Last week, I heard from a newly minted college graduate. She is very excited to start her first professional position with a national company, working from home.
Hmmm… “Working From Home”. A quick glance at wikipedia revealed related terms like 
“telecommuting”, “remote work” or “teleworking”. This is a growing trend, with many of us working at least some of the time from non-traditional work space.
According to this recent New York Times article, “More American employees are working remotely, and they are doing so for longer periods… Last year, 43 percent of employed Americans said they spent at least some time working remotely, according to the survey of more than 15,000 adults.”
With this conversation in mind and National Clean Off Your Desk Day (second Monday of January) here again, let’s talk about Organizing Your Work Space for Working-From-Home. Let’s look at solutions to common Work-From-Home Challenges!
Be Professional and Productive While Working From Home
There are habits we can create to feel professional and productive, no matter where we work.
- Create a morning routine – get up, work out, eat a healthy breakfast, get clean, etc. – even if your commute is the 10 feet between your living room and office.
My Company Wellness Program 🙂
- We all benefit from the clear definition of a start and end to our work day. If you need separation in your day between personal time and work, go for a run, for Mass, for coffee, or to drop off the kids at school. Then, come home and boot up!
- Dress professionally, even if you don’t see another person all day. No PJs for productivity!
- We need to minimize distractions (more on this later) working from home, but the opposite is also true. Remember to walk around and take breaks!
My Company Cafeteria (a.k.a. my kitchen counter!)
Stay Connected:
- A common challenge of working from home is feeling isolated. Remember, Community comes in many forms.
- Check with your company! If your company has teleworking opportunities, they probably also have strategies in place to help employees stay connected.
- Find a mentor or accountability partner within your company. You can also ask the professional association attached to your industry, or even just someone you really respect.
- Join networking or FB groups within your chosen field or geographical community. My FB and networking groups are amazing resources for me as I navigate my day!
Physical Workspace:
- If you are clear on the Work of your Work, you can probably work from anywhere!
- No one needs to know where you work! Some days saying “working from home” doesn’t feel professional, so I might say I’m working “remotely” or “virtually”, whether I’m at a client’s office, my own home office or Starbucks!
- Your Actual Work Space:
- If you skype, or have video conference calls, invest in a back drop or standing screen that looks more professional than your family room or basement!
- Organize your work space, especially if you need to switch from student focus to work focus, like my young friend. A clean desk helps you focus. My accountability partner mentioned just last week how much more creative she feels when her work space is organized and clutter free.
- Need Professional Space for a change of pace or a group project? Perhaps your team is coming into town for training? Many communities have available shared professional spaces or business centers. For a fee, these centers may offer work spaces, office services such as copiers or fax machines, conference rooms to rent by the hour or day, and even administrative help. For example, I am a member of BAPA here on the South Side of Chicago, and their business center offers office equipment and conference room space free to paid members.
The “Home” part of Working-From-Home
- Be clear with your house-mates what your tele-working will mean. You may be home but still
on the clock! (The same goes for pets – one client closes the door and curtains to the back yard, to signal to her faithful furry companions that play time is over!) - A closed door can be an arranged signal that quiet time is needed, or that a conference call is in progress!
Consider these ideas when creating your productive work-from-home space!
most of these tasks are actually pretty short and to the point. So we assigned time estimates to them all, so we could be more objective.
I detest errands and shopping. The expense, hassle and time spent. But, of course, there are items – food, clothing, supplies, etc. – that I need for my family, our home and my business. Errands and shopping are a necessary evil.
I have been pondering how to spend less time, money and hassle on running errands and shopping. I’ve talked to a lot of people also working on the same challenge, and we’ve learned a lot from each other!
it was my constant companion. Most days, amidst working and family and living our lives, I was also planning / orchestrating / cleaning or occasionally waiting for activities centered on the Kitchen, and by extension, my office. No summer va-ca for this girl.
track lighting. As soon as we stood at a counter to work on food prep or anything else, we would block our own task lighting. The under-cabinet lighting makes the whole kitchen GLOW, while providing task lighting any where we need it! This is a simple upgrade. You can purchase ropes of LED lighting that simply plug in at any home improvement store.
also beautiful, I am truly loath to leave anything on them. One of my favorite (and cheap) purchases to complete the project was this dish drain that fits over the smaller side sink and can be easily slid over or rolled away (Amazon.com, ILifetech Roll-Up Dish Drying Rack).
now have a breakfast station. My coffee maker lives on this small counter, along with the fresh fruit basket and napkins. In addition, the cabinet above houses breakfast bars and Pop Tarts (my sons’ quick breakfasts of choice), our daily vitamins and supplements, the toaster, and coffee / tea / hot chocolate supplies, etc.
The tops were dusty, and storing stuff up there looked cluttered, so we never used the space. If you don’t want to remodel, you can also re-imagine how you use your cabinets. Use the bottom shelf or 2 for daily use items, the middle shelf for items you use once a week, and the top shelves for items you use less often but would still like to keep accessible.
Fall is in the air.
hello boots and wellies. Toss the old or unmatched flip or flop, get rid of all but the last pair or two of sneakers (“Truly, dear, no one needs 4 pairs of old sneakers for ‘yard work.'” ). Take in any shoes in need of repair, and put away the rest. Then make space for the colder weather shoes and boots. Do the same with sport items. Play it Again Sports, anyone?
returned to a store? Stuff that belongs to other people? Take those piles / bags and boxes that are next to the door or already in the car, and get them Gone, gone, gone!!
First things first, purge the garbage / recycling / donations. And pull out the cars while you work!
boxes. I know, it’s tough to decide do we keep the box the vacuum / lamp / appliance came in or recycle it? However, we’ve discovered that if we do need to pack the item up or return it, we can find another box (more come all the time!) or return the item without it. If you just can’t part with the boxes, break them down and store them flat.
outgrown sports items, chose to leave the items there (instead of hassling with selling them on consignment), they cut me a check. Beautiful! Try listing outgrown bikes and scooters on Facebook sell pages, there is a market for such things! And, thinking vertically again – install some hooks on the walls or beams, to get those summer toys and bikes off the garage floor for winter!
how long to keep certain types of papers. One idea that I shared with the group was the idea of “20 Minutes or 20 Dollars”. A couple of people made a point to tell me that they really liked the idea, so I thought I would share.
20 Minutes: 
The black spaghetti mess of unmatched, unlabeled and unclaimed charging cords from ancient phones or digital cameras gone by? Look around. If what you use regularly already has a cord attached, you could probably purge all of those unclaimed cords and spend $20 someday on a replacement in the very remote chance you actually needed one of those random cords. Clear up a whole lot of space, and bank on the fact you don’t need what is in that THAT box!
Sombreros (or similar items, you get the idea!). Sombreros are big. Awkward to store. Not a commonly used items, let’s face it. If you EVER had a need for a sombrero – party, costume, school presentation – you could either spend the $20 to buy one at a party store or on-line, or better yet, ask 10 friends if anyone has a sombrero, and I bet someone does!
already, especially considering we just painted the kitchen and office. We will also look for any supplies, like paint brushes and rollers, etc., before we head to Home Depot to buy paint and supplies.