Back to the grindstone today. Even though I like my job, there’s no easy way to shift from holiday mindset to work-mode. From doing what you like, when you like as late as you like to diving out of bed early enough to iron a shirt, cram yourself into it and battle the rush hour traffic to get to your desk by 9. Working for exactly 3.5 hours, having 60 minutes for lunch (regardless of whether you’re hungry), then another 4 hours until you can stagger home.

Is anyone really suited to the 9-to-5 lifestyle? My body certainly prefers staying up until 4 a.m. and sleeping until noon. I used to work from home and found that the later I stayed up, the more productive I became. Once all the distractions were removed (no phone calls, no emails, no TV, no traffic noise), I could remain focussed for much longer periods of time.

As long as I was free to organise my work, I had no problem meeting deadlines. Working when you feel motivated, instead of when you have to sounds risky but my experience was that I got more done. In fact, I had more of a problem remembering to stop. When we geeks get our teeth into an interesting challenge, we want to keep going and have to be reminded to wash and eat.

Perhaps that’s the problem. Most of a days work is monotonous and dull. Without set hours and structure, we’d lose interest and drift off. So my path is clear – find a job that’s fascinating, motivating, intriguing, lets me work from home, in my own time, to my own schedule and doesn’t make me wear a tie.

How hard can that be?