Move Your Home Office

Everything seems to be going my way today, but I see some heavy lifting in the not-so-distant future.

I have had a lot of little victories today.  My niece agreed to take the rough draft of my company logo and turn it into a work of art.  She is one of the many artists in my family.  Unfortunately, no one is using their talents as their primary source of income…no one ever told us it was possible let alone encouraged us to do so.  We grew up in a generation that looked down upon artists, philosophers, etc that wanted to make careers using what the Creator gave them.  My niece started out at a young age with photography and is now at a college of visual and performing arts.  I would be honored if my logo is part of her portfolio especially if she pursues a career using her talents.

I have also been very productive today  researching the tools I will use for the website development arm of my “enterprise”.  I am currently in a 90 day trial of InMotion Hosting’s web hosting service.  So far so good.  The control panel isn’t the most user friendly so it’s not something I would want to teach my customers how to use.  Instead, I am planning on providing them with more intuitive tools such as JOOMLA and WordPress.  The WordPress integration was not only simple to setup, but it works beautifully at giving bloggers the same functionality on their own website that they would get from wordpress.com.   Now I am playing with JOOMLA…  OK, enough geek talk.

I hate to admit this, but I think the reason things are going so well is that I am able to concentrate today.  You see…it is the first day of school today for our 5 kids.  So, I am not being interrupted while working in my corner office (the desk I use in the corner of our bedroom).

Don’t force me to say it…”they” were right…numerous work-at-home guides recommend setting up an office in a separate room of the house.  They specifically warn against using your bedroom because you don’t want to mix work and pleasure.   I especially shouldn’t be using our bedroom since it acts as a family room too.  For some reason, the kids prefer using the 17 year old TV in our room instead of the 50″ plasma in the family room in our finished basement.  They must like being around us.

So the good news is is that for 7 hours on school days I will now be more productive.  Unfortunately,  I need to work more than 7 hours/day and on weekends especially while I start a business.  I knew it was inevitable…I need to move to the basement.  No…not to the room with the plasma TV…instead, it’s the room we currently use to store all of the forgotten toys that are waiting for a new home.  I’m going to miss my desk being in front of the window and  the men’s room being 3 feet away.  But I’m looking forward to being more efficient in my new quiet office…I will be able to spend more quality time with my incredible family.

My advice to you – take “their” advice and move your home office out of your bedroom to a remote, quiet corner of your house.