How to Tweak Your Home Office to Be Productive Full-time
Change is on my mind. This week has been my first week as a full-time web worker. I feel like I have been initiated into a club, and have a new sense of freedom. My home is my office, my work hours are flexible, and I can wear what I want. I like those changes!
I also find myself thinking about the changes I need to make for my new work situation to be as effective as possible. This week I am away from home, and I have been thinking about major and minor adjustments I will need to make in my work space and lifestyle. My home office has been quite effective on a part-time basis, but will it cut it when I will be there all day (or all night), when I need to concentrate when the kids get home from school, and when I am under pressure to get a task finished?
Here are five issues I need to deal with when I am working from home next week:
1. Rethink Your Office Location
A home office should be a dedicated room away from noises and distractions with a door that can be closed when necessary. Unfortunately we don’t have a spare room for an office—a side-effect of having so many kids. At first I used an outdoor table in an under-cover barbecue area, but even in sunny Queensland, sometimes the weather (not to mention the flies and mosquitoes) made work difficult.
A home office should be a dedicated room away from noises and distractions with a door that can be closed when necessary.
After that I started using our dining room table, which isn’t often used for dining. Although it’s a heavy-traffic area, and close to the clash of pots and pans at washing up time, it has been quiet enough during my part-time working hours. During noisy times I have been wearing headphones.
But I’m working at my home office all day every day, and that isn’t going to cut it. I need a new place for my desk. My ideal desk location would:
- be well ventilated, with fresh air to keep the brain working
- be well-lit, preferably with natural light during the day
- have a window to look out of when I’m thinking or having a break, preferably with something nice to look at, like a garden
- be spacious enough so that I don’t feel restrained or claustrophobic
- to be in a separate part of the house to the noise, including TV, music, washing up and kids in general.
Would you add anything else to my list?
To make things more complicated, I have an eight-month old baby and a shift-working wife, both of whom may need to sleep during the day time, so my desk should be away from the sleeping area. On the other hand, when my wife is doing a day shift, my desk needs to be close enough to the cot to keep an eye on my son. This is the fun of freelancing—what other type of office needs to take these kinds of issues into account?
What other type of office needs to take these kinds of issues into account?
I’m looking forward to a surprise when I get home: my wife is rearranging the house (including my desk) in a way that she thinks is going to work. I’m curious to see what she has done. Fortunately she is going away a week later so that I can fix things if necessary!
2. Declutter Your Desk
I admit it: I inherited the hoarding gene from my dad. Over the years I have collected piles of paper containing “useful” information, including reference information, useful tips, decade-old receipts, and the kids’ report cards from school. They’ve been shuffled from box to box each time we’ve moved house, and seriously need to be sorted out. My desk is also surrounded by spare monitors and keyboards and computer speakers, “useful” knick knacks, and piles of books.
When I was working from home part-time and out servicing clients most of the day, my jungle of junk was bearable, but as a full-timer it is only going to frustrate me and drive me away from my work. It’s time to seriously declutter my work space.
I’m not brave enough to throw out whole boxes of paperwork – there are definitely useful documents in those boxes. But I won’t have time to sort through it all in one sitting. I need to find an alternate location to store it, and schedule time each week to slowly sort out the wheat from the chaff. And for the paperwork I decide to keep, I need to invest in a better filing system.
I need to find an alternate location to store it, and schedule time each week to slowly sort out the wheat from the chaff.
Next week when I am setting up my desk in its new location, I’ll be asking myself two questions:
- What needs to be on my desk in order for me to work effectively?
- What needs to be close at hand, but not on my desk?
Whatever isn’t included in the answers to those two questions either needs to be thrown out, or stored elsewhere. In answering those questions, I need to work out whether I need a bookshelf close to my desk, and whether I will be printing often enough to keep my large color laser printer on my desk, nearby, or in another room.
3. Optimize Your Tools
“Sharpen the saw” is one of the basic principles of Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. This principle was inspired by something Abraham Lincoln said:
“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the ax”.
