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We’re here with Simon Salt, author of Out of Office: How to Work from Home, Telecommute, or Workshift Successfully, who totally dressed for the office today:
This is how he’s dressed most days, unless he’s wearing a cat. And the cats wouldn’t have taken much to the conference experience.
Working from Home – Surviving and Thriving in a Home Office
Simon has been working from home as a freelancer for over 10 years. After being constantly asked, “How do you do that all from home?” he decided to write a book about it. You need to have a network. Being here at this conference, we probably already have this network, even if we don’t know it.
Is It Really for You?
Not everyone has the right personality type to work from home. Some people are too social and need human interaction all the time. For the introverts filling this room, social media can fill that need for us. But some people need those watercooler conversations to get through the day. Others need to work in a formal setting and can’t deal with the fuzzy line of having work and home in the same space. Do you need the time away from home, being alone with your thoughts on the commute? You don’t get that transition time when you work from home.
For the first year Simon was working from home, he had conversations with himself about home office vs renting office space. For writers and photographers, we don’t necessarily need a formal office space to legitimize what we do. No one needs to see us working.
The Benefits
People who work from home face the “What do you do?” and “When are you getting a real job?” stigma.
But when you work from home, you’re in control of what you do for work, how you do it, and in what space you do it. You can work at your desk, on the couch, on the patio, at the dinner table…anywhere you want. Knowing where you’re productive, knowing your own productivity in general, is a big benefit. People who report to an office every day have to deal with constant meetings and distractions, so they are not control of their own productivity.
The Challenges
“Pets, partners, and other demons.” You have deadlines. People are counting on you. But your kid is home sick from school, so how do you get stuff done?
And then there’s when the lawn guys show up with the leafblowers and the chainsaws. The FedEx guy always seems to know the most inconvenient time to ring the doorbell.
(Appropriately, someone seems to be using a drill outside the conference room.)
Getting Organized
Impose on yourself getting organized. Simon is not very organized, and I’m like him.
Start using strategic planning for: things that make you money, things that help you make money, and everything else. (Social media can fall in the second category, but often turns into the third category.)
Rule Setting
You have to set rules for yourself and the people you share your space with. You need a dedicated space in which you can say: this is my space and no one else can use that space. (I enforce this rule by surrounding my desk with my own clutter.)
Can you run to the grocery store during your workday? Yes, but do you have time to do it with all of the work you have to do that day? (My extended family knows that the end of the month is crunch time for me.)
When is your workday? For many people, it starts when other people leave the house, and it ends when they get back home. If you have small children at home all day, you need to block time out throughout the day.
Work/Life Integration
Work/life balance doesn’t exist. Balance implies equilibrium, and you’re never really going to achieve it. That path leads to madness because work and life do not have equal value to you.
Take your moments. Weaving work and the rest of life together to form a whole life is what you want to aim for. Don’t build guilt into the equation. Lead one life in which you weave together all of the aspects of that life (things that make you money, things that help you make money, and everything else).
Be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to what’s behind you, even when you’re in the zone.
Get Better Checklist
- Know Yourself (I can’t listen to music while writing and editing)
- Choose Your Environment (my messy desk!)
- Set & Communicate Rules (“Ladies are great at setting rules. Please tell us what the rules are! And when they change!”)
- Integrate – Don’t Juggle (balance is unrealistic)
- Get Organized (how much time do you waste every day looking for things? at least know where things should be.)
- Hire for Non-Productive Work (outsource the things that don’t make you money. wish I could afford housekeeping service…)
- Enjoy the Lack of Formality… But… Don’t spend the day on the couch watching Netflix. Do your work first, and then you can veg on the couch afterward without feeling guilty.
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That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
