Hi, Sweet Cheeks.
A few years ago I visited the home of writer E.B. White.
You might know him as the author of the beloved children's classics Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and a co-author of the writer's BFF, The Elements of Style.
I know him as my Writing Hero.
E.B. didn't live there anymore; he died in 1985. But the house (and surrounding land) is still pretty much as it was when E.B. was alive.
It's located almost exactly halfway up the state of Maine's ragged shoreline—a section of the state known as Mid-Coast.
The house was roomy, with dedicated offices for both E.B. and his wife, New Yorker fiction editor Katharine White. The light-filled barns were redolent of their former residents; I swear I could still catch a whiff of Wilbur's straw-filled pen.
But still, E.B. went out of his way to write nowhere near the house. He wrote in a boathouse—located a short walk down a grassy path toward Maine's aggressively windy Mid-Coast shoreline.
It was nothing special, that writing shed.
Just a simple box outfitted with a desk, hard bench, a tiny wood stove, wastebasket (what E.B. drafts did the basket carry off to the rubbish?), and its original ashtray (so E.B. was a smoker!)
So, yeah, it was nothing special.
But it was extraordinary.
There was a brief moment when I found myself alone in the boathouse—just me and the spirit of E.B.
I slipped behind the wooden desk and onto the hard bench and looked out at the Atlantic Ocean. I'd like to say that I had a profound reckoning at that moment—that I caught a bit of E.B.'s writerly wisdom whispered by the winds coming off the Atlantic.
But no. I sat on that hard bench and all I could think was... "My butt is sitting exactly where E.B. White's butt was." 😜
* * *
Writers are the original work-from-home "knowledge workers," says Cal Newport in
a recent piece in the
New Yorker. And like E.B., they often went out of their way to escape working in their actual homes.
Here in 2021, we can all relate, can't we?
It's hard to work 100% from home. Because other people live there. Because we might as well throw in a load of laundry. Because maybe we should just go stare into the fridge I wonder if that leftover eggplant parm is still there...?
That's why Cal urges companies wrestling with Work From Home (WFH) policies to consider a third option for the post-pandemic moment: Work From Near Home (WFNH).
"If we look to authors for inspiration then one such alternative emerges: work from near home," he writes.
What if companies support and subsidize WFNH as a way to boost happiness and productivity, and avoid distraction and burnout?
From Cal:
Strictly from the perspective of dollars and cents, W.F.N.H. is likely a superior policy to W.F.H. It's an up-front investment that promises strong returns in the long run.
It's a good idea. And I hope some newly remote teams embrace it at a time when the "Future of Work" is up for debate.
* * *
Summer is a good time to refuel, recharge, and—especially this year—play around with inventing our own WFNH spots.
Even if "near" home is a back deck. A patio. A balcony. An Airstream trailer parked on your lawn (as my friend Jeremiah Owyang has).
Six years ago, I
built my Tiny House Studio in my backyard—a pre-pandemic move that turned out to be a gift to my 2020 quarantined-self.
It was already one of the best things I'd done for my own productivity and happiness: Having a separate place to do my best work has allowed me to... well, do my best work.
And in the past 15 Covid months, it's been the flotation device in a Sea of Stress.
My Tiny House Studio is small. It's a simple structure. Four rough wooden walls. A wooden desk. Retro stool. Internet connection. Tiny screened porch.
It's really nothing special.
But it's been extraordinary.
* * *
I don't know if E.B. White wrote from his boathouse in winter. I don't know if he high-stepped through the deep New England snow, tucking his head down against the biting winter wind tearing off the gray ocean.
But I can picture him there in summer—the window propped to let in that wind, now a tamer summer breeze filling the room with all the oxygen he could use.
* * *
🎉 🎉 🎉
My challenge to you: Share a photo of your own summer workspace on social media. (Inside. Outside. Whatever works for you.) Be sure to tag me! I'll randomly choose 10 to win some
$WORD coin, my creator coin. (
Back story on $WORD here.)
* * *
Here are a few things worth sharing this week.
Everybody Writes Tip of the Week: Should you only have sex with your spouse?
