More Americans are operating home offices or are working remotely, and they are doing so for longer periods, according to a recent Gallup survey. While it may seem wonderful to avoid the commute to the office, working from home has challenges. Distractions and disorganizations can prevent you from getting any real work done.
Albert Einstein famously quipped, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” We believe that neatness and organization are two keys to making your home office productive.
Here are a few tips we think are solid advice, and they’ve been backed up by customers we come in contact with every day:
- In your home office, keep home and office separate. It’s not wise to mix work papers with your miscellaneous home paperwork. When you need to find a sales report you shouldn’t be distracted by a bill from your dentist.
- Keep a calendar for work events, and once again make sure they’re not combined with your PTA meeting on Thursday night.
- Keep a separate desk for work, and keep it neat. We’ve known a few people over the years who have ridiculously messy desks and yet they know precisely where everything is located. These people are weird, and they are very rare. Just commit to neatness – all the time – and in the end it will pay off.
- Straighten up at the end of each day. Even if dinner is cooking on the stove, take a few minutes to do a recap of the day’s events and make a list of tomorrow’s tasks. Make sure everything is filed away and neat because the next morning you can hit the ground running, and not begin the day frustrated.
- Lay out a schedule for every task, every day. Even if you are going to do a personal chore like laundry, write it down in a block on your schedule. For example:
- 9:00 to 10:00 Make follow up sales calls
- 10:00 to 11:00 Laundry
- 11:00 to 12:00 Forecast income and expenses for next week
It may seem to be over-doing it, but any successful person who works a home office will tell you it’s the best method.
Because of the nature of our business, we believe large, visual aids are helpful and once again we can back that up based on experience. A wall calendar makes sure that when you get pre-occupied with a personal project you have the work side of your life right there, reminding you not to forget.
Whiteboard In A Box is a great tool for home offices, and that’s probably why it is our most popular product. It is a self-stick dry erase surface that can be applied to any smooth, clean surface. Self-stick grid lines or chart tape can be used to create a calendar that works for your specific needs and you’ll likely find it is a big help. Shop for Whiteboard In A Box by clicking here.
an exotic resort even if it’s really a hotel 25 miles down the road.
Increase Creative Space!
The traditional office has changed drastically over the past few decades. Old movies and TV shows often show businessmen (and they were almost always men) with enormous offices, large oak desks, female secretaries in the outer office, and many large filing cabinets. Today, files are kept on hard drives or in the cloud, and desks and tables are lighter and smaller to accommodate more people. Rents are high and companies have become more streamlined by using space more efficiently.
startup costs, fewer responsibilities like cleaning and locking up, networking opportunities, and shorter commitments. Most modern office spaces run month-to-month.
There are books and videos about how to make meetings more interesting and effective, but what about the rooms where meetings are held? Can anything be done to at least make the environment more acceptable? Perhaps more energizing and invigorating? Maybe even conducive to creativity? Many educational studies have shown that students are more alert and creative in bright, colorful classrooms.
Everyone has at least one fear, some people have many, and that’s ok. Doctors say if you understand your fears and work to overcome them, they’re not harmful.
Finally, remember it’s normal to be nervous. It’s how you handle it. Tell your audience you feel a little nervous because they’ll understand. They’ll probably laugh if you make a little joke about it. “I practiced this presentation in front of my 2 year old daughter 25 times so I wouldn’t be nervous, but I don’t think she got it.” You’ll laugh, the audience will laugh, and the presentation will go very well.
Staying organized is tough for everyone. “Where did I put this? Where is that?” There are dozens of systems for trying to put things in order, calendars for dates and times, storage bins, filing cabinets, and organizers galore on computers and smart phones.
need to change what’s written on it you don’t have to peel and scrape the old label off. You just erase it and write again. You can even color code your labels for categorization purposes.
Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159.
The area of a circle.
If you own a small business, you know that going to work is much more than clocking in for an eight hour shift. You should be so lucky!
How many passwords do you have? Do you keep them in your head? Do you write them down? Everyone has a different way to make up passwords and store them, but you better think about your methods because hacking is getting worse as cyber criminals devise new ways every day to get into your private accounts.