Welcome to part 2 of our series on working from home, which is for those who struggle to keep home life and work separate.
For those of us that have the luxury of a separate room at home designated as ‘the office’, it is at least possible to close the door temporarily on ‘home’ and be in a working environment, but even for those the distractions of housework, home comforts and other home-related tasks (or people) are never far away. It’s even harder for those who run their businesses from the dining room table, who need to be far more creative to ensure they can work effectively and away fom distractions.
But whatever camp you fall into, there are several things you can do to build a productive workspace in your home. Why not grab a notebook and take a fresh look at your own home office to see if you can make it work better for you. You’ll be glad you did.
1) However much space you have to play with, ensure you have some physical separation from the rest of your home. Whether it’s by using a screen or even by arranging your office furniture in one corner.
2) Position yourself so that you are not visually distracted by what’s happening in the house - ideally looking out onto an inspiring view. Many people position their desks in front of blank walls. Perhaps you need that for clarity of thought. But if you find yourself staring ‘blankly’ into space, or drawing a ‘blank’ as you try to work, try introducing a source of inspiration to your workspace - a picture or quote on that wall that will move you forward in your work. Calendars on the wall with important dates or deadlines flagged up is a great motivator for some, and puts you in the right frame of mind for getting down to work.
3) Take a look at your storage. What do you need immediately to hand every day? For me it’s headed paper, plain paper, envelopes and comps slips - I put these in a set of four drawers that sits on top of my desk. Beside me and next to my printer I have my hole punch and stapler. And I have a desk organiser which holds pens, ruler, paperclips, staples and post it notes. Everything else is considered ‘office supplies’ and I keep all those in a separate stationery cupboard.
The idea is to limit the number of times you need to get up to ‘find’ something you need, which disrupts the flow of work and wastes valuable time.
Client files, research and admin files are in a filing cabinet and I refer to these as and when I need to. Most of my work is done and saved to a computer anyway as I try to limit the amount of paper in the office.
4) Have an easy way of keeping track of your expenses. I have an expanding folder labelled by month, into which any receipts for business expenditure go. If you prepare your accounts each day or week on a spreadsheet, that’s wonderful. For me it’s simply unrealistic (lots of years’ experience struggling with this one) so I’ve devised a system which I know I can stick to. It’s working really well.
5) Set a regular work routine, which plays to your strengths. Building on what we learned yesterday you might want to set yourself some working hours. Have a morning routine that works for you. Normally that means getting up and getting dressed as if you were going out to work. Some even swear by walking round the block and coming back into the house to signify the start of the working day. Great idea.
6) Know when to stop. Take regular breaks to keep your mind fresh and your energy levels up, and at the end of day have a routine for finishing, and stick to it. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to this but I realise I need to work on it. I have a bureau at home so it’s easy to close up at the end of the day with my laptop on the inside. The problem is I have ideas all the time, or things come into my mind that I think I must do. So, I’ve decided that anything like this should go in a notebook as a reminder to do it the next day, when I open the bureau.
