Capture Real-World Career Insight & Advice That Will Prep You for The Big Time

Setting Up a Home Office

As someone who has worked from home in the past, I read with interest a recent Workerette post about running a home office. The blogger gives some great suggestions about working from home effectively such as setting up your office so it feels like one, avoid staying in your pj's, and install a separate phone line. These were all tactics I employed when running a home office, however, I had another interesting challenge on my hands - small children. During my work-from-home stint, my two-year old son was also home, which brings me to my additional advice for those in similar situations.

• Invest in a good phone that has a "hold" button, and more importantly, a "mute" function.
• Establish rules (as best you can) for everyone in the household - if the door is closed, Daddy or Mommy is working and shouldn't be bothered. That is, unless someone needs to take a trip to the ER.
• To help make following this rule a bit easier on your child(ren), minimize your trips to the rest of the house. Make sure you grab your drinks, go to the restroom, etc. before you begin your day.
• Install a separate phone line and use it. There were a few times I inadvertently gave colleagues my home number only to have my son pick up another phone in the house to offer his two cents - something like "Me watching Wiggles."
• Try to schedule conference calls around nap times, particularly ones that you are leading or are expected to participate frequently. This minimizes stressing out if you can hear your son or daughter having a meltdown and worrying that everyone else might be unwilling witnesses as well.

After finally perfecting my home office environment, I will say that there were tremendous benefits to working from home. I was incredibly productive and at the same time, was able to swap time previously spent commuting with a little quality family time.