Living and working at home

I found Liz Proctor’s blog when she commented on a post here and I followed the link. I’ve enjoyed reading her posts and asked her to tell us about her life and work at home:

Hi Liz, tell us what you do and where
I’m a charity Fundraising Consultant based in East Anglia. Most of my work involves developing and writing applications for grants to fund projects, writing appeals to individuals and organisations, and giving advice and putting together bespoke fundraising strategies for particular organisations.

Although I do go out to visit clients once in a while, the majority of my working life is spent at home in front of the computer, on the phone or standing in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil.

I found your blog when you commented on mine – what made you start a blog?
As often happens, it was a combination of things which finally came together. Since I was a child I’ve loved writing and, like many people, have been ‘going to write a book’ ever since then. (I’ve really been enjoying the posts you’ve shared from Leda Sammarco about writing.) I realised a year or two ago that, for the most part, I actually earn my living as a writer. Writing a grant application can be a very creative process. But I hadn’t written anything else, even a diary, for a long time, and wanted to get back to writing for myself. A blog seemed like a good way to make sure I sat down to write regularly.

Where do you get your ideas for posts?
From all the random stuff in my head! I usually jot things down as I think of them in one of my half-filled notebooks. I’ve ended up writing more about working than I thought I would, possibly because I write sitting at the same desk and computer where I work, and often squeeze the posts in between work-related tasks. But it really is whatever’s preoccupying me on any given day which I think might be of interest to other people in a similar position.

I really like your very first post about home – can you recap for readers please?
Many things coexist in my mind. What to make for dinner alongside whether I’ve weeded the carrot patch and how long it will take to write a particular grant application and whether it’s time to do the school run yet. But all of the things that are really important to me are grounded in my notion of home and the more time I spend working at home, the less I seem to separate my home self from my work self. So the blog is a place to deliberately bring together all of the things that matter to me, whether it’s home baked bread, being there for my family, or working for a cause I believe in.

I also enjoyed your blog about small pieces – can you give us some recent examples?
The ‘small pieces’ you mention are small pieces of things I enjoy which find their way into my work-at-home day. When we had a run of beautifully sunny days recently, I’d open the back door and stand on the step to enjoy the sun and the garden while waiting for the kettle to boil before taking my tea back to the office.

Normally I work right up to the second I leave the house to do the school run but a few days ago I left off ten minutes early and wandered into the garden to plant out my tomato plants. Nothing relaxes me like getting outside and getting my hands and knees covered in compost!

Liz mainly works with charities in the nature conservation/environment sector and her blog is called Live and Work at Home. She’ll be back soon to talk about the need for honesty when blogging and the pros and cons of her live and work at home life.