Before this week I spent my time working in different jobs with different focuses doing different tasks. But now my time is much more focused, and I spend a lot of the day doing similar tasks – some of which involve considerable repetition. That means that if I can find a way of saving a few seconds per task, over a day or a week it may add up to saving me many hours.
This week I have started thinking about some software tools that can make some routine jobs faster and less frustrating:
- I now have several Gmail accounts that I need to check regularly. The nature of the accounts makes me reluctant to forward one of them to the other – they should remain separate. I tried a few Firefox extensions that didn’t really work for me, and settled on using two different browsers: Firefox and Flock. I chose Flock because I heavily rely on several Firefox extensions, and Flock is based on Firefox.
- I’ve found that there are some tedious HTML code fragments, common phrases, and standard emails that I need to type a few times every day, and started looking for some software to take away the pain. My main workstation runs Linux, so I tried the Flock web clipboard, the snippets plug-in for the Glipper clipboard manager, and copying and pasting from a text file that I kept handy. I settled on using AutoKey, which is similar to TextExpander on the Mac and AutoHotKey on Windows.
- I regularly need to upload files to various online storage repositories, including video sites and Amazon’s S3 file storage. I’m sure there is a way to use a single tool to upload to all of these services, but I’m still looking for the right one.
Have you found some software tools that maximize your productivity? Let us know in the comments.
If I can find a way of saving a few seconds per task, over a day or a week it may add up to saving me many hours.
Now that I will be spending more hours at my desk, ergonomic issues have become more crucial. Since writing an article about ergonomics in May, I have been slowly improving my work space. I have purchased a Logitech Wave keyboard which makes typing a breeze, bought an easy-to-read 24″ LCD monitor, and placed my laptop on a stand so that the monitor is at the right height and the keyboard is out of the way. So many web workers suffer from health issues relating to computer equipment and usage that it is well worth doing an ergonomic evaluation of your own workstation.
4. Rethink Your Workflow
Now that my workload has increased, as has the number of deadlines I need to meet, it is time to streamline my workflow. By making changes to how I do each task, and the order I do them in, I should be able to achieve a much better use of my time. As I master each new task, I am carefully thinking about new and better ways to achieve them, the most efficient order in which to do them, and whether there is any duplication that can be eliminated.
Work in a way that maximizes productivity and minimizes effort.
I need to decide whether to do all of my work in one big chunk of time, or split my day up into smaller pieces. I’m hoping to get into a routine where I do similar things at the same time each day in the most effective order. And I still need to find out what time of day I have the most energy for tackling the difficult jobs that need a lot of concentration. I think that is normally first thing in the morning for me, but that may change as my lifestyle changes.
In short, I’m planning to work in a way that maximizes productivity and minimizes effort so that I can get the most out of each day.
5. Plan For Flexibility
Flexibility is definitely one of the things that has drawn me to becoming a web worker from a home office. One of my concerns is that if I allow too much flexibility in the way I spend my time, I may end up working until the early hours of the morning on a regular basis. While enjoying some flexibility, I still need to get work done throughout the day.
Here are some things I am hoping to achieve with my flexible hours:
- I will care for my eight-month old son when my wife is on day shifts at the hospital. Since going back to work after the baby, she has done a large proportion of night shifts, and doesn’t get much sleep during the day because of the baby. Now if she is rostered on a day shift, I can look after him during the day, and work while he sleeps and at night.
- When my wife is home during the day, I can arrange my schedule so that we can spend more time together on a regular basis.
- I want to get back into a pattern of regular exercise, especially walking around the wetlands near where I live.
- Working from home should also give me the time and opportunity to set up a small music studio again, something I haven’t had time for since the 80s and 90s.
I can start to plan my time in advance so that I accomplish these new goals and still have time for work.
Now that I have worked out how I want to make the most of my new flexibility, I can start to plan my time in advance so that I accomplish these new goals and still have time for work. Without this planning, I’m afraid that either I’ll take too much time off work during the day and find it difficult to meet deadlines, or I’ll be so focused on work I won’t achieve my new goals. Planning and good time management should help me achieve a healthy balance between the two.
