7 Tips to Survive and Thrive When Working from a Home Office
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Evita of Evolving Beings. In our first part of this series we considered the benefits of allowing employees to work from home and in the second part we talked about how to optimize a tele-commuting situation. Today we follow up with 7 Tips to Survive and Thrive When Working from a Home Office.
Working from a home office, especially for yourself can either be looked upon as a big blessing or big curse. Which it will be completely depends on how successfully you set up your home environment, as well as yourself in it.
(Karl’s note: Below is 5 minute video of Evita giving a detailed tour of her home office and how the layout affects her work.)
I have personally been working for myself, and in my own home office for just over 9 months now. In those 9 months, I have definitely seen what works and what doesn’t, as well as shared stories with other people in similar situations.
Many people fear that working from home may make them lazy. However, if you love what you do, the opposite is more likely to happen. Working from home, may actually make you work more and harder.
Thus in this article, let’s consider how to not just survive, but also thrive in a home office. We will first look at the best potential set-up, and secondly at some practical tips to apply to make the most out of your work at home environment.
1. Your Environment
To begin with, you need to make sure that you can actually have a place for a proper home office. Your spouse and/or kids may be home at the same time as you, and so you need to make sure that you have your own space, which others in the home respect as your working environment. Some people use a spare bedroom, some a part of the basement, and others yet may have a designated study from which to work.
Anyone who is at home with you, as well as other family and friends need to also respect that there are certain hours during which you work, just as you would in a typical workplace, during which you should not be disturbed.
Once you have the right spot, having the right furniture and accessories is next. The most important investment in your home office should be your chair and the technology you need.
2. Your Work Chair
A proper chair is crucial when working in any “desk” type of environment. A high quality chair, should have proper arm rests, upper and lower back support. It should also not be too high off the ground, so that both feet can be firmly planted on the floor when sitting in it.
3. Simplicity
Make sure your work space is clean and not cluttered. Some studies claim that cluttered desks spark creativity, however most people know that clutter makes us anything but creative. Therefore I normally advise people to simplify their work space. Clean work spaces give us space, and a feeling of lightness, not messy piles of stuff reminding us of how much we have to get done or take care of.
And on that note, let’s move into the practical side of things – organize, organize, organize!
4. Organization
I cannot emphasize this enough. This is not only valuable for your physical work environment, but also for your mental state as well.
Whether you use, alarm clocks, phones, your computer or plain old paper agenda books, organize your time. This means you should have a general start time (you do not need to wake up to an alarm clock necessarily), scheduled breaks, and general end time. Keeping track of course of what a client or customer expects and when is also a key to success.
Some people do really well in working 12 hours one day and only say 5 hours the next day. Everyone is different, and in truth most people need a few weeks to figure out what really works well for them, especially when working for oneself.
5. Motivation and Inspiration
I have personally found that if you love and even like what you do, getting to things and getting them done will normally not be an issue.
However, there will be days, and you have to expect these, or perhaps moments throughout the day where your mind may wonder, or you just plain and simple won’t feel like doing a thing.
In such cases you have two options. One is to just let it be and take a break for that moment or even day. As long as you don’t have any deadlines, this should work just fine and can actually be very beneficial for your mind.
The second option is to have something that motivates or inspires you. Perhaps you have a book of motivational quotes, perhaps an audio series from someone like Tony Robbins that you can listen to for a half hour or so. Perhaps you can talk to a spouse or friend, who you know and trust to be a good source of inspiration/motivation for you. Whatever you do, take action. If your body or mind need a 15 minute brisk walk to feel better, so be it. If you have several things to do, neither of which are more important than another generally speaking, choose the one that you will enjoy most. This will normally get you back into the swing of things, and you will be back in your flow before you know it.
6. Focus
Finally, there is one other thing that you need to take seriously when working from a home office: focus. This two sided aspect can become your best friend or worst nightmare.
Some people get too focused working in a home environment, where they actually neglect proper eating, drinking and movement. The solution for this is simple: organize some alerts using your favorite technology to alert you at well spaced time intervals and follow through of course when the alerts come.
