Sometimes I sit here in my shorts, listening to the birdsong as the sunlight dapples the beech trees just outside my office window, and I think: "Jeepers, I wish I could be back in an office, working for someone else". That feeling never lasts long, but it's one of the penalties of working from home - you miss the personal contact and the support infrastructure as well as the backbiting, the clockwatching and the hassles. So here are the views of one who does the home office thing and has the scars to prove it.
1. Separate home and work spaces Rule number one: if you're working from home, it shouldn't feel like home. Work is work: keep it separate from real life. Ideally, that means physically separate - a different building, or at least a room with a door. If you have to work from the kitchen table, clear the family clutter and banish all interruptions to make it more like a real workspace. Use a notebook (easy to set up and close down) and keep your portable office in a ready-to-go easy-to-hide box or bin.
2. Separate home and work times You and your family need to understand that you're really at the office during specific hours. My friend Susie actually hangs a BUSY/FREE sign on her office door. The flipside is that private time should be work-free. The answering machine can pick up while you're having dinner or playing with the children; a PC-based system will give more flexibility in terms of the automated response. There's a tendency to do the work because it's there, or because you think the client might be impressed by your working all weekend, or because you don't want to contemplate the possibility that there might be no work at all next month. But just because something is urgent doesn't mean it's important: life is short enough as it is; don't waste too much of it on work.
3. Automate and delegate So simplify your own working life - use the tools available: let the answering machine pick up calls while you're working, use email to communicate out of hours. Outlook can handle contact information, schedule follow-ups, remind you about appointments, and much more. Spam filters can remove much of the dross from your inbox. QuickBooks takes a little time to set up, but thereafter automates your book-keeping, tracks overdue amounts, and produces handy reports for management (well, for you) as well as for your accountant and the taxman. Utilities such as SystemWorks can handle housekeeping tasks on the PC. And don't do everything yourself. The DIY approach is often less cost-effective than involving other people - you might have to bite the bullet to get the best graphics, marketing programmes, relationships with the Inland Revenue, and other professional requirements.
4. Clear the clutter Keeping your desk tidy is one of the best ways of staying both sane and effective in your home office. Start by picking the right tools. A flat-panel TFT screen will save on space; or consider a swivelling monitor stand that can be pushed aside. Use cable-free connections - infrared keyboard and mouse, Bluetooth for the printer. Anything you use frequently should be within arm's reach, everything else can be stored further away (or junked altogether). But give yourself reasons to move around; the phone probably needs to be next to you, but the printer and fax machine can usefully be sited inconveniently to force you to get up to attend to them. Physical variation during the day is good for your body. Regularly sort through your files, your pinboard and drawers. Throw out the things you don't use. Have a major overhaul every six months or so - redecorate, reorganise, tidy the cables, vacuum the computer.
5. Avoid wasting time Time management is another good habit. There's a temptation to ensure that all the pencils are sharpened, the mouse de-fluffed, the email sorted and filed before you get down to work. The less appealing the job, the sharper the pencils. So schedule your time: handle email and post for the first 45 minutes, no more email until just before you break for lunch, finish the day with your final mail check and a to-do list for the morning. Set alarms on Outlook if you really need reminding. More generally, start unsubscribing to newsletters and magazines. Limit yourself to the stuff you enjoy and/or use. If it helps, try allocating a regular time slot for reading newsletters (magazines you can pile up for train journeys and quiet times). Anything that doesn't fit into your schedule can be binned. And don't keep back issues if they are available online.
6. Socialise Yes, you have email, the phone, delivery services, and online ordering, so you probably don't need to leave your cosy workplace. But that gives you the freedom to develop your own work-life balance; and you don't want to become a tool of your tools. Network on the net; schedule time for chat rooms and newsgroups for your business. Get out more - preferably with clients, but friends will do. And get involved in your community: you'll have more flexibility than when you were chained to a time clock.
7. Look for the small rewards A good boss compliments staff and commends their work. You are your own boss, but you can still be a good one. Collect plaudits and testimonials from satisfied clients, put them on your website, and don't be shy about letting prospects know who else has been pleased with your work. It will make you feel good, too. And you can find other small triumphs for yourself - locating the completely free banking at Abbey National Business, finding cheap but excellent unbranded inkjet cartridges, persuading the Revenue to accept dry cleaning receipts as allowable business expenses...
8. Create your own space One of the best things about working for yourself is the ability to create your own environment. Arrange things to suit yourself, choose colours that you like, arrange furniture and office equipment to fit your working life. Have some personal objects in your eye line to remind you of the outside world while you're working. If the daily domestic noise bothers you, invest in a decent thick-pile carpet and a stereo - low music of your own choice can effectively mask out unwanted external sound. Besides, this might be the only time the family will let you listen to Steely Dan.
9. Manage Just because you run a one-person business doesn't mean you're absolved from management responsibility. Yes, you're the marketing executive, the IT specialist, the maintenance guy, the receptionist and the bookkeeper as well as the poor sod who actually does the work.But you need to take an overview, too: that means a business plan of some kind, if only because the plan-making process organises your thinking and helps you sort out your priorities. Thereafter you need regular management accounts (quarterly perhaps) to identify precisely where you're making money and spending it; QuickBooks and similar products can do this. You might also need more frequent tactical assessments to see how well you're doing.
10. And finally... Nobody who works from home will actually be able to follow all these tips all the time. You have to spend some time earning the money, after all. Treat them as pointers towards good working habits. And you can always try the Three Legged Toad God. Feng shui wisdom says you place it near your workspace's entrance, facing into the room, to bring you luck and wealth. You have to keep a coin in its mouth, of course.