Many of you would have gone through a similar journey in becoming a full-time work-from-home freelancer. Do you have any tips to share with us? Let us know in the comments.
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I’ve been working from my home office full time for over 2 years now… and I have to say that the office in my house is far superior to any office space that I could choose in my area. I have paintings, photos, sculptures, and puppets in my office, a couch, and very smartly-done lighting for the room. It’s air conditioned in the heat of the summer (which obstructs my view of the woods from the window), and is cool and comfortable any other time.
When it comes to my home office, I’d say that sound-proofing (as close as you can get it) is of paramount importance. I have two kids at home…. the noise that they can generate on a rainy day is almost unthinkable. My solution when I think I need complete soundproofing is noise canceling headphones. Every home office should have a pair, preferably a pair that has a mute button on the cord remote. They simply work.
Duclettering and optimizing your tools are universal, whether you’re at home or at an office somewhere else. Undoubtedly you have your own space somwhere; keep it clean, and use the tools that make life easier.
One of my Twitter pals just asked the “working at night” question, and I look at it this way; Working from home gives you the opportunity to do work on a non-traditional schedule. Spend a portion of the day doing your ordinary stuff… answering phones, sending emails to needy clients (many of the emails are redundant and borderline useless, but still required) and then towards the afternoon, take a nice solid break until after dinner. Then comes the dark time…. no one is phoning you, no one is emailing you, and you have sweet, unadulterated, productive time, surrounded by silence. The kids are in bed, the wife is reading a book (or in bed), and you’re calmly, cooly working. Ahhhhhh…
Adrian, you’re making some big changes, and are thinking it out the right way… proactively. This is a good list, and is going to help you avoid falling into a number of different traps. Those who succeed and get through the first creaks and groans of switching over tend to never want to go back to the cube.
I love posts like this… they keep me jazzed about my own situation with my office space.
Peace!
Great post.
Very important to have a separate office from the rest of your home, when possible. I can imagine that with kids around, it would be difficult to manage.
One other thing that comes to mind: you’ll discover that you’ll become the IT guy as well..Unless you have a friend or a an IT guy helping you out, usually disaster happens when you are in a rush.
I’d suggest a good backup mechanism. If you have a good home network, invest in a reliable NAS. I have my work backed up on two different locations, just in case.
I’ve had a similar situation for the couple of years, so I feel your pain about not having a proper working space. Business started out at the dining room table, which we did actually use for dining as well, then moved to a built-in desk in the foyer, and is now in the process of reclaiming the dining room. The dining room table became the boardroom table for a while when I had clients over, which happened way more than I thought it would. I’ve since put the main eating area in the kitchen itself, got rid of the dining table and am renovating it into a permanent office (with doors and everything!). I also have kids at home, although the youngest will be going to school starting this September so that makes things easier.
Even though things have been a bit more difficult proceeding this way, my wife and I decided a long time ago that having children meant one of us being home instead of using day care – that meant she was a stay-at-home mom while I worked as an employee, various schedule shuffling techniques, and me working at home while she works. It’s also meant some life changes due to not having two full time incomes; cheaper housing and so forth. The path we chose may not be for everybody but it’s what we wanted, sounds like you’ve also chosen a similar path, so best of luck. I can tell you it’s been worthwhile for us, and now we’re about to ‘graduate’ to having all kids in school it just gets better.
Great article! This is incredibly helpful.
I am thinking of making the leap from full-time employee to full-time freelancer as well. For all of those who have children at home, do you have a sitter during the day or do you balance watching the kids with your work? That’s the one issue I haven’t fully worked out yet. Any insight would be fantastic.
Adrian I really enjoyed reading this article, it’s really nicely written.
My next career aim is to move into full-time freelancing and I know how important a good office space is.
I just hope i have the money to invest when it comes to it.
Thanks for the insight!
Nice post. I’m liking the fact you’ve summed up almost all of my issues regarding noisy children, no spare room and lots of distractions—which is why I mainly choose to work at night. Great tips on the workflow.
Congratulations, and welcome to fulltime web working! Thanks also for your thoughtful post. I’ve been doing it for almost three years, and have found that the more mobility you have the better off you’ll be. Try to do everything with online tools from a laptop if possible. Gina Trapani wrote a great post on Lifehacker last week about going paperless here http://bit.ly/baGRU.
I’m fortunate to have a dedicated room for my office, yet there are plenty of times when my daughter’s activities make it necessary to travel (like now). Depending on what you do you’ll have the most flexibility if you can toss everything into a backpack. Best wishes for much success, and thanks again for the post.
Yes, good post. I’m married 4 1/2 years now and I’ve been freelancing 2 1/2. I can’t imagine the dynamic and additional complications and schedule restrictions having children would add to my career/schedule! I know it will happen one day and it’s good to hear from someone who’s already in the boat.
I wanted to write a response to your time-management (which I’ve come to call more of “energy-management”)
I don’t work the average schedule because I go cross-eyed after 3pm! So I work from about 8:30(ish) to 2:30 or 3. Then I take a long break and start to figure out what to make for dinner (I love cooking!)
After dinner, and taking some time to exchange stories with my wife on how our day when I pick it up again, usually around 6 or 7 and work approximately 2 more hours.
I feel totally refreshed after that big break and the sun is starting to set. It energizes me. I love it.
Good post, I freelance full time from my apartment and it’s definitely important to keep it clean and clutter free. Here in NY places are small as it is so the more space you can get out of it the better and more relaxed you will feel.
As someone who has worked from various homes for about 8 years, I have to say that the best, and most efficient home office I ever had was in a separate outbuilding in my back yard. It required me to get dressed and leave the house to start my day (I have been known to take business calls in my PJs otherwise), kept work (and that always nagging email) out of my personal space, and eliminated cartoon character voices out of phone call background noises. It also provided a professional setting for meeting clients when the need arose. Unfortunately, our current home does not allow us to have a similar setup and I now have my home office centrally located in the house. This has resulted in me answering emails at 3:30 in the morning. I miss my shed (and we manufacture them)!
I have a blog post on the subject: http://historicshed.blogspot.com/2008/12/perfect-home-office.html#ixzz0Nz1j7vTE
Congratulations on your move to full-time freelancing.
I remember thinking to myself on my first day, “What have I done?” It was a big shock to be all alone in my house with a full in-box and no structure, but — as the weeks progressed — I learned to settle into a bit of a routine, not feel guilty about allowing myself flexibility (a big issue in the beginning), and to add boundaries (physical and mental) so that work doesn’t take over my entire life.
You can too. It sounds like you’re well on your way! Good luck!
Great post Adrian! I really need to work on that “declutter” step.
The best way to tweak your home office is not to tweak it but to get an outside office space. Commercial Real Estate space is very cheap right now. Depending on where you live you can get it around $400 and up.
I realized long ago that in-home-business is no business because its a home after all; thats where we go to relax, watch tv, and be lazy. And if you have kids, forget about home office.
Bottom line is this, if you want to be 10 times more productive then get a real office space, the rest of rhetoric is only commentary
Worked at home for several years with kids and never had a problem. And I daresay I am still more productive the two days of the week I work from home than I am in the office.
I disagree with the comment that it’s impossible to run a successful business from a home office. I’ve been doing that for almost three years. Juggling home and business responsibilities does take discipline and effort, but it is very possible and profitable.
Yes, I don’t dismiss special cases where some people were able to establish successful business in the comfort of their home. But in general, I think, many people will find it difficult and unsettling.
For instance you have a kid and stay home wife. Your kid always tries to knock down your door because he knows daddy’s in the house — He wants to play. Then a wife comes and tells you “Honey Bunny I got to go quickly run some errands, watch the kid(s) for me” You can’t refuse. Sometimes you feel guilty that you are not always there for your family when you are only 10 feet away from them in your office.
While some folks can see it possible to work from home, I just cant. I have a two year old daughter, and I tried to work from home couple of days from a month, even with wife always watching her, and I couldnt. My verdict, business from home, is no business.