Other people may find themselves on the opposite end, where they lack focus and distractions seem to be everywhere. Minimizing distractions and following through with some self-discipline are key here. Useful tips include: make sure your television is off while working, pick instrumental music over music with lyrics or from radio stations, close all social media and have set times for when it is okay to use those. Even making sure that your email is not on any alerts could be important (unless your job depends on emails) as many of us quickly lose our focus just to check our inbox numerous times a day.
7. Adjusting and Patience
In the end, working from a home office does take some getting used to and everyone will carve our their preferences for what works best for them over a few days, weeks or even in some cases months. So be patient with yourself, but at the same time be conscious that you are improving your efficiency and are satisfied with your results.
In some cases, you must also respect that if you tried everything, and nothing seems to work for you, it is most likely that you are performing tasks or are in a field where you should not be. Find work that you love, and you will truly never feel like you worked a day in your life.
Your Turn
What do you do to thrive in your home office?
Want to catch up on Part 1 and 2 of the series?
> Why Companies Should Allow Their Employees to Work from Home
> 5 Important Rules to Follow When Tele-commuting
Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN – is the main author of EvolvingBeings.com where she writes about spiritual and personal development. She hopes to inspire people, to truly live out the life of their dreams and awaken the highest version of themselves. She is also the main author of EvolvingWellness.com where she writes about nutritional science and holistic health for optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow Evita Ochel on Twitter.
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If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:
Hi Karl and Evita,
What a great post. I like Evita’s minimalist approach to a home office. For myself, my home office isn’t quite as neat and tidy, but I do find I work best when my desk is clear of papers or reminders of what all I need to get done.
If I’m blogging, I find clutter has a tendency to interfere with my creativity, thus, before I sit down to write a post, if need be, I’ll do a tad bid of organizing so I can concentrate on the task at hand.
I also prefer to work in silence; no music or other distractions.
Hi Barbara
Thanks for checking out what I had to say about my experience with working from a home office and thank you for sharing what works for you.
You know it is interesting that even though I LOVE music, I never work with music on. So I totally understand. I guess I just got into the habit, and now never think of playing music when we work. During some breaks of course I get my husband giving us a few nice beats on the drum
For me the environment is the most important. I need to feel “comfortable.” and I don’t have a designated space. Sometimes I’m comfortable at the kitchen table, sometimes in the “office” room, sometimes on the living room couch. I try to follow my gut for comfort. I think one of the biggest challenges is working from home and my husband saying “you home today…can you do this, and check that?” Without recognizing that I’m trying to get things done!
Like Barbara I prefer to work in silence. Music, TV are distractions.
Hi Stacey
That is actually a great point about NOT needing a designated space. And with a lap top that is so easy to do. Before we designated this spare bedroom as a “home office” – we would work anywhere we wanted, sometimes in the living room on the couch, sometimes at the dining room table and sometimes in bed. All that was great, the only thing I found is that doing it on a daily basis, my back suffered a bit.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience!
Hi Evita,
I loved watching your video. My husband and I both work from our home and we have a home office. We are going to move in a couple of months and we decided that in our new home office, we would have our desks face each other so it was great to see that you two did the same.
I also recently purchased a Macbook and it is wonderful to have a computer that fully has what I need. I told my husband that I will never use a PC again because this laptop is just perfect for my business and needs.
What I have found really helpful in regard to working out of the house is to handle my schedule the way I would have if I were working for someone else. It boils down to organizing the day in a manner that allows me to do what needs to be done. Plus, I constantly surround myself with people who inspire me. I have the ability to multi-task (except when I write) and often I listen to talks of people that I admire or have a documentary playing in the background. And of course, there is my husband who is always there to talk to and share ideas with and so on.
Hi Nadia
That is so wonderful to hear – all very exciting about your move, and I so second all that you said about the mac vs pc. I resisted for a long time switching, but now that I have, like you, I am not ever going back.
And working together like that with your husband will be so much fun – it is one of the things that me and my husband love so much about our days. So it is great to hear that this is what your future plans hold – thank you for sharing
Evita,
I have a missing gene because I don’t know how you do what you do. I just may take a video of my office and then pay you for a make over. LOL I’d have to have a make over for my brain as well…
One think I’d lie to know is where to get that paradigm tree. But then I’d have to make room for it.
One area of progress I’ve made it downsizing my book shelves. I’ve given away more than half of what I own and it’s a rare occasion that I buy a book anymore.
