The sun shines in London though apparently there's another 4 inches of the white stuff all over Gloucestershire - so it's too early to think that our "winter" is over. Meanwhile, the boss is handing out gongs for stories of heroism and pluck to staffers who struggled through last week's Siberian weather so as not to miss a day at the office.

Since you ask, no, I didn't struggle in to work on Monday or Tuesday - thanks to my daughter's school - but then, I didn't really have to. There was nothing happening that required my physical presence in the office and I had my laptop and my BlackBerry at home. Sod acting like Nanook of the North. Work smarter, not harder, I say. (And I have scores and scores and scores of emails that prove I was, indeed, working, in case you ask!)

Then I realised that many of us probably missed a trick. We thought we were faced with two choices: strap a couple of tennis rackets to our feet and the neighbour's dog to a sledge and mush our way to work, or stay at home and battle against the never-ending flow of emails.

Maybe there was a third option:

• stay at home


• switch off all electronic devices - laptop, BlackBerry, TV!


• Think about the business and contemplate whether there are better ways of doing what we currently do, if there are things we could or should be doing that we aren't, if there are markets we should be tackling, techniques we should be adopting, weaknesses we should be addressing, costs we should be saving, rivals' lunches we should be eating...

On Wednesday I made it in to a breakfast briefing we'd organised several weeks ago at which I presented the results of some Financial Director reader research. One of the key findings in that was that two-thirds of FDs said "We aren't creative enough in finding solutions to our problems".

I reckon you can't be creative if you're hunched over a laptop or tapping into a BlackBerry. And, personally, I find I never have enough working time away from these damn things.

But you can be creative if you are suddenly presented with an opportunity to disconnect from the screaming email, the flashing PDA. In short, if you can't do your so-called work.

There's a reason why Moses climbed the mountain and it wasn't to get better reception for his SmartPhone. Personally, I can't wait for the next snow-in. I just hope that I discover I've inadvertently left my laptop power lead at the office. Maybe there should be a gong for the best idea brought into work the day after a snowstorm.