Help Me Work At Home Weblog

Use visual stimuli

Organize the files on your desktop and put a beautiful picture there that focuses you—something that has meaning and motivates you. I used to use an old picture of Steve Jobs sitting on his empty apartment floor, when he had nearly nothing, to remind me that even the captain of the ship used to kick it in a paddle boat. –Brad Johnson

Getting Things Done

Organize your time and space to silence seductive sirens. Prove your worth with progress.

Chunk work time

Work in chunks of time—about one-and-a-half hours works best for me. Then I do something else for 15-30 minutes. This helps concentration and posture, which I find is always much worse at home than at work. My house is always cleaner when I work from home, as the 15-30 minute gaps are good for putting in washing, hanging it out, cleaning the cooker, hoovering, etc. –Helen Sargan

Don’t throw out your alarm

Get up at the same time everyday, like the rest of the world. It creates discipline. But bend this rule to feel more alive. Had enough routine lately? Wake up late and work late. Just don’t make a habit out of it—it ruins the fun of doing it. There’s nothing like getting lost in Photoshop at 12 a.m. to some tripped-out beats. –Justin Carroll

Demonstrate progress

My employer and I have a deal worked out. When I work from home, I have a set agenda each day. I send visible progress reports each hour—or at whatever time increments we decide on. I send links to pages I am updating, image files I am working on—anything that shows what I have been doing. Each of us in my office communicates via instant messaging so even though I am not in sight—I remain a click away. Knowing that I am still being somewhat supervised keeps me on my toes—but still gives me the freedom and flexibility to do what I want. –Brittany Moon-Miller

Tackle tough jobs in the morning

Do the hardest work in the morning, and the easy jobs in the afternoon. –Carsten Engel

Avoid the seductive siren

It took a while, but I eventually convinced my old-school boss to let me work from home for a couple days every week. Virtual Private Network (VPN) and call forwarding are the only tools I need. With VPN, I have access to all the applications and services available on my work computer. But to really get my work done, I find that it’s important to move my desk away from the window and face a wall—a corner if possible. If there is one thing I’ve learned it’s that windows are the seductive sirens of daydreaming. Look away! –John Kulunk

Use tunnel vision to your advantage

I tend to save my most focused work for nighttime or very early in the morning when it is dark out or still mostly dark. It gives me sort of a tunnel vision where all I can literally see is my computer or paperwork. –Kelley Mitchell

Use the view to your advantage

Speaking of basements, make sure your workspace has a window and that you have few meters of space in front of your desk. This way, you can view objects further away while doing the critical thinking part of the job. –Pirkka Hartikainen

Consider alternate locations

I’m a full-time senior software engineer in the U.K. I work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (That’s 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. if you include commuting!) I also freelance as a website designer and developer for small companies. I end up doing most of my freelance work on the train to and from work with my trusty tablet PC. I invested in a pair of Bose QC3 headphones, which actively cancel out exterior noise. This means I can not only happily listen to music, but block out the sound of the train (and other passengers). –Andrew Brigham

Get creative (with) space

When our first son was born, it became clear that it would be difficult to continue working from home in our small, three-bedroom house. After debating the merits of moving or remodeling, we decided to build a separate office in the dead space behind our garage. I had a pre-fabricated, 8×15 ft. shed delivered and installed a few weeks later. After finishing the inside, I had the ultimate home office. –Brian DeHamer

Chocolate carrots are good

If I’m working on something I don’t love, I really have to MAKE myself work on that first. I get the big, bad thing out of the way first—even to the point of bribing myself with chocolate or an iTunes download. I can be bought. –Jessica Sprague

Don’t be ruled by the clock

Make your clients work within business hours—but make sure you do not! Don’t stop programming because you heard the lunch bell. Be task orientated. Break up your programming…“once I finish building this object then I get lunch.” Be pragmatic. Some things come with inspiration; others come with a train of thought. Don’t stop the train or cut off inspiration because it is the right time for lunch. –Aaron Martin

Get a cleaning lady

The most important thing about working from home: saying “yes” to one thing, means saying “no” to another. Both my wife and I freelance outside of our university jobs. At some point we lost Sunday afternoons in the park and doing laundry and scrubbing the toilets. So the deal was this: if we said “yes” to both of us freelancing, we had to say “no” to either toilets or the park. The choice was obvious, and Craigslist provided a great person. –Charlie Triplett

Maintaining energy

Keep your professional network and your body healthy. Remember the love to keep your creative chi flowing.

Abandon the rules

We’ve done this for years—five now to be exact. How does it all work? We ask ourselves this all the time. After a lot of thought, here’s what we figure: it works for us precisely because we have no boundaries. We think our work is, for the most part, fun. We like what we do. Because of that, we don’t tend to think of it as “work.” If we tried to structure ourselves, even a little bit, it would rapidly devolve into “work” and it wouldn’t be fun so we’d do less of it, and make less money. What this means, is that often, in the middle of the “workday,” we feed the chickens, see a movie, or go sit in the tree house. Clearly, this is why we’re not rich. But, when the DEADLINE looms, we work all night (well, not really, but close) because we can and because we seem to thrive on the adrenaline. –Claudia Dunitz

Get out of the (home) office

I leave my home office for most coffee and lunch breaks—even if it’s just to go upstairs to have lunch. Getting out of the office keeps me fresh, and reinforces the boundary between work and home. Meet clients outside the office. I find it more rejuvenating to meet them at their workplace, where there are other people hard at work. It keeps me in the work mindset, and allows me to be visible to my clients as a professional, and not just “some guy who works from home.” –Alan Bucknam

Do lunch

Even though I work from home more than 70% of the time, it’s not a prison sentence. Take anyone, who may (someday) lead you to additional work or opportunities, out to lunch. I keep a list of all of my contacts. I work that list top to bottom, meeting with at least two people every week. When I reach the end, I start over again at the top of the list. –Scott Kersey

Make connections

Start or join an “office of freelancers”—you can rent desk space/internet monthly and sit in a cool apartment building/loft space with other freelancers. Go to as many social networking events as you can, or start you own. I began an event called “SNIBL” in Boston—“Social Networking is Better Live,” to bring together former colleagues/designers and discuss what’s happening in the field. –Brian O’Neill

Get some exercise

Find some evening activities—gym, classes, whatever. It’s too easy to turn into a mushroom when working from home. I’m lucky because we have a post box that I can check every day. Even if I’m not expecting mail, the five km bike ride there and back makes for a good (and reasonable) mid-day break. –Sean Kimball

Manage your energy cycle

I take advantage of my natural energy cycles. In a creative job, it’s more important to manage your energy than your time. Everyone has different fluctuations and certain times when they’re most energetic, creative, and productive. If you combine working at peak energy times with all the other tips you mentioned to get a distraction-free environment, you really can get more done while working fewer hours. –Stephen Fung

Multitask

I like to have a one simple household chore going while I am home. It helps to stand up and move around. The best one for me is doing laundry. This way I am forced to stand up and get the blood circulating about every 30 to 40 minutes. –Erskine Harris

Remember the love

To keep the energy high and the work flowing for me, I try to remember that I have a great passion for the work I do. It’s the love that motivates, man. The love. So sometimes I need to go look at the work of the people I teach, or review past successes, or to read some inspiring and motivational words to get the juices flowing again. –Jessica Sprague