The open-plan office has had a long journey. Since it was pioneered in the 1950s, mainly for junior-level employees, it has grown to become the norm for many companies, especially as it was seen to encourage collaboration and discussion.

And now it is becoming obsolete. Not just because there is mounting research showing that people find open working environments to be stressful and disruptive, but because people don’t work the same way anymore. In many countries around the world, a record number of people are self-employed - and they are choosing to mix work and leisure in unprecedented ways.

Welcome to the work-life revolution, where the boundary between personal and work life is growing fuzzier by the day. You can see it in the co-working spaces that are popping up all over the world. Freelancers have been renting desks for decades, but this is something entirely different. One co-working space with locations across Asia, offers a variety of working environments, from desks to lounges to private rooms. It’s like an office you can tailor to suit your own needs. There are also language lessons, game nights and weekend boat trips. Members can roam between cities - even countries or continents.

All the better to suit a new class of digital nomads. Unburdened by paperwork and liberated by reliable Wi-Fi in even the most remote locations, many young entrepreneurs and freelancers are blending travel and work like never before.

As the owner of a boutique marketing agency recently told the Sydney Morning Herald, “I was up in the chopper flying over the Great Barrier Reef a few weeks ago - you do actually get reception up there - and I was answering emails on my phone as I was flying over a sand cay.”