In a world where we’re always available, how do you separate your personal time from your work time?
I love commuting. Weird, I know, but half-an-hour on the District Line to and from the office provides a perfect demarcation zone for me between home and work. That’s the theory, anyway. In practice, it’s very hard to put the iPhone down unless I’m asleep.
What’s one thing you do after the work day to help you unwind?
Still shaking a mean cocktail. No point letting those lockdown skills get rusty.
What activity do you do in your time away from the office that helps you relax and recentre after a stressful week?
I’m a great believer in the whole mens sana in corpore sano ["A sound mind in a sound body"] thing, but supposedly relaxing things like Yoga and Pilates set my teeth on edge. I get the whole week out of my system by lifting heavy weights. Anyone fancy a chat about the zen of deadlifting?
What’s something you’ve read, listened to or seen in your spare time that’s helped you at work?
I’ve just read Julia Hobsbawm’s timely, thought-provoking book The Nowhere Office. Hobsbawm argues that far from being caused by Covid, the hybrid workspace is the culmination of trends more than thirty years in the making. As she says “the future of work won’t be one with no office…but it will be one with new identities and new systems-thinking underpinning performance.” It’s all about the work, rather than where you do the work. As someone who absolutely loves going to the office, it has helped me think differently about the possibilities that will come out of the accelerated change of the last few years.
After home and the office, where’s your favourite third space?
I love the London Library – turn a corner in its stacks and you’ll fall across a book you’ve always wanted to read but had forgotten about or bump into a famous author. The armchairs in the Readers Room are also great for a sneaky snooze.
On Sunday night, how do you prepare yourself for the week ahead?
Fantasy: I get on top of all the emails I’ve missed the previous week and then do some diary planning followed by listening to the Diary of a CEO podcast. Reality: I fanny around trying on all my clothes and shoes, picking outfits for the coming week. Dressing up to go ‘out-out’ or wearing something smart to a meeting is such an enormous pleasure.
Best reason you've had to turn your out of office on recently?
My last OOO message read: "In SCOTLAND with ferrets and various birds of prey (but the phone works there if you still absolutely need me)."
Your go-to out of office outfit: Lucas Hugh gym leggings and some new Nike Metcon 7s.
Your happy place anywhere in the world: Torcello in the Venice Lagoon, Italy.
Your favourite bar or restaurant: In London, the bar at Claridge's is always deliciously glamorous (I'd order a classic Champagne cocktail or a Negroni). In Italy, I’d give my eye teeth to get back to Trattoria al Gatto Nero on Burano, drinking ice-cold white wine in the sunshine and eating fish that came out of the Venetian lagoon that morning. Not posh, just lovely.
Something you booked recently that you'd recommend: Henry V at the Donmar Warehouse is sensational, as is The World of Stonehenge at The British Museum.
Something you've listened to or read recently that you'd recommend: Darkness Falls from the Air by Nigel Balchin. Written in 1942, it’s a triangular love affair set against the backdrop of the blitz. It covers some of the same ground as Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, but Balchin’s is funnier, sexier, more absurd and more moving.
Hobby you'd like to cultivate: Falconry. Having recently flown a small Harris Hawk at Gleneagles, I keep dreaming of having both the time and the funds to take it up as a hobby. Although, see also, ferrets…
Luxury that’s actually a necessity: Glyndebourne.
Best luxury under £25: Build your own ice cream sundae at Fortnum & Mason’s Parlour Restaurant.