It was great seeing you on video…wonderful job. Thanks Karl! Happy Friday:)
Hi Tess
LOL – you are too cute and funny!
Well, as for the paradigm tree, we actually made it ourselves – the tags with the statements that is. The metal tree itself we once saw in a store, it is meant to hold photographs with clips. My husband always had the idea and when we saw that at a store, he knew it would be the perfect thing for the idea. A typical Borders should have something like that in the frames and gift section.
Thanks for sharing in this with me Tess – I am definitely getting used to videos and slowly warming up to the experience
Hi Evita and Karl! Oh Evita – gulp – hubs and I share this room and it is polarized beyond belief. He REALLY needs you to clean up his mess! If we were to put our desks together as you have, I couldn’t see out the window from his desk piles! I bought him a huge credenza yrs ago to “hide” his crap and he not only filled it but it too is overflowing! Shame, shame hubs!
I’m a notebook and file folder freak. My desk is organized but not empty. I do love your tree – I have plaques and sticky notes that are not attractive but do the trick! I keep thinking when we move I want my OWN space!
Great job on the video!
hugs
suZen
Hi SuZen
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with how your work situation goes with your husband. It is sometimes the case that one partner has very different habits than the other, but it can always all be worked out, through great communication and some patience I am sure as you already know
Thanks so much for your comment and it was great to get your feedback!
Hi Evita — thanks for this — I definitely got a warm feeling watching this video — there’s an innocence I see in your presentation, and I’m glad to see that doing the whole 9-to-5 job thing (and other parts of life) didn’t grind it down, as I think it does with many other people.
Hi Chris
Wow Chris, thank you so much for that feedback, it really means a lot to me to hear you say that, as I definitely feel great about all things I approach, no grinding down here
Perhaps I got out of my job before it got the better of me, I don’t know….
But yes, working from home and for myself is a great place to be and I really treasure every moment of it!
Good day!
Just completed watching the video and things that I appreciated or that are my takeaways would be:
1. Personal.
2. Simple.
3. Reduce feelings of being overwhelmed.
4. “Happy” — i.e. ways to stay happy.
5. Unity — i.e. team spirit.
6. Clutter reduction.
Thanks for sharing! Good reminders.
Lee
Hi Lee
I am most touched by how you summarized your thoughts and feelings of what I presented in the video. You are right on with all those things in how I feel and how I approach my work…and I have to say life in general.
And speaking of that, I think that the less cluttered our life is, just as our desks, it can make for a that much better perspective of all that is. How we approach one thing, is usually a good indicator of how we approach all the important things in our life.
Thanks so much for your comment and stopping by to share your thoughts!
I’ve always had a tough time finding the right chair. I used to luck into it, but then the more ergo my chairs got at work, the worse they felt … what irony.
Hi J.D.
You know J.D. I didn’t get to talk much about my chair, but I so share your sentiments in finding the right chair being quite a task. The chairs we have now seemed so comfortable in the store, and my husband likes it very much, but it is too big for me, and I actually end up not sitting in it properly.
I think in the end sitting for prolonged periods of time is not going to feel great, no matter what chair we have. We need to incorporate proper movement in their as well.
I work 100% from home for a large tech corporation where I have been for over a decade. I have supreme flexibility and feel very privileged with the trust they have in me. Still, working from home takes supreme discipline. The tips here are all true and excellent. I also try to make the environment very calming and relaxing with soft and low music and sometimes with incense burning.
Hi Farnoosh
It is great to hear your experience. Thank you so much for sharing what has worked for you and also for the feedback.
[...] doing a video of my personal home office for Karl Staib’s Work Happy Now site, a few readers had asked what exactly is written on the [...]
[...] I visited my friend Evita’s site and followed her to Work Happy Now by Karl Staib, where she was giving a video tour of her home office space. I was stunned by her [...]
You’ve got a pretty neat home office there. For me, what works are mini breaks: they are extremely crucial to a healthy work-at-home life and it also helps increase my productivity. By mini breaks that would mean at least 10 minutes break per hour to eat, drink, get some small stuff done, etc.
Great article and the number one tip is motivation and organization. I too have been working from home and initially I was lucky if I was dressed by mid day. Now I treat it as though I was going to the office. It is a great lifestyle if you can organize yourself.