Thanks for these tips
The biggest issue I’m dealing with at the moment is clutter & not the cleanest work station. Organization and being spotless was never my forte but if I just put in 30 minutes or so, it’ll contribute to that amount of time and more of even more productive work each day, i’m almost sure of it.
Awesome blog design btw, very very nice!
I’ve been using my bedroom as an office these past few weeks. No wonder I wasn’t getting anything done!
I agree with Mary, working from home requires a certain level of discipline and effort but is very possible. I have been working from home for over eight years and find that I have a great balance between family and work. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
Really nice post. I bought ergonomic keyboard from Microsoft. It really helps a lot
I really enjoyed reading this Adrian.
Having worked in all sorts of places I think the aim should be to make your work space somewhere you enjoy being in or at, be that at home or in an office or even in the garden or a cafe!
Great article. For uploading to various locations, I use Cyberduck – I’ve found it to be really helpful
Invest in a scanner, if you have a lot of paper work, it’s really easy to scan it into your computer. Then from there you should be able to find things much easier.
I name things like this “[year] – [subject] – [paper name]” that way I can use my OS’s build in search on the folder to find the paper I am looking for. For backing things up you can also use something like dropbox, or even flickr.
The less paper clutter the better, I also find paying bills on line really easy.
I also recommend having a separate HD or partition to separate your content from your OS. That way if you have to rebuild your computer your files go untouched.
I began freelancing full time almost 8 years ago. In that time I worked from:
*My bedroom
*My kitchen table
*My dining room table
Two years ago my husband converted a bedroom that is too small to hold a bed into an office. It works well. However, if I had to offer my #1 productivity tip it’s to have regular working hours. Your less likely to be disturbed and folks are more likely to respect your time if you have regular working hours. This isn’t to say you can’t be flexible – but having a specific block of time to work each day really does wonders for your productivity.
Exactly.
Have been working from 2nd floor suburban home office for 6 years, and I love my space. I can see as soon as a car (or a Jehovah’s Witness) pulls into my driveway, when UPS or other delivery slows to a stop, when my younger kid arrives from the bus stop, when the cops arrive (d’oh!) etc.
In my arrangement, it’s unavoidable that I need to be flexible and interrupt work on occasion to help with some domestic issues. If I had to keep driving back and forth from an office somewhere, slogging through traffic, I’d go nuts!
In a perfect world, I’d have a detached office out back. But then I’d miss out on what my kids and wife were up to as I lost track of time out there in the “club house…”
Great post Adrian. As a professional organizer working from a home office for the past five years, I absolutely agree that the first thing to do after dedicating an appropriate work zone is to get the clutter under control. Paper is the most merciless clutter of all. I recommend starting with a very basic sort.
Bring 4 boxes to your stack of papers and label those boxes by 4 levels of activity: Running, Sitting, Sleeping, and Dead.
Running files- are any files you want to make a point of ACTING on. Eventually they should be kept OUT and visible so you don’t forget them.
Sitting files- are current files and important documents you need to be able to FIND easily. They can eventually be put away in a file cabinet.
Sleeping files- are files you are keeping JUST IN CASE. They can be simply divided by year and can stay in the box. Store these more remotely to free up your workspace.
Dead files- are files that NO LONGER SERVE YOU. Obviously they should be shredded and recycled, freeing up even more space.
The key here is to sort FAST. Set a timer for whatever time you have. When in doubt, DON’T throw it out. Chuck it in the “Sleeping” box. It IS OK to touch the same piece of paper twice. I don’t care what you’ve heard. You can’t get through this stage fast if you worry about regrets. You will take a lot of Sleeping files and Dead files out of your workspace and you will find you have a much more manageable number of Running and Sitting files to focus on.
Great post – got me thinking about a lot of working from home things.
A few other location requirements I would ad…
- close to a bathroom
- have room enough to organize files and other necessary office stuff
You can kind of keep the gmail accounts separate under one account without doing forwarding. Go to Settings, Accounts, In the “send mail as” section you’ll see an option to “add another email address you own”. Gmail will bring the messages in but keep them separate – and you can specify for it to “reply from the same address the message was sent to”.
