This is my office. The photos are from my iPhone, so they have, let’s say, an artisan quality. A workspace is a very personal thing for freelancers and home workers. We surround ourselves with things we like and things to make us more efficient. I have light, as much space as I can, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock to help inspire me.
In a moment of self-indulgence I decided to interview myself about my workspace. I asked myself what was my ideal workspace and how did I work?
When’s the best time to work?
I love summer mornings. When I can get up at 4 or 5, I can think straight, I’m more creative and more productive. By the time it gets to 3 or 4 in the afternoon, it’s often just too hot to continue. Then by 10, it’s time to be creative again. There’s something about the night as well that lends itself to creativity. It might be the silence. Just like the morning, when the house is quiet I can put myself in my own world that’s free of the day’s troubles, winter or summer, and just get on with things. The thing is, when do I sleep?
What’s the best working conditions?
I love having light. Although it’s the smallest room in the house, the third bedroom, it’s the one with the best light. Sometimes I wish I was an artist, a designer or an architect. Light lends itself to drawing, painting and imagining great open spaces. But me, I write for a living. The images are in my mind and I have to bring them to the page through words.
Light is part of my furniture. One thing I’ve discovered in Somerset is a unique “lightscape” where you can walk across the Quantock Hills and see angry grey clouds combined with a summer blue sky and sunshine. The effect of the light and the shadows from the clouds dancing across the hills is quite stunning likje nothing I’ve ever seen before.
How much space to you need?
It’s good to have space. And there’s something about a polished white desk that gives the impression of a wide area. I like to spread out when I work. I use 2 computers with three screens. Surely I don’t need that much? I’m a writer, but much of my work involves research and it’s great to have a few programs and browser windows open at the same time. I’m just starting to use DevonThink as a way of indexing and organising my information, but that still needs a bit of work.
How long have you worked from home? Where is home?
I’ve been self-employed since 1996. I currently work from my home in Somerset. This is my third office in the third house I’ve lived in since moving here in 2003. Previously, I lived in Brittany. Ideal sounding perhaps but it was in a one-bedroom flat without much light that stiffling in the summer. And when I wanted to relax in the evening, the computer sitting in the corner of the living room was constantly giving me the evil eye because I wasn’t sitting in front of it. No, give me an office door I can shut any time.
How do you keep your office organised?
Organisation is a contant battle. I tend to expand to fit the space available to me so I can go from a perfectly organised, clean office in the morning to Armageddon in the afternoon and then back again by the time the next morning comes around.
I work on two computers generally. An iMac in the office and a MacBook Pro for on the road or the evenings when work overruns. I’ve always had issues synching them either using USB keys, network disks or synching programs. I’ve synched the wrong way a few times overwriting the new file with the old one. I seem to have solved that problem with Dropbox where all my files sit on one central server but redundant, local copies are kept on my hard disks so I don’t always need an internet connection to access them.
What piece of equipment do you most covet?
I’m not entirely sure it’s a good thing to covet anything. But I’m desperatly trying to put some money aside for a new 27″ iMac. I have a 20″ model that I bought in 2006 whose hard disk I’m trying to convince myself is failing. It’s not really, it’s working fine. I’d still like a new one!
I haven’t yet found a work-related reason to by an iPad. It looks great for newspapers and magazines. Well, keep looking.
But the real object of my desires is a Hermann Miller Aeron chair. 12 year guarantee and good for my back, perfect really.
What office accessory could you not do without?
OK, I’m a fashion victim, but my Moleskine notebook, especially the larger format. It’s the most stylish and easiest to write in notebook I’ve ever had.
What would you change about your workspace?
Make it bigger
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