Getting Out of the Home Office
Fri, 05/22/2009 - 22:42.
in
It’s Friday night and I find myself sitting at an internet cafe with my newly purchased laptop. I finally realized I needed to get out of the home office. Why? Productivity … or lack thereof.
My current home office set up has my computer in my bedroom right next to my bed. This is not exactly the best set-up to get work done. My TV is also in my room which provides a constant distraction from the work at hand. I also don’t like sitting my desk for too long because it just isn’t comfortable. How I long for the $1,000 Herman Miller chairs we have at work!
And therein lies the main problem with working at home – distractions. My TV, roommate and his friends and the simple fact that I can’t work for long stretches at my computer without getting a sore back or just slightly irritated.
So, even though I have a desktop I now have a laptop, as well – decadent, I know. I even use it when I’m at home and my desktop is turned on. When I get tired of working on the desktop, I simply flop on the bed and start working on the laptop. In the few days, I’ve had two computers I’ve seen huge increases in my efficiency and use of time.
And I think that’s the biggest reason – maximizing the use of my time. I figure with the laptop, I’ll recapture 5 to 10 hours of wasted time each week. Here’s how:
1.) During lunch at work – I can take it to the internet cafe across the street and do some work.
2.) Getting out of the house – before I used to go for walks and a coffee and waste time … now, I can still go for a walk but I can bring the laptop along and get some work done while having my coffee
3.) Just before bed – instead of just laying there watching TV, I now keep the laptop with me and can do some work while watching a few shows.
4.) Socializing – instead of heading to the bar at 9 for an early drink, I now go out (like I am tonight) to the internet cafe. I can still socialize and watch people go by and get a few hours of work done. I figure tonight, I’ll be here until 1am. I can still go out afterwards for a drink if I want. I think I will.
Time is a cruel mistress. It slips by without us even knowing it. It’s so easy to waste hours simply by going about our day to day tasks.
The name of the game with time management is to make some simple changes that don’t require us to change the way we live our lives.
It’s all about restructuring and multi-tasking.
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It’s all about
It’s all about restructuring and multi-tasking.
Multi-tasking is one of the worst things you can do, from a time-management perspective. In reality you can only focus on one thing at a time, and if you try to do more than that you waste time "switching gears" every few minutes.
I find I get far more done if I ignore everything except what I'm working on at the moment.
Multi-tasking
@George I'm actually a very good multi-tasker but I realize it doesn't work for everyone.
I love working on my laptop
I love working on my laptop and being able to work from anywhere. But it's important to keep a sense of balance and not feel guilty for not working every time you find yourself with a few minutes of downtime.
There's nothing wrong with going out with friends and forgetting about work for a while. Sometimes good ideas need time to incubate and you're better off not thinking about it for a while.
Working out of the office
@Melanie The problem is, my balance has been shifting towards the 'having fun' side. I needed to get out of the house to start getting some work done. But, being a workaholic is no good, either, otherwise, you'll burn out.
Raising the deductible is wise
Raising the deductible is a great way to profit. The insurance companies obviously need to charge you enough to pay off claims, pay their expense and make a profit. So on average you must pay more than you will get. But we need insurance because we are not the average. We need protection in case we are the unlucky one with a huge loss. But we don't need to pay for protection from losses we can afford. On average paying for insurance for losses you can afford will be a bad decision.
Insurance Deductibles
@John I guess that's it - insurance is mostly for the catastrophic losses. They probably want us to pay for the little losses, which happen more frequently.
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