More home office ideas from HGTV’s Designer Challenge. view all of them here
A home office in the living room.
A small office in a walk in closet
Eclectic style
An art studio. Big enough for my husband and me.
Still about my new work. I noticed that even though I’ve been working for three hours straight already, I’m still not close to finishing half of my tasks. I remember when I get about 10-15 tasks from my old company. It will only take me 2-3 hours tops to finish all of them. But now, even if I sacrifice sleep, and even if I am the greatest developer in the whole world, I doubt if I can work like I used to. First, I need to connect via VPN in order to access the files. No matter how fast my computer or Internet is, it will still take about 2-5 minutes for me to download a 30MB psd file. It’s very time consuming.
You’d think I have free time to browse or check old emails while waiting for the files but no. While I’m waiting, I get 3-5 instant messages from co-workers who needed to discuss projects with me before they leave the office. 6AM-9AM is our only chance to meet daily so we make sure to keep in touch. By 10AM, the only thing I’ve done is download/check out files, chat with colleagues and prepare my local for incoming work. By this time, my laptop will give up because of too many browsers and applications open. I will have to restart and open all of them again, eating another 30 minutes or so of my time.
I’ve been away from the blogging world so much. Well, actually it’s just been two days but in my world, that’s already considered months of absence. The reason is I’m very busy with work. I mean REALLY BUSY. I’ve never been actually this busy that I’d have to choose between taking a bathroom break and eating lunch. I haven’t played with my daughter for the last four days. Even if we’re on the same room, I rarely talk to her because I’m doing the best I can to focus on my tasks. Thank God for nannies because I don’t know what I’d do to keep my daughter occupied if it were just the two of us.
But back to my work schedule. I seriously need to come up with a solution on how to manage my time properly. I want to do my best at work but I don’t want to stop blogging. And most importantly, I don’t want to lose more time with my kid. Maybe I should try waking up earlier than 6AM? I honestly don’t think if that’s even possible but I’m willing to give it a try.
Okay, so after reading several telecommuting blogs, I was alarmed to see the number of freelancers being fired. This has been my constant worry ever since I started working from home. Because you’re an independent contractor, you are not protected by laws, including 3 months separation pay, etc. I’m not sure about this so I’ll have to verify. This is why I was so greedy in accepting sideline projects for the last six months. I knew my old company is about to shut down so I’m doing what I can to earn money on the side just in case I get the ax.
Thankfully, another blessing came, my new job. Still, I can’t help but wonder how stable the web/internet industry can be. In my new company alone, they had to let go 30 people because of redundant positions. The reason why I was asked to join the team was because they needed someone to work on the stuff during their night (my day). Plus the fact that I’m so much cheaper compared helped a lot with their decision.
It’s my 4th day at my new work now. The tasks are coming in and I’m grateful because all of them are pretty straightforward. What’s frustrating is the waiting part. First, wait for the creative mockup to be finalized, sliced and coded, approved, etc. before I can start working with the updates. I was used to working on my own, handling everything from concept to launch. But now, I’m at the lowest level. The last person who will make the change before a campaign goes out. If I look at this differently, it could be that I’m the most important person because everything needs to be set up before I would allow myself to touch a project. Heh.
Anyway, I’m not complaining. My last pay was great but now, it’s much much better! I’d do almost anything (except programming) to keep this job.
It wasn’t really a new job but a new company. My old company will shut down in a couple of months so the CEO, who is also working as a CTO in a bigger web development company decided to take me with him. It’s still telecommuting but what amazes me is how productive and updated everyone is about all the projects. I’m very happy and excited and scared shitless. Thank God I know two people there already and those that I didn’t know were friendly enough to answer any of my questions.
I have to wake up really early now because they want our schedules to cross at least a few hours before they sign off. And now that everyone is sleeping on their side of the world, I’m taking a break by blogging. It keeps the stress and uneasiness at bay so I won’t panic that I didn’t do anything impressive or haven’t been really productive all day.
I’m still clueless about everything but I’m hoping that tomorrow will be a better one.
I’ve read online that in order to be a successful telecommuter, you need to have a nice working environment at home. It should at least resemble an office cubicle (perhaps even better) to set your mind that even though you’re home, you still need to work.
My “office”, if you can call it that, is located inside our bedroom. I used to have a work area but when I gave birth, I wanted to be able to watch the baby sleep while I’m working. I’ve never moved since then. I still want my own office but I’m very comfortable inside our room that I don’t think I have the strength to start all over again.
My solution – redecorate.
Some photos from HGTV.com’s Designer’s Portfolio segment.
If we have a large space, I can totally go with this.
This is actually a home office in the kitchen but I like the idea of computer table and shelves near the door.
It looks uncomfortable but I love the long table. I have tons of knick knacks on my computer table and I’m always welcome for a bigger (or longer) one.
Really nice. Now all I need is the money to get started.
While blog hopping on mommy blogs today, I read an article on how you can cut work time in half. Most of them I’ve already tackled here in my blog but let’s re-visit them all shall we?
Quality over quantity.
Whenever my daughter is around, I try to work as many small tasks as possible. That way, when she takes a nap, I can focus on major projects that require a lot of thinking and focus. This also applies when she goes to school. As soon as she leaves the house, I write like a crazy woman so I can finish at least 4 articles before she comes back.
Remove all distractions.
Easier said than done I know. But still, I realized that if I turn off my twitter and close all browsers aside from work related websites, I can finish more than 50% of my task as opposed to multitasking (twittering while working).
Send kids to playschool or any activity like play dates outside the house.
So you worked from home so you can be with your little one. However, you didn’t know work can be so hard when a toddler is constantly asking for your attention. It’s okay to leave them somewhere safe for a couple of hours so you can get some work done. This way you can schedule your major work while your little ones are out of the house. (See tip #1).
And this does not only apply to work at home moms like me. According to baby forums that I visit frequently, some stay at home moms enroll their kids to day care or preschools just to have ME time. And when I say ME time, it means cleaning the house, cooking dinner and doing the laundry.
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