Home office expert's guide to working from home/home office tips
Working from a home office never felt so cool
When my sons were little and I had a project deadline but no babysitter, we’d head to Chuck E. Cheese. I can hear a collective groan from parents everywhere, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
They stamped our hands at the front door and then my kids would play games for at least an hour. They were safe — the checkout system there is like Ft. Knox — so I could work on projects and still see my kids from my table. [Read more...]
In Jeffrey Zaslow’s Wall Street Journal article, “Yes, I’m Home. No, I Can’t Pick Up Your Child,“ he writes that those of us who are working from home are finally saying no when someone asks for a favor. The response from readers was mixed. Some people could relate to the article and were happy that someone finally acknowledged the problem. Others thought that anyone with a home-based business is home anyway, and should be able to help others no matter what.
Here’s the deal: just because we’re working from home doesn’t mean that we’re available to wait for repair calls, UPS deliveries, or to pick up a friend’s kids from school when that friend can’t leave work. Of course when it’s an emergency, there’s no question whether you should help out. But there’s a point where others can take advantage of you.
One woman in Zaslow’s article who was asked constantly for help from friends and neighbors, turned errand requests into a job. She works part-time for a new online company called taskrabbit, that matches “senders” (people who need someone to do an errand for them) with “runners” (people who will handle the errand). Now she’s paid for her time. [Read more...]
I’ve tried most of the planning systems out there so I’d know which ones to recommend to my clients. It’s hard to recommend something if you haven’t tried it. After using Day-Timers, Franklin, Time Design, Day Runner, Filofax and a few other systems, I figured out which systems were effective and which ones were duds.
Sue Shellenbarger, author, writer and the Wall Street Journal’s Work & Family columnist did the near-impossible…she tried three systems in three weeks. She made some interesting discoveries. [Read more...]
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