Working at Home: Productive or Pain?
By Tom Chandler on Dec 28, 2006 in Writing
I live in a remote, mountainous bit of Northern California.
Today the power has gone out (twice), I’ve had to shovel the snow off the driveway (twice), a cat has hawked up a furball (once), and the doorbell has rung (three times) with deliveries.
Is this the quiet, contemplative work-at-home environment I keep reading about?
Shhhh!
If you’ve got to work (and I’m only one winning lottery ticket away from not working), then doing so at home is a great choice.
There’s no commute. No smelly guy in the next cubicle streaming porn. You eat good food instead of restaurant food.
And there’s no reason to change out of your pajamas.
Indeed, your friends will envy you.
But it’s hardly a highway paved with gold bricks.
When you work at home, you’re always at work. Separating the two isn’t always easy.
And the distractions are endless.
Make It Work
Some writer friends have abandoned their homes for offices. And I can see the attraction.
Separating work and play is a key reason. Are there others?
I’d love to hear what readers think. Do you have a home office? An outside office?
Where do you work, and why?
Technorati Tags: soho, home office, work at home, freelance writer
The trick to working at home and getting things done:
1. Have a separate room as your office.
2. Have set hours, just like a real office.
3. Shut off the computer at “quitting” time. I shut my computer off every day (ok, almost every day) between 5:00 and 6:00 PM.
4. No housework, no taking calls on the home phone, and no watching TV during “work” hours. My only break is lunch time, when I make time to play with the dogs and eat a fast lunch.
5. Once you’re done working, shut the door to your office, forget about work, pour yourself a glass of wine, and enjoy your family.
Dianna Huff | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
One addition to your list of drawbacks…I call it “hermit syndrome”. If I let myself, I can go for days and not see another person face to face.
Like Dianna, I have some rules that I try to follow:
1. No TV until Oprah. I start early so I can finish early.
2. Keep work separate. My office is in the lower level of my condo, so it stays fairly separate from my living space.
3. The 2:00pm rule. I try to be showered and dressed by 2:00pm.
4. The 2 day rule. I must leave the house at least every 2 days.
That about does it! Definite advantages and drawbacks, but I love having the choice!
Lora Adrianse | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
I appreciate Dianna’s rules. Every successful writer has evolved their own rules for home office survival.
Still, if I adhered strictly to a set of rules like Dianna’s, I’d feel like I was missing out.
Just sitting down and tying a few flies (for fly fishing) often takes the edge off a tough bit of copy, and hell - if you can’t do your laundry while you’re working, you’re missing out a key benefit of working at home.
Writing is a complex process (or an easy one, if sitting down at the keyboard and opening up a vein is easy for you), and it’s interesting to hear how others cope with its attendant difficulties.
Tom Chandler | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
Lora, One trick I learned a few years ago is to get dressed first thing. I’m up at 5:00 and am usually showered and dressed by 6:30. Now I have a rule that I cannot work in PJs or sweats.
Tom, for me, the key benefit of working at home is not having to work for someone else.
Dianna Huff | Dec 29, 2006 | Reply
It has its pros and cons for sure. With a four year old in the house it’s difficult to find time to sit and concentrate. For me it’s important to schedule blocks of time where I can work without distraction. Especially since I work from my kitchen table.
Until my son is in school full time, those hours for are 4:00 AM until 7:00 AM when the guys wake and again for the two and a half hours my son is in preschool. The rest of the time I can update blogs and read email - stuff that doesn’t require too much attention. The good thing about waking so early is that there’s nothing to do but work.
I have caller ID and don’t take personal calls when I’m working either. Eventually friends and family get the message.
I’m working on my other big distraction - the fridge - but so far Mr Ng won’t agree to get rid of it.
Deborah Ng | Dec 29, 2006 | Reply
Ah yes, the Refrigerator: the Single Biggest Threat to Freelance Waistlines.
I wonder if a timelock isn’t a good solution… 8-)
And Deb, your schedule impresses me.
Tom Chandler | Dec 29, 2006 | Reply
No pj’s at work Dianna? You’re killing me! That is on the top ten list of perks. Especially when the UPS driver comes by! Hey– I at least put on a bra and a fleece so that I can jump into jeans pdq in case of the need to go out quickly Okay– more than you wanted to know, I’m sure.
It’s hard to make rules where there is so much freedom. And if you are like me, no kids and no spouse, it is way too easy to work all the time. But– when the snow is fresh at 10 am and I want to go for a ski– it all pays off. I think they call that flex time.
The fridge is my nemesis as well. And the lack of face to face contact makes me a little over social when I do venture out to the post office or down to the pub.
Megan | Dec 29, 2006 | Reply
I don’t have much choice about working from home. I live in New Mexico and my employer is near Washington DC. (I moved and managed to keep my job — at least part time anyway).
The advantage to working for someone 2 time zones away is that I can start work at 6am and be done by 10 (when my daughter wakes up).
My New Years resolution though is to work at a desk on and not in my recliner….
Meredith Eisenberg | Jan 1, 2007 | Reply
Meredith: Way to Aim High with that New Years Resolution. I’d laugh, but I find myself dragging the wireless laptop out into the backyard (during the summer anyway) and working from a camp chair.
And Megan, I think the lack of social contact is a big problem for a lot of freelancers. Not so much in my case (I’m not the most social person on the planet), but I also know I get ideas in the oddest places, including conversations with strangers.
Tom Chandler | Jan 1, 2007 | Reply