Working from home shed

Last month Culture Secretary Maria Miller announced a £115 million broadband pot that, theoretically will create 10 ‘super-connected cities’ and the list includes Leeds and Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle. With the North being a hotbed for marketing, creative and digital jobs, could this mean that more marketers will be working from home and therefore be able to be remotely based? Home working has its issues, though, as well as benefits. Will everyone back at the office think you're just slacking? Will your boss think that too? To avoid the temptation of you sneaking off for a cheeky watch of Jeremy Kyle (guilty pleasure?) here are our top 10 tips for marketers considering it:

1. Have a dedicated workspace, the ultimate luxury is a shed like this but realistically most of us will have the spare room or a corner of the kitchen.
2. Be organised, make sure that you have a system and space for your files and work stuff.
3. Take breaks. It’s tempting when you work from home to work right through lunch and not leave your desk. Go for a walk or move into a different room, even just for half and hour.
4. Know when to stop, the great thing about working from home is that you aren’t tied to conventional office hours but it can also mean that you are still working late into the night.
5. Be careful about what you say on social media. Facebook posts about This Morning will make your colleagues suspect that you aren’t actually doing any work.
6. Don’t do the housework; make sure you focus on your work and not all the house jobs that need doing.
7. Keep in touch; working from home can sometimes isolate you from your colleagues, shared calendars, project management systems and emails (in moderation) help keep lines of communication open.
8. Be firm with other people, just because you are at home doesn’t mean you are available for coffees, drop ins and errands.
9. Take the day off when you are sick; work is work wherever you are. You can still be too ill to work even if your office is your kitchen.
10. Get dressed!

So, is this new wave of potential home working going to transform our flat economy or are we all just going to end up working in our P-J's??