also helps to clean it every now and again!
• Headphones – for calls and video sessions. These should be extremely comfortable Bluetooth ones so you can be untethered and walk around if need be.
• Notepad – have an excellent A5 notepad handy at all times and comfy pen too. All too often it is more natural to free-form sketch an idea out on paper before committing to type. I prefer a notepad in meetings, so I don’t get distracted with all the notifications on your device.
• Clothing – this sounds like an odd one for when you are working from home, but I strongly suggest a work set of clothes to get changed in (and out of) in your working day to remind you that you are in ‘work-mode.’

Tip

Buy cheap, buy twice. Sometimes it is better to buy good quality kit as it will last you longer than cheap stuff. With desks, if you can’t find exactly the right thing but you can get close, consider building you own.

Tip

Understand what the minimum it takes to do your job and look at all the other stuff around you and how much it helps or distracts you.

What am I using

So here is my exact kit list sat in a field:

• Phone with 4G and 30Gb tariff from Vodafone. With the family devices tethered to it, I’ve used 7Gb in a week.
• I’m currently using a Samsung Tab S6, but this equally could have been my old Lenovo T450 (i7 8Gb RAM, 240Gb SSD) workhorse or any small form laptop that you have.
• My camping table and bench serve as my desk and chair. Not ideal, but better than my knee!
• I’m using the Samsung keyboard with trackpad, but if I were doing any more strenuous a task, I would be reaching for my Bluetooth mouse.
• The tablet is serving as my monitor.
• I have my trusty A5 leather-bound notepad and pen with me in case of notes. I usually take this most places, though.
• Headphones – I have borrowed a set of over-the-ear Bluedio ones at the moment but would usually use my JVC ones.
• I have a view ahead of me to die for, and that some call “God’s own country” which is helping to make me think differently and more creatively.
• Most importantly … my mug of hot chocolate!

After that, what more do you need to do your job? Does that inspirational poster on your wall help to inspire you? Do your work colleagues who interrupt you continually asking about that film you didn’t see help you in your day? Yes, your colleagues are good for social breaks. My kids are here with me right now, my wife will be back shortly, so I have a social group to distract me when I need to, and they also understand when I need quiet.

 The Brave New World

You could use most of these tips sat on a bench at a wobbly table in a cold, wet, field in Yorkshire as much as you could use the same tips working at a desk with an ergonomic chair in an office in New York.

Lockdown has tested us all mentally and some of us, to our limits. It has been tough for some of us, and as work starts to creep back into our lives, so we have an opportunity to take the best of what we learned and take it into our own new personal and work lives. If this means that I get a fantastic view and a connection to the world around my family and me at my heels then I think that’s a good start. Just the few hours I’ve been sat this morning I’ve more creativity than I have for a while, feel more productive and have managed to get down on paper some great ideas for future blogs.

I hope you get a chance today to sit and appraise your workspace. The desk, the seat, the environment and maybe take some inspiration yourself to try something different and see what happens. If something doesn’t work, change it and work to an optimal environment.

Oh, and it has started raining again.

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!”

Audrey Hepburn

[Please note: I have included affiliate links in this blog, so you can see the products I use, but also, any purchases will go a small way to the upkeep of the site.]