Working From Home

[KevanGuy]

So, I start a new job (my first one in ten years) on the 5th. I managed to find something where we all work from home. Does anyone who works from home have any advice for a home-working noob?

[soulchoice]

Write every damn thing off for income tax!!!!

[albertGQ]

I don't work at home, but did you sell your business?

[4X4]

A good portion of what I accomplish is done from home. I'd say my two biggest tricks to productivity are drinking tea and normal morning hygiene.
Coffee buzzes me up a bit too much. I know tea has caffeine as well, but it seems to be a better all day kind of hot drink. As for the hygiene, I find that getting up in the morning and showering and brushing my teeth puts me in work mode as opposed to shuffling over to my computer in boxers and pretending to work. Those are the days when I post 20x before noon hour.

Another thing is background noise. I prefer listening to Jim Rome, but when I do, I spend half the morning distracted. If I have a serious amount of work to do, I put my TV on channel 4 and let the fruity instrumental music play.

Another thing that increases my productivity is cleanliness. I'm a total neat freak so if there are dishes on the counter or beer cans on the coffee table, I'll clean them up before I start working because if I don't, I see them out of the corner of my eye and it nags at me.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by 4X4

A good portion of what I accomplish is done from home. I'd say my two biggest tricks to productivity are drinking tea and normal morning hygiene.
Coffee buzzes me up a bit too much. I know tea has caffeine as well, but it seems to be a better all day kind of hot drink. As for the hygiene, I find that getting up in the morning and showering and brushing my teeth puts me in work mode as opposed to shuffling over to my computer in boxers and pretending to work. Those are the days when I post 20x before noon hour.

Another thing is background noise. I prefer listening to Jim Rome, but when I do, I spend half the morning distracted. If I have a serious amount of work to do, I put my TV on channel 4 and let the fruity instrumental music play.

Another thing that increases my productivity is cleanliness. I'm a total neat freak so if there are dishes on the counter or beer cans on the coffee table, I'll clean them up before I start working because if I don't, I see them out of the corner of my eye and it nags at me.

ha ha yup that is very key...

[The Goon]

Do every conference call while taking a hot bath. Then ask at one point, "Does someone hear splashing water?"

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

I did it for a couple of years.

The key for me was to still 'go to work' and 'come home'...just with a shorter commute.

I had to give myself hours. As in tomorrow I'm starting at 7 and finishing at 5. The finishing part was harder. It's way too easy to try and finish up one last thing, because you never really leave work.

I was most productive when I'd get up, shower etc, go the 'office', take lunch and actually leave the house, come back and finish up at the time I'd set, and get changed again and put the day away.

[fatso]

Ya I second a lot of the points being made here. A couple things I would add:

1. wear clothes in which you are going to be the most productive. That might mean dressing up a bit. Or it might mean emphasizing comfort. For me, I tend to prefer sweatpants and a t-shirt at home. Then I can sit for longer hours at a desk. Wearing jeans to type on the computer for extended periods just doesn't work for me.

2. the other thing I'd stress is to develop a work station that is comfortable for you. Like to be at a window? Move your desk there. Get back-aches? Spend the money on an ergonomic chair. Don't want to be hunched over reading your laptop? Buy a larger display. That kind of thing... you want to set yourself up to be successful, of course. But you want to make it as enjoyable as possible. It's work, so its probably not as fun as going to a Flames game, but you don't need to make it more difficult by dreading the circumstances in which you're working.

[HelloHockeyFans]

Make sure your laptop is always unmuted with the volume up. That way, you always hear Outlook's alert when you receive an email and you can pause your PS3/XBOX and reply as if you were working.

[Sylvanfan]

I just finished off a stint of working from home for just under two years. Try to make it a routine if you can, where you do get up at the same time go through your usual schtick minus the commute and maintain somewhat regular working hours. Designate a couple of set breaks during the day for yourself too. I had a three bedroom house and designated one of my extra rooms as the office so as to make it seem more like a work environment than a home environment. Also, you'll need to get out of your house daily or you will go crazy! I have two dogs that I need to walk so at the end of the work day walking the dogs was like a simulation of my commute home to sort of create a break between work and going home.

Overall though not a bad experience, I enjoyed having time to eat a proper breakfast every morning and I haven't gone out to buy lunch for over two years. Not having to drive and put up with the stress of commuting is a huge bonus in my opinion. Saves wear and tear on your vehichle, and more importantly you! I'd still be doing it, but decided I needed a new role at work to make better use of my skills as they relate to the company and that in order to fulfill that role I needed to be back in an office environment. Although I'm still working in someone's house and I have a 2km commute to work and theres a pool and a lake view in the backyard....working at home might be less distracting!

[Old Yeller]

Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois

The finishing part was harder. It's way too easy to try and finish up one last thing, because you never really leave work.

This.

It's easy to foresee how great it's going to be with no commute time, but often time I'd work until 7 or 8 at night (after starting at 8am) just because of that "one more thing" I wanted to get working.

It's like the game Civilizations and that "oh just one more turn" mentality and all of a sudden it's 3am and you have to get up soon... you have to set yourself concrete limits, the work will always be there.

[habernac]

excellent advice above on setting up a comfortable and ergonomic workstation. That was my biggest hurdle to enjoying working from home. I hated it and rarely worked from home because of it.

[Draug]

My biggest problem is getting distracted by non work things. Since you are at home so often, it's easy to say "I'm just going to pop out to get groceries in the afternoon, before it gets busy", or something like that. The key there is to make sure you put that time back in later, when the outside world is busy. You can get a lot more done by being effecient that way.

Another problem is that I tend to become a Jack-of-All-Trades when I dont have a strict schedule that a higher power holds me to. I've just painted a bedroom and am neck deep in a complete bathroom rebuild. That all takes time away from work, ultimately. There is no way I would have tried to do those things if I was downtown at the office all day.

[JiriHrdina]

I work from home part-time and I find having a separate work area is crucial. When I'm in my office I'm working...it's the job.

[Flames_Gimp]

just make sure not to get distracted by internet porn and certain "urges"

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by HelloHockeyFans

Make sure your laptop is always unmuted with the volume up. That way, you always hear Outlook's alert when you receive an email and you can pause your PS3/XBOX and reply as if you were working.

Ha ha. I was going to say something along those lines.

If you use IM for work you should set it for audio alerts but also make your status say "on the phone" so it looks like you are busy when you are really just sleeping.

A couple times a week you should send an e-mail to your colleagues after 9pm.

[KevanGuy]

Originally Posted by HelloHockeyFans

Make sure your laptop is always unmuted with the volume up. That way, you always hear Outlook's alert when you receive an email and you can pause your PS3/XBOX and reply as if you were working.

HA, nice one noob.

Thanks for the advice guys, pretty much what I expected I guess. I cant wait, working from home has been my dream forever. And, as someone mentioned, Im really lookin forward to not throwing away money on lunch everyday. That and gas/bus pass is going to be worth hundreds a month, Im sure.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

HA, nice one noob.

That and gas/bus pass is going to be worth hundreds a month, Im sure.

It's worth more than that, you save time and stress...and those are two things you can't buy. When I lived in St.Albert and worked in West Edmonton there were days that I left my house at 6:15AM to take the bus to work and got home just before 6:00. Away from home for 11 and a half hours to make about 8 hours pay on a 8 to 5 work day because of how the bus schedules worked.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Ha ha. I was going to say something along those lines.

If you use IM for work you should set it for audio alerts but also make your status say "on the phone" so it looks like you are busy when you are really just sleeping.

A couple times a week you should send an e-mail to your colleagues after 9pm.

If your company uses and instant messenger it's the best. Set the alarm for 8am, roll over, open the laptop, sign in to your IM so everyone sees that you're "at work", send an email to your team, volume up, back to bed. Shower at noon. Xbox until 4:30, send another email.

I used to have a job where I was one of 2 people on a team of 30 that worked in the office. I could work from home when I felt like it which was nice. There was this guy who was the only one on our team in Vancouver and it took him an average of 2 hours to reply to my IM's. Awesome.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

It's worth more than that, you save time and stress...and those are two things you can't buy. When I lived in St.Albert and worked in West Edmonton there were days that I left my house at 6:15AM to take the bus to work and got home just before 6:00. Away from home for 11 and a half hours to make about 8 hours pay on a 8 to 5 work day because of how the bus schedules worked.

that's the other reason I hated working from home. I didn't get my bike commute in. IT's the best part of my "work" day.