If you have known me at all since 2002, you probably are aware of the company I founded Xcedex. I recently left the company and have moved on to other things. This change has prompted quite a change in my daily work life. One big change is the fact that I don't work from a corporate office anymore, but am working from my home office.
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What is this thing? Read on to find out, it has brought a new level of happiness to my life, maybe it could for you too?I've never worked exclusively from a home office since I've entered the professional world. Doesn't mean I don't work from home, I've worked from home, from a plane, while driving through Roanoke Virginia on a laptop and cell phone while eating a Chalupa. I pretty much work 24x7 from anywhere it seems. But my official office has always been a cube or physical office somewhere. As a consultant, I've grown accustomed to being able to pