Working from home for the last few months has been hard. The novelty of ‘no commute!’ and ‘no office politics!’ soon wears off and you risk becoming a little hobbit, isolated and alone in your office come spare room, and I’ve never liked hobbits.

Despite that I am often out and about to see clients, this doesn’t take up all week and there needs to be time taken to write-up meetings and get the advice out the door. So you then spend a large amount of hours alone.

It makes you consciously aware of your flaws! Laziness, ability to be distracted, tendency to procrastinate, lack of self-discipline, of conscientiousness, and need to check with someone else that what you are doing is right every 30 seconds.  Your days become a personal battle between your good and bad qualities.

It’s honestly more isolating and more draining than my old commute. I have found I’ve become quite emotional, since I can’t regularly express any exasperation, happiness or stress to anyone else, other than to Basil (!), so I think it all builds up.

I’ve taken for granted in the past how much you gain from seeing your colleagues and having a quick 10 minutes talking about your weekend plans or to share joys or problems. Doing this on the phone is just not the same.

The second worst problem is the fact that my office is now my home and my home is now my office. I used to love coming home to my home, my haven and enjoyed my space, time out, alone. Now, there’s not really any true escape.

Whilst of course, when working in an office you still fret about the work awaiting you on your desk, or check your email on the mobile out of hours, but there is still a great advantage and mental release in being able to walk out of the building when your day is done, and mark the beginning of a time and a space that officially belongs to you.

The good news is that in the New Year this will all be easier as I will be in an office. We got the keys this week! It will be small and basic and just as an administration hub to begin with, but I can work on a daily basis with the other members of the team and we are all looking forward to it.

We get desks next week and phone lines the week after and it can’t come quick enough for me! Roll on 2016 when we can be there full time!