Ergonomics is hugely important and something my office is severly lacking in – I hate hunching over a laptop all day! I will be investing in some of the items you suggest.
In planning your days – schedule all of the fun stuff first (time with your wife, exercise…etc.) I have found that I am MUCH more productive when I get to take several “fun breaks” throughout the day. After all, isn’t that part of why working from home is so appealing?
Nice post.
Having at least tow monitors also helps.:-)
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Yes exacty I agree too
An interesting article. When I started off my office was in my attic, I was young and it was okay. Later when I had my own place I had an office room within my house, I changed the room every now and again, but never left working at home. I prefer working from home, but I have several friends who prefer working out of home. I suppose with children etc, it may be a good idea!
I like what you said about de-cluttering your desk, I need to listen to that one!
Thanks everyone for your comments, encouragement and advice. I’m near the end of an exhausting week, but feeling very positive about my new situation and the future. So far, so good . . .
try cyberduck or transmit for FTP they both are stellar.
Several great points. I’m having the same problem of using multiple Gmail-accounts and I’m looking forward to see a solution from Google within a close future.
When it comes to having windows in your office I can only agree with you. During the summer I tend to move my office upstairs since I’ve noticed that I work better there. Unfortunately I usually sit in my basement simply because I’ve made it into an office. A shame, but nothing I can change on now.
So – what was your wife’s idea for arranging your desk, and how did it work out?
I’ve been working from home for two years, and I cannot stress the importance of having your own space. The door is important, sure – it does send a clear message to your kids. But just as importantly, having a separate room for your workspace lets you leave it behind, out of sight and out of mind, creating separation between your personal and professional life. If you can’t convince or fit the kids in shared bedrooms to free up an entire room of your own, consider a room divider of some sort. IKEA, for instance, sells rails that let you mount fabric panels to the ceiling. These can be pushed out of the way to open a room up, or pulled out to close off a space.
The other important advice I can give you is to establish routine – make sure you at least have a daily start time for work, eat lunch and snacks at regular intervals (you’d be surprised how easy it is to forget to eat) and have dinner at a regular-ish time each day.
Good luck in your new venture!
Think about using a project management tool such as basecamp(basecamphq.com). It is a great tool for organization with workflow. It offers calenders for each client where you can set milestones, todo lists, messaging and more. The client can interact with you as well. I used it in my previous company and I don’t know how we could have lived without it!
I like this post. I recently became a full-time freelancer and although it took a bit to become “regulated” in when I do things I have found everything moves far more smoothley. It all felt better however once I bought a new larger and proper desk and bookshelf and set my items up as you described. What needs to be here or at arms length. I am fortunate to have a separate room.
As I am getting more settled and happy with my routine I am finding the best thing to do is to actually make scheduled tasks. Tuesdays – do this. Fridays – do that. Planning timeframes around things that are also important and shouldn’t be shifted make planning job timeframes more realistic. Well for me anyway.
Thanks!
For productivity tools, I’d like to recommand a goal setting tool at http://www.GoalsOnTrack.com, a very nicely built web app designed for tracking goals and todo lists, and supports time tracking too. It’s clear, focused, easy to navigate, worth a try.
I really have to say that the post itself was one of the best and most useful to me (considering I’m in the same situation, 19 month old daughter included). But the post itself just got better as I read through what everyone else has suggested and done themselves. Our home office faces the street so like Bruce, we can see when someone is here. The biggest issue we have is really with our daughter. Both my wife and myself work in our business, so we have to try to structure things accordingly. She can’t watch Elmo and Wubzzy all day (despite the fact that she’s attempted it before), so we try to break up our day around her. We have “regular business hours” but we often work into the night when she’s asleep.
As for keeping things organized, my organizational method seems to be classifying everything as being in the house. I get things straight for a while, and eventually it turns into the aftermath of an earthquake. But, that’s what doing 12 thousand things and having a nearly 2 year old daughter can do.
We’re working out a new way to do everything we do, and I believe we’ll be using this post and the comments as a great strategy guide to do so. Thanks to everyon who posted comments and to Adrian for posting the great article.
Hmmm….. *goes off to declutter*
Great article.
On the point of rethinking your workflow: I have been working from home for two months and I’ve discovered two things. At first I decided to set myself a schedule e.g. cartoon for paper 8-9am; pitch article 9-10am and so on. My thinking was that this would add structure to my day, which worked for 2-3 weeks until I realised that was one of the reasons I went freelance in the first place was to avoid regimented days.
Then I worked without structure, doing what was most important first and so on. This left far too much time for downloading music and watching online content.
As is so often the case, the right path lies somewhere in between. For myself I commit to three cartoons a day, 1000 words of my novel, 600-1000 words copywriting and 500-1000 words of fiction. This takes roughly four-five hours which means I still have time for anything else that crops up. And if it’s sunny, I can fit in a walk to the park…
Great article that I’m definitely going to need to take advice from. My desk is a mess, my workspace is cramped, and I’m always stressed about how my time is being spent.
As good of a marketing tool as StumbleUpon is, I think it’s about time for me to uninstall the toolbar…that’s another way to be more productive, stay away from StumbleUpon.
Nice article, I will gladly take advice like this. My work space is a disaster zone.
I am constantly getting annoyed and re-organizing my areas. Most of the time I end up sitting on the couch in from of the TV with both my laptops running instead of sitting at my office using the workstations as needed.
Software that I like for productivity reasons: Tungle. I did a full writeup on this on my blog – but basically, Tungle is a program that allows you to send meeting invites to people naming several times for them to pick from. Once they have chosen a time – Tungle confirms it for them and adds it to your calendar.
This works across Outlook, iCal, and Google Calendars – so it also becomes a syncing tool across those platforms and the iPhone. I give more details on this at http://budurl.com/6za7 .
This simple hack really changes the way that I do business. I use to contact several people and offer them a couple different times I’d be available, then keep those times open until they picked one.
Now I can offer blocks of times to multiple people and the time slots fill up on a ‘first come’ basis. Smoking hot productivity for me!
Nice post, I also have 3 kids and live in a 2 bedroom so there is no way for me to have a real home office.
Ya’ll seem to be graphic designers here, but I imagine a lowly freelance writer like myself might have some things in common.
I used to work in my apartment. It was wonderful. I wouldn’t have any issues working where I lived, got everything done on time, could work from my birthday suit if I wanted.
Then I got married.
He’s a wonderful guy, but he is likewise self employed, and he tends to be around here too much. He’s a talker, I’m not. I tried working in a different room, he’d still bug me too much. Tried working at the library, couldn’t concentrate, hated having to be quiet and always got paranoid when someone else would come around with their laptop, thinking they’re sniffing the wifi and seeing everything I’m doing.
Eventually the solution came in the form of a travel trailer. These new ones are a lot nicer than that 1970′s POS I last stayed in, quiet comfy actually. I pulled it behind the house, under the apple trees, ran the sewage tank to the septic so the bathroom was usable, ran the gray water so that it drained onto the flower bed, had an electrician install a 60A RV plug so I could plug the RV into the house — I’d lock myself in there and not let him in :]
Best part was the I could make it as cold as I wanted in the summer and not have to hear him complain about being cold. Could turn whatever I wanted on TV or the radio, could keep my own treats and drinks in the ‘kitchen’ and fridge.
I’ll admit it — sometimes I stayed out there after I was finished working >:-}
That’s so funny Blair – you cracked me up. I had a Alpha 5th wheel trailer that I used as an office a few years ago (for the same reason). Reading your reply made me miss it. (just as I typed that – my wife ran into my office and asked me about getting the car worked on). Oh well. Great story Blair.
If you have not found a program to back up your data yet I would suggest the Comodo backup tool (http://backup.comodo.com/). I use it to backup files and folders to an FTP account at different times a day. It allows me to compress my files and folders and then encrypt them. It will let you back up files, folders, entire drives, email accounts (Outlook and Express only by default but I am sure you can direct it to backup say a Thunderbird folder) and much more.