I have known this about myself for a long time, but I feel that I have to confess: I like to have choices.
Working from home has forced my work life and my home life to become somewhat … messy. It was something like an inappropriate relationship… the one interfering with the other. Articles for editing waiting on my kitchen counter while cooking dinner. Skype calls interfering with the Lilliputians’ late afternoon tantrums.
There was also the back and forth schlepping of my office supplies.
I am very (I had to delete “somewhat”) old school. I edit on a printed copy (don’t stone me, the paper is completely recyclable). I print things, I staple them, I number them. I highlight and sticky note and do all the things that a typical stationery addict does… And for this compulsive colour-coded process, I need my stuff. I need the colour pen that I want to write with that day and I need my planner. I need a ruler and a stapler and something to draw something with if I am so inclined. I need a punch and correction fluid and erasable pens. I need my water bottle, I also need my keyboard and mouse. I need a pencil to divide pages with. And yes, sometimes I even need my washi tape to flag something.
I need my stuff.
I also need my peppermint tea and my tea-for-one teapot and my limited supply of well-chosen office snacks. I need the office coffee machine.
I need to be able to hop into someone’s office and ask something, instead of giving them a Skype call.
I need my colleagues to get water at the water cooler to make me feel guilty that I am having my fourth cup of coffee. I need my pretty water bottle to drink from said water cooler.
When I was only going into the office once in a while I tried to minimize the stationery packing. Take one highlighter and one pen (choose the colour for that day) and maybe two different coloured sticky notes.
But it took me about 4 days at the office to confess (here I had to delete “realise” because I realised it after two minutes) that I also need to be able to look at my stuff. I need my stuff around me. I need options. I need to be able to make impractical marker choices. I need to be free to change my mind about my colour-code. I needed a little bit of sticky note chaos around me to feel that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. I need things to move around and re-order and paperclip together.
The Engineer of course does not function like this at all. He has a desk with a screen, a laptop and a teeny little note pad. He has one pen. One. It’s black. And some days pass when he does not even need to use it. He has no printer.
At the beginning of lockdown, we locked up the beautiful office of our publishing house. Most of us took our printers home. I took my stuff. I needed a crate. One day working at home made me want to kick myself because I did not pack my office chair. Yes, I even missed my chair. (I have to however add here, that we have fantastic office chairs, padded and swiveling and just… perfect).
Another problem was with the office at home I tended to get sidetracked with personal things. The menu planning, the blog posts, the well-stocked fridge. Because work was everywhere and home was there too. That was a big motivation for implementing the time blocking that I chatted about here.
I think that is why I need work to be at work. It should be somewhere I go, not somewhere I shuffle to in my slippers. And home needs to be uninvaded by work. Or at a maximum have a little corner dedicated to my other persona of publisher and boss. Because heaven knows that at home I am not the boss. The boss is three years old and reigns over her kingdom with an iron fist and a fierce temper and her most trusted servant is her twin.
I am therefore not only a stationery addict with a caffeine problem, but I am also a creature of habit, extremely sensitive to the context of my surroundings and my purpose for being there. I am therefore extremely grateful to be back in my office chair, with my sticky notes and all my highlighters.