Working Practices

While working from home yesterday, and getting a fair amount done, I also caught up on a lot of the viewing on the BBC iPlayer. It’s one of the things where I find it easy to multi-task, writing web pages and the like while ‘watching’ TV – and it’s even easier when both things are on the same screen, rather than different ones.

It’s odd really – I used to be quite happy to work in silence, with no distractions or accompaniments. (It depends whether or not I like the programme in the background as to whether it’s distracting or accompanying) But as the years have gone on, I now find I’m far happier working when there’s something else going on as well – usually either music or TV. For some reason my brain works better when processing multiple inputs than it does when it’s just focussed on the one thing.

However, I still have to admit that I find working from home to be a bad thing in one particular area : Hound. A lot of the time she just doesn’t get the entire “I’m working” thing – which is understandable. After all, she’s just a dog. But to her, me being at home means I’m available to be at her beck and call for feeding, letting in and out, and playing. The number of times I’e had a tennis ball dropped at my feet as a “subtle” hint from the dog is just beyond belief. And if I don’t play, she barks. And barks. And barks.

Still, that’s part of the “joy” of working from home, I guess.