A few years ago, fresh from delirium after a week in Berlin as a Microsoft Innovative Educator, I played around with the concept of 'Dr Pepper thinking.' (other soft drinks are available, and to be honest coffee and real ale). Recently, I've looked on at the well being thing and wondered how sharing loads of work contributes to well being. Why write about well being when one can actually go about doing it?
Anyway, I should get to the point. Last night I went for a night bimble, fell over in the dark and got some cool(ish because they weren't that bad, or deep or bloody) and saw some deer, loads of rabbits, wriggled around a few cows (that made the ground shake), took my headphones out for a while to listen to an owl and conversed with some pigs.
I'm sure that there is stuff that I 'should' have been doing, but the truth is that my workspace is my head and taking time out to run and explore (with family or on my own) allows me to be better at my job.
I admire and get involved in the evening and weekend events that abound in Teaching, but wonder why we don't allow teachers to blog from work. In fact, where is it written down that we can't? In the old days I thought life would end if I didn't take part in an online #chat or interact with twitter, but, to be honest, it goes on all good.
Of course, I do work from home, mainly of writing projects that help me at work and also provide some income for buying various running toys (and a 5 year old needs loads of cool stuff too.....honest). Now and again I'll write some analogue stuff and jot down thoughts, not because I feel the pressure of having to work from home, but because it would be silly not to record ideas as they come. It sounds silly, but not working from home is like being a role model in my mind.
How can it be done?
1. I stay in work for longer and get in a touch earlier. It's amazing how many emails you can get through between 7-7:30am. The delete key works wonders. When I'm not at work,m I don't check emails, or even open them.
2. I carry a notebook for analogue thoughts and my phone for digital ones. Evernote really does rock.
3. I am a geographer and a teacher, it doesn't stop at 2:50pm or 5pm - my mind is always a hive of activity and I find inspiration in what's around me. Alan Parkinson is a wise man and once told me about the thinking walks that great thinkers, like Darwin, used to do. I can relate to this idea, but instead of walking I run and play and laugh.
Of course, this will probably be seen as foolhardy, naive and I'll be shot for dereliction of duty.
So, what's the worst that would happen in we stopped working from home?
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