But a working internet connection is not.

Last Summer was my best ever in England. I know many people would tell you that July was miserable and it was raining non-stop, but the thing is, I wasn’t here in July, I came back in August and it wasn’t bad at all. It was warm, hot, sun shining all day, a lovely breeze to cool you off, no afternoon showers to ruin your cycling to work, etc. So I thought: ‘I should really go to the park (cross the street, the park is that far) and work from there’.

My Summer office

My Summer Office

I picked up my laptop, my notebook (luckily I still have and use one), a pen, my phone and a beach towel to sit on the grass. Lovely. I was all happy and smiley.

As soon as I organised my new office I thought I needed internet connection, how naive of me to forget that!
Fear not, I could connect my laptop to the smartphone et voilà, I was ready to work.

Turned on my laptop and there was too much light to see any colour on my monitor. I couldn’t do any photo retouching or graphic layout.

I paused for few minutes, I didn’t want to blame the Sun because my open air office wasn’t working right away, I actually was quite happy to feel the Summer on my skin. Laid there enjoying the quiet sound of the empty park (most of the people were in the office!) and realised that I couldn’t do what I had planned for that day, because it required a computer. I stood there for half an hour or so, published a quick blog post from the phone and headed back home, to work.

For the rest of the week I left my laptop at home, spent every morning at the park doing research, reading, planning, sketching, taking notes, focusing on the creative process that every project requires, checking emails now and then on the phone and then went home to spend the afternoon working on the computer.

Have you ever thought that productive, relaxing and rewarding can all go together? Well, that week ticked all the three boxes for me.

Since that experience I started moving around a bit more, working from different places in the city: cafes, libraries, parks, even museums, purely because I got tired of sitting on the same chair every day. I felt like getting out meant giving my brain more space to expand, not to explode, or should I say implode?

I am aware that not every job allows you this kind of freedom and flexibility, get away from your office and hide from your boss* for half a day, but if you could do it and you won’t just because you’re lazy, well, you’re missing out!

* Hiding from your boss for half a day doesn’t mean not working!