Thursday, September 07, 2006
Home Office Tips?
I noticed in the latest CotC that Dane Carlson had a post titled 6 Tips for Working at Home With Children. Obviously this is of great interest to me, since I partially work at home, and not just blogging, to the extent that involves money.
Item one was a consideration in selecting this apartment. It’s also used for the bulk of the book shelves and some storage, and it’s not always off-limits, but I do have an office room with a door that can be closed at need. I should probably do so more than I do, but most of my work at home is simply being available and able to respond to e-mails.
All too many of those go something like:
Them: “Help! My computer barfed!”
Me: “What were you doing when it barfed? What did the barf look like? Did you try anything to clean the barf up yourself, or to prevent it from happening again? Isn’t this like the barf that rebooting solves? Let me know and we’ll go from there.”
Several days go by…
Them: “Hey, my computer’s still barfy. Please fix.”
Me: “But you gave me no information to even know what to look at.”
Them: “I don’t have time to know anything about how a car computer works! I just need it to drive me to do my work! You’re confusing me.”
Tip number two is superlative. Merely having music is a big help. In fact, I have long been fascinated by the way music acts on my brain to make me focus. It is almost like flipping a switch.
Sadly, my headphones died months ago and I have yet to replace them. I miss them most late at night if I am up and at the computer. I already sometimes avoided using them so I could easily be called into another room to help with the kids. But then, that’s not hard core working at home when I can be that available.
One of these days I’ll get a new headset. It really is useful, and probably worth the money for a better one than I had. If playing music is like flipping a switch, doing it with a headset is like putting my brain into turbo mode.
The third tip is tougher, because it all depends. I am on call theoretically 24/7, and in reality 10/5, with certain stuff I can’t do at home done best on weekends and in evenings. When I am working hardcore at home, it’s usually an all-hours, nonstop as I can handle project, so there goes having a normal schedule. When it’s lower grade, it’s such a work/home mix as to moot the “work hours” thing. If I were working more regularly and busily from home, this would no doubt be useful.
Meanwhile, we’ve been trying to deal with the conflict between my combined need and desire to do certain out of the house stuff at all hours, and the need for me to be home by 6:00 PM at the latest as much as possible. I’m not sure how other people do it, as it would be ideal for me to be home by 5:00 each day so the kids don’t melt down before supper is ready.
When she’s not charmed and amused by my artist-like habits, Deb is driven crazy by them. Can’t say as I blame her, even as it’s tough to be any other way.
The fourth tip, well, never really been an issue. Oddly enough, Sadie seems to have a sense that she should be quiet or go off by herself if the phone rings for me. The way my office is configured, sound from the rest of the house is baffled even if the door is open, as long as they aren’t actually in the office. Which Sadie also seems to have a sense of minimal invasiveness about. She’s funny like that.
As for number 5, good idea, except if I am home it’s more likely to be something wolfed down at the desk.
Ah, and number 6… heh. I never needed to ask that. We routinely e-mail each other within the house. And if I am doing intense, close the door work, all the more so. It’s just plain convenient.
Other tips? Good question. I think you have to be willing to be a little flexible, which makes it easier for everyone to accept it when you really need to be left alone. I’d say even with door-open work, everyone needs to be aware when to let you concentrate on the task you are enaged in. For me it’s writing and other creative or technical things that can involve concentration, inspiration, or being “in the zone.” Sometimes I can write an e-mail response to a client having a problem and hold a conversation at the same time. Sometimes the distraction makes me lose entirely what I was saying and changes the nature of the response. Sometimes “flow” matters terribly. Sometimes it doesn’t so much.
I go back and forth on the whole home office thing. Given the nature of my work, I will always need one to some degree. The discussion has been whether to go exclusively home, or go more completely home but with some office space somewhere, but not necessarily where and how much it is now.
There are days I’m ready to say “I just can’t do this!” and make sure I always have an office out of the house and spend more time at it than I do now. There are other days when I can’t believe I’m still spending any money for a “real” office, no matter how nice it is to have an air conditioned place to take us all on the hottest days.
So. What are your tips for working at home, with or without kids?