Christmas 2020: What working from home has taught me

Our homes have been so much more than homes in 2020. We've worked from them, exercised in them and stood outside them and clapped the NHS. We've put our children's drawings of rainbows in our windows and shared doorstep drinks with our neighbours. We've cleared out cupboards, painted walls and grown our own vegetables. In this series of blogs, we celebrate some of the ways our homes have helped us through the year - even if it wasn't quite the year we were planning.

What working from home has taught me

For me one of the most startling statistics of 2020 was the estimate that by December, as much as 50 per cent of the nation's GDP (gross domestic product) was being produced in private homes. This may be a temporary phenomenon, but it is still an industrial revolution.

This figure, based on Office for National Statistics data, was calculated by Andrew Bridgen of Fathom Consulting who said that it was 'less remarkable than the recent achievements of medical science, perhaps, but remarkable nonetheless.'

Bridgen is right. The most astonishing and heart-warming number of the year was the news, on a dark November day, of the 95 per cent rate of efficacy for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Yet we should still raise a cheer that millions ­- many in surroundings that were far from ideal - contrived to do their jobs so diligently and successfully from home.

Some people in large, comfortable houses will be keen to prolong this experiment, particularly those who have relocated to a rural idyll. Many others, in cramped city-centre flats, who have been more correctly 'living at work' than working from home are pining for release.

Both groups should be proud of what they have learnt from the experience. The national effort to make the best of a bad situation has brought out the best in us, in a way that should boost GDP in 2021.

Businesses have been compelled to spend more on technology to enable staff to work from home. This should aid productivity, especially since many employees have become, out of necessity, more adept users of tech - of every type.

Who, a year ago, had heard of Zoom, now a US$114 billion dollar business whose name is used as a verb ('Let's Zoom at 10am')?

The experience has also taught us something about ourselves. I already suspected that, if working from home, I would easily be distracted from the task in hand by the desire to tweak the décor in every kind of way, from rehanging pictures to repositioning rugs. This turned out to be the case when I set up my work station in a corner of the kitchen.

But my frequent ministrations to furniture, cushions and throws (none remained untouched) turned out to have professional benefits. Tidying the bookshelves - no colour-coding was involved, by the way - ensured that I had a suitable backdrop for live TV appearances from home, or chairing webinars.

Also, since I write about interior design trends, I would argue that it's only right that I try to follow some of these fashions myself. As my other speciality is investment, it's also useful that I keep a close eye on the websites of the key homeware stocks like Wayfair. The company's shares have risen by 170 per cent since January 2020, largely thanks to lockdowns and home working.

I could go on, but there is a picture that I think would look much better if I were to hang it in the hall, rather than in the sitting room... Anne Ashworth, property and finance writer and commentator

Further information

This series of blogs is inspired by Savills new advertising campaign, To Every Home That's Been So Much More Than A Home - Thank You and Merry Christmas. Over the next few weeks a selection of guest bloggers will reveal just how much their homes have meant to them this year.