Personal liberation - sometimes one just needs to open one's eyes.

I look around me on the train these days and smile at the Blackberry slaves. It has been me in the past, but it is not these days and to misquote Katy Perry, "I like it!"

For over 30 years I have worked in financial services, mostly in the City of London, and been a commuter. I can count the number of times I have driven to work in that time on the fingers of one hand.

For the majority of that time I was "suited and booted" wearing a tie and carrying a briefcase. All in all I have been and indeed still am pretty much the architypal suburban commuter, walking to the station, taking the train and sometimes using the underground; there and back.

I have to say it has not been that bad, but in part that is down to my choice of home and the places of work I have enjoyed.

What I did realise after almost 20 years (OK, I am a slow learner or maybe a late rebel) was that I was carrying a briefcase back and forwards for no real purpose. The contents were largely unchanged day in, day out. The only thing that did change was my daily paper. Other than that I carried an umbrella, maybe a calcuator, pens, various papers (no real idea what) and various things like breath mints and hayfever tablets. I might even have a day or two's newspapers if I forgot to throw them out. This all adds up to considerable weight to carry around for no benefit.

I rarely took work home and with the advent of email etc I could elctronically send any work I needed at home and send it back when done. I also recognised that as my train journey was no more than 30 minutes I never did any work on the train. I just read my paper and did the crossword.

I decided that most of my "stuff" could stay in the office as long as I had a asecond umbrella at home, so I started just carrying a newspaper - no briefcase. I even jettisoned that as soon as I was finished with it. This was so liberating.

More recently I took up an iPad and subscribed to my newspaper electronically so that is all I carry around now, albeit with a zip cover that does allow a small amount of paper to be carried too. It was not cheap at Brookstones, but it works!!

Despite all this I did succomb some years ago to the corporate Blackberry that ensured I could always pick up company emails and check my diary etc. This was important when I was deskless and my then employer had not embraced mobile devices such as the iPad.

I was also given a Blackberry as an interim and was one of those travellers doing my emails and checking my schedule on my train journey.

 In my current role I have not been supplied with a Blackberry. This means that I carry MY phone and MY iPad and in fact do not have access to the work email or diary while on the move. I CANNOT work on these things on the train as so many worker bees do.

It is only as I look around me on the train watching the squinting, thumb twitching, brow furrowing travellers I realise once again how lucky I am and how much I will look to hold onto that freedom as long as I can. I have my time back. I guve good value to my employers, so I deserve to respect myself too.