25 September 2026
Long before the pandemic made it mainstream, I had been working from Lace Cottage in Devon. The tools, the discipline, and the unexpected advantages of a rural home office.
I have been working from home since long before anyone made it fashionable.
Lace Cottage is in Devon. It is quiet, it has good light, and it is about as far from a London open-plan office as it is possible to get while still being in England. For the first few years of my contracting career, working from home was something I did around client sites — early mornings, late evenings, Fridays. Then gradually, as the tools improved and clients became more comfortable with it, it became the default.
By the time the pandemic arrived in March 2020 and everyone else discovered remote working, I had been doing it for the better part of a decade.
What I found, and what I think holds true now, is that remote working is primarily a discipline problem, not a technology problem. The tools have been good enough for years. Video calls work. Shared documents work. Project management platforms work. What doesn't always work is the human side — staying focused without an office to anchor you, maintaining relationships without the natural friction of shared physical space, knowing when you've done enough for the day and when you're actually just avoiding the difficult thing.
The thing I'd tell anyone starting out with remote work is this: your environment matters more than your tools. I have a dedicated space, a proper setup, a routine that marks the start and end of the working day. These aren't luxuries. They're what makes it sustainable over months and years rather than weeks.
The other thing I'd say is that remote working and relationship-building aren't mutually exclusive — but you have to be more deliberate about it. You don't bump into people in a corridor. You don't pick up the ambient information that flows through an office. You have to create the moments that would otherwise happen accidentally.
I've run complex, multi-stakeholder programmes from this desk in Devon. I've managed teams across multiple time zones and organisations without ever being in the same room as most of them. It works — when you treat it seriously.
The pandemic taught a lot of people that remote working is possible. What I hope they also learned is that doing it well is a skill, not a default state. The companies and individuals who came out of it strongest were the ones who figured that out quickly.
I figured it out in about 2014. It just took a global health crisis for everyone else to catch up.
Want to continue the conversation?
I'm always happy to talk project management.