For the first time in my long life, I am sitting in an office, in front of a computer, and it's my job to do so.

How strange as it could seem, I am 61 and I never had a job whose main activity was to sit, watch a screen and type! And eventually move a mouse.

In the past, I had lots of job but none of them consisted in using a computer most of the time. I had been waiter in a restaurant, carpenter apprentice, night watchman, taxi driver, chauffeur de maître, cook in a canteen, seller in a library, street pedlar and also demolition contractor. I had also been doing weird jobs such as cleaner in a cold store, pet's baby-sitter, corpses conveyor for my town's mortuary or even phone boxes tester.

Yes, I had ran into plenty of different forms of what some today call "modern slavery". Some were easy and boring, others so painful I could hit my toes with a brick just to have an excuse not to go, others just silly as a dream. I had great times also. But rarely I had been sitting in an office and more rarely I had been using a computer as a tool.

But now I resolved to do so and for a long time.

I rented myself a little desk in a shared open space for freelancers. It is definitely more convenient than the cupboard filled to the top with old torn books and unwashed clothes that I call my home.

If you have a good capacity of abstraction from your environment and some persistence, you could almost work here. There are other freelancers, doing jobs I don't understand, and wandering around in the office screaming like devils in their mobiles when it's time to get paid. And everybody is just like me sitting in front of a damn computer. Typing typing and typing. And eventually moving mouses.

And, to tell the truth, it's just awful. How can you do that all the day long, all the year, all your life? Don't you get mad in the end ?

Well, as I have no choice, I suppose I have to get accustomed to it. So I had invented a few techniques to change my mind in this buzzing office.

Here are 3 of them, which are quite effective to me. Hoping they could help some of you confronted to such a situation.

Technique 1 : Office spy
This is kind of a game. I pretend to be an office spy and just go stare at one of my neighbours' screen. I approach myself little by little, keeping lurking at what my spied colleague is typing. Until I get caught. And then, you have a good point to start an half an hour conversation about the "what exactly is your job" topic. I could come back the same day to the same guy. Because at my age it is quite acceptable to forget everything, especially when it is as complicated as a freelancer's job.

Technique 2 : Office Gymkhana
In order to break the monotony of the posture, and help my body not to turn into an office potato, I force myself to get up and do things. Whatever the real need. The idea is that you have to move around, not regarding the efficiency of the task. Just go check the printer before printing, changing the ink toner when it's not necessary. Go try to fix the toilets because you heard a disturbing little noise. Move to the post office for every letter you have to send. Go visit the basement to see if you could read your writings in the dark. That's good sport.

Technique 3 : Office hide and seek
Most of my neighbours are very serious people, doing dead-boring jobs and talking a pompous jargon. So I have to put a little fun into this. Each time I could take the opportunity; I steal a little object on a desk, and just hide it in someone else's drawer. Then I go ask the robbed if he could lend me the missing object. Not finding it, he usually gets mad and I could help him to play the hide and seek game. Usually, I just dodge myself before he starts to argue with the drawer's owner where his object has been surprisingly found.