Interruptions, and the joy of working from home

Our design correspondent ponders the differences between working from home compared to an office, and the perils of procrastination and small children

Way back when, I worked in a large open plan office, a Hieronymus Bosch landscape of noises and smells and petty politics. It wasn’t for me. Eventually I escaped, seduced by the greener grass of working from home. Solitude, comfort, fridge – this was going to be designer nirvana! No more commuting or committees or line managers for me, just great swathes of time to do with as I wish!

I would begin each day by starting some work, spend the day doing some work, and then end the day ending some work. Perhaps a modest break for a sandwich. It would be a perfectly pleasant and solid chunk of time in which to design some designs, calmly and diligently spinning whatever plates I fancied towards their respective deadlines. This would be my routine. There are many like it, but this one would be mine.

Reality is slightly different. It turns out that I overlooked one minor detail: the doorbell.