1 Discipline and Creativity Foster One Another

What I’m hearing over and over in this article is that discipline is necessary to foster creativity, and that creativity fuels our discipline. And that both are essential to working from home. This is a very insightful and personal article – thanks for culling the thoughts and passing them along in this form!

posted at 12:34 pm on October 21, 2008 by Brandon Cox

2 Perfect guidelines

I’m going to use some ideas to write an article in Italian on my blog about this topic. Of course I will put the URL to the original article as source.

posted at 01:20 pm on October 21, 2008 by Giovanni Cappellini

3 Untitled

Quite a nice approach to an article, multiple people’s input and opinions, and many of them which I can totally agree with, and learn from. Even though I’m a still a student I have quite some projects which can use their share of time, focus, and love.

posted at 01:27 pm on October 21, 2008 by Jesse Vlasveld

4 Interruptions

I find the hardest part of working from home is relatives. They just cannot get it in their head that this is a real job. Several times I’ve laid it on the line that they are not to interrupt me during working hours, if they want to drop round for a coffee or phone me for a chat then after 6pm or at weekends is the time to do it.

The success lasts for all of a few weeks then I start getting the pointless phone calls and the knocks on the door again.

Neighbours get delivery people to drop parcels off to me if they’re not in. One regularly calls me to ask if I can just nip round to see whether they forgot to lock their back door/ left the oven on/ locked the cat out… I tried to put a stop to that by telling her the back door was wide open and the cat was on fire in the kitchen. She just thought it was funny.

Even my other half, who knows how much all of this annoys me but commutes to work each day, will happily ask me to just pop down the surgery to file his repeat prescription before 10am, pick up his dry cleaning at 3pm, take the car in for its MOT on Wednesday…

It’s not a real job after all.

posted at 01:28 pm on October 21, 2008 by Gill Lucraft

5 Awesome resource

This is one of the most useful compilations I’ve seen in the past 3 years – fantastic work ALA and everyone who contributed!!

posted at 02:25 pm on October 21, 2008 by Guy Fraser

6 Staying on task with sticky notes

I enjoyed the helpful info on working at home. I admit to being distracted and try to stay on task by using methods and techniques from my friends at Adaptive Path. Kim Lenox uses sticky note freelisting for Interaction Design Strategies. I like the method and use sticky notes on a white board to keep me on track by rearranging the notes in the order of my most important work. I keep my board portable so I can move it around to different work stations in my home. Sometimes my guy works from home in the main office and then I move to another work station in another part of our home so he (and I) can work without interruption. Lucky we have 3 network areas to work at.

posted at 09:01 pm on October 21, 2008 by Gloria Antonelli

7 Great responses!

These are even better tips than the original article! ;) Seriously, I LOVE the paying mom idea, if my mom were close and didn’t work. Although the earth mail thing? I feel funny about letting someone open and scan my mail. Still, I’m saving this page for when I go back to work full time.

posted at 10:23 pm on October 21, 2008 by Natalie Jost

8 Cook well, eat well.

Since you’re home anyway, take the time during lunch and cook yourself something nice and healthy to eat. Grill some chicken breasts, make a salad. Take advantage of the fact that you have more than a dirty kitchenette shared by the other 50 people in a cube farm.

Cooking a nice meal doesn’t have to take long and it is a nice way to break up your day. And your co-workers will be jealous when you tell them you just had stuffed salmon for lunch. ;)

posted at 02:02 am on October 22, 2008 by Ryan Irelan

9 Great Info

Over the years I’ve done a couple of things that help a great deal.

I make a list the night before of the things to accomplish the next day. The next morning I decide on the order. I helps me focus.

I also can’t stand being at my computer all day long. I try to get out as often as possible for a ride on my bike. It really helps when I get back at it.

Thanks for the great info! It’s great to hear what others do.

posted at 04:07 am on October 22, 2008 by Jack McDaniel

10 Seperate Office

Great article, always interesting to read other takes on home working. For me, home working clicked when I set up my office in the garage, away from the house. I get that “going to work” vibe walking from the house down to the office at the bottom of the garden. Plus kids and family respect the fact that I’m working and shouldn’t be disturbed when I’m there.

posted at 09:50 am on October 22, 2008 by Paul Joyce

Got something to say?

Discuss this article. We reserve the right to delete flames, trolls, and wood nymphs.

Create a new account or sign in below if you’d like to leave a comment.

Forgot your password?

Subscribe to this article's comments: RSS (what’s this?)