Total immersion

I find it difficult to sustain the concentration needed to produce technical reports when sitting in an open-plan office. My butterfly mind (a strength when dreaming up solutions to problems but not much help in a busy office) has plenty to distract it and gazing into space in pursuit of the perfectly-turned sentence invites friendly conversations since it looks as if I am day-dreaming. My most productive time to work is late afternoon and early evening. If I am in the office at this time hunger starts to strike and there are the hourly train times to think about. But when I am at home with a laptop and a view of the bird feeder, there is food in the kitchen next door and I have reduced distractions to a minimum, then it is surprising how quickly I can get a paper or advisory letter written up. Everyone benefits - it costs the client less for my time, the work gets finished promptly, I save my commuting time and costs and, possibly best of all, I feel that I have been able to think deeply about the issues and gain a personal satisfaction from a job that I have done as well as I possibly can.