Business 101: Effective Home Office
Posted on May 13th, 2008
Many people have the dream of leaving behind the conventional 9-to-5 and abandoning the frustrating commute in favor of being able to work from home. This home-based work could still be for the same company, but instead of having to sit at a desk downtown somewhere, the same employee can perform the same tasks from the comfort of his or her home. It sounds great, right?
When you work at home, however, you will be faced with all sorts of distractions and it cane sometimes be difficult to get into a groove or mentality that is conducive to high productivity. In order to have an effective home office, you may want to consider some of the following elements.
- Completely separate work space: If your home office is just going to be the dining room table, the line between what is work and what is home can be very hard to define. Come tax time, it can also be more difficult to justify some of your home office expenses, like a portion of your utilities and mortgage interest. For this reason, it may be better to have a separate room as a home office.
- No shared supplies: Following in the same line of thought, it may be useful to keep office supplies separate from home supplies. This is not only for income tax purposes, but it’s also to prevent family from raiding your work-related supplies unexpectedly.
- Proper desk and chair: It may be convenient to just sit on the couch or use the coffee table, but even if you are working from home, you are still working! For the sake of your back and comfort, do invest in a proper desk and office chair if possible.
These are just some of the considerations you will have to make if you want to have an effective home office. Feel free to use the comment form below to add to this list.
Posted in Business Topics | 406 views
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2 Comments
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Great post! Totally true. I need better lighting.
Great post!
We have a completely separate office away from the distractions of everyday life. Except everyday life has a way of creeping into the office!
Working from home is a >rewarding because:
We don’t miss any of the kids activities
Working from home is a challenge because:
We have to run our kids to their activities.
Working from home is a >rewarding because:
Lunch is at whatever time I decide!
Working from home is a challenge because:
I eat all day long!
Working from home is a >rewarding because:
I get hugs from my daughter Emma all day long!
Working from home is a challenge because:
Emma needs a hug every 2 minutes!
You get the idea. There will always be distractions from work when you have a home office. However, the benefits FAR out weigh the negatives!
Now that I’m on Twitter, I foresee many more distractions than my daughter could ever be responsible for.
Ah….the power of progress!
John