Tag: home office

Working from home, day one

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, Life in the cube, Work from Home
Almost there.

It’s coming together; my office is just about set.  All of the equipment has been hauled home and (with the help of the teenager) connected to the modem and everything actually works. What’s left to do is figure out what just does not fit and let it go (read: haul it back out of the house).

Here are some of the good things about working from home so far.

  1. I got more sleep! I was able to get up an hour and fifteen minutes later than I usually do. Yay! Of course, I still woke up at the same time but I rolled over and went back to sleep.
  2. I can wear whatever I want! My daughter said, “Can you wear pajamas to work now if you want to??” and I realized, “Yes! I can! I can wear pajamas now if I want to!”
  3. Things were so much less rushed. My daughter and I actually ate breakfast together this morning, which we usually can’t do because I leave (used to leave!) so early.
  4. I got to eat lunch with my entire family! My son was working the evening shift and my husband and daughter both happened to be home as well. They even cooked for me! (Okay, so I cleaned up; it was so worth it!).
  5. I got to eat dinner with 2 out of 3 of the family members! Okay, so son was at work, but I always got home too late to have supper with them this evening they waited for me and we ate together.
  6. When my shift ended, I was all through for the day! No hour commute to get home (of course, that means I missed an hour with my audio book, but I digress…as my husband pointed out, I can certainly pop it into the CD player in the house and listen to it!).

It was the best (work) day ever!

Home Office: Post book purge

by Karen, posted in books, education, my one word, Work from Home
Post purge office bookcase

It took several days and lots of cold hard decision-making, but the purge is (almost) complete. It was interesting (and sad) for me to note that I had no less than 5 books about Simplifying My Life.

We don’t know when we’ll be transitioned to working at home but we’ve pretty much been told to be on standby for a couple of weeks already. This is stressful because I”m still waiting for the desk to be delivered!  It would be really helpful if the desk arrives before person who is installing the ergonomic keyboard tray does!  Hopefully that will come next week.

First I had the thought that I had to get honest about the books. How many are there, really? I got all the books from all the hiding places…I thought. When I was done I remembered a few more places that I was keeping books in the house and ferreted them out and added them to the (rapidly increasing) pile.

The next thought I had was this: I almost never reread a book (I definitely won’t re-read a novel).  This thought was followed by an epiphany: why, then, was I keeping any book I was sure I would never read again?

I didn’t know.

Next I thought, wouldn’t  having at least one bookshelf containing only books that I haven’t yet read be wonderful?  As would having empty space on the shelf to receive new books. Heaven.

Anyway, back to the book purge. Here’s what I did with them:

  1. I put a box out at the end of my driveway with a sign: “free to a good home”.
  2. I brought some to the library for their annual book sale.
  3. I made a gift of some of them to several friends.
  4. I brought some to Annie’s Book Stop, where they give you store credits in exchange for your used books.

Then I took the what was left, organized and shelved them. When I was done, I felt fabulous. Every time I’m missing one of the books I gave away, I remember the shelf on the book case that contains a little empty space now.

Bliss.

A (working) room of one’s own

by Karen, posted in family, good grief, Life in the cube, writing
The empty room

As part of some, um, reorganization of staff at my place of employment, I have been given the opportunity to work from home. This will start on or before August 5, at which time Life in the Cube (as I’ve known it) will basically be coming to an end.  As exciting as this prospect sounds to a girl who is a card-carrying, white-knuckled driver when it’s snowing, it necessitates (shudder!) setting up an office at home.

My current “home office” is actually decentralized: my computer for bill paying and writing and such is in the kitchen. I’m set up at the end of the table which is situated in the corner of the room between two windows (and is sunny all day long, which is why I chose this spot). The filing starts out in a basket on a shelf of the kitchen island, then gets permanently filed in the cabinet in the upstairs spare room, or in binders to the left of the built-in desk in my bedroom. Stamps, stapler, envelopes, pens are kept in a kitchen cabinet.

The built-in desk is a good idea in theory, but in practice? Not so much. It faces a wall (I want a sunny window) and has a flourescent light (I want incandescent), both of which I hate, and therefore is not conducive to any actual work getting done. If I would be working 10.5 hour shifts from home, something (preferably almost everything) had to change.

Our mission (since we choose to accept it) is this: make the spare room into my office.

This might not be as easy as it sounds.

Step one was to check my internet speed to see if it was up to speed.

It was not.

Hello, incompetent technicians from my cable company. It took them 3 tries to get this working correctly and to repair what they damaged while installing the new cable modem. The third time was the charm.

Knock on wood.

Then we emptied out the room. “We” consists of me and my husband, with the emphasis on husband. He did most of the work: taking out the book case, the cd tower, the filing cabinet, the end tables, the love seat.

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All of this had to be put somewhere for the interim. That somewhere is our bedroom. It’s sort of overwhelming. The idea of “keeping your eye on the prize” now makes much more sense to me.

Now that the room is emptied, the next step is: Painting and flooring.

To be continued…