Working from home and cake – perfect partners

How to work from home with cake!

So I’ve already told you about the unqualified success of last week’s How to Work from Home – The Inside Guide, which was a Marketing Masterclass with the irrepressible James Layfield. But naughtily I haven’t written about the previous month’s group. (Could it be any coincidence that the subject was procrastination?)

Our special guest was Clare Flynn Levy, a hedge fund manager until having her first baby converted her to the delights of flexible working. Clare is now the MD of Flexpaths, providing software to help organisations manage flexible working, and the founder of the Equilibrant Network for senior executives interested in flexible work. She was the perfect guest, and informed and entertained us equally with her experiences of combining work and home life.

It was interesting to see how, although we all share the challenges of procrastination while working mainly from home, people vary enormously in their response to it and how they overcome it. One of my principle beliefs about working at home successfully is that each individual has to find the best way for themselves, and so reading prescriptive articles (that you must have a separate home office, for example) is not necessarily helpful.

The great thing about these monthly groups is the opportunity to hear about different ways of doing things, while feeling encouraged by realising that the challenges – which we often feel are ours alone – are in fact shared.

One of the attendees, Claire Melvin of Claire’s Cakes, brought along some cute mini cupcakes for us, some with my house logo in green icing, which was a lovely thought. And I didn’t notice anybody procrastinating about eating one!

I’ve subsequently seen a photo of Eva Takacs’ newly cluttercleared workspace. Eva, the founder of The Vent Service, was bemoaning the untidy state of her sofa, where she works with her laptop, at the first two groups, but now she has transformed it. Not only is the group an inspiring night out, but it gets good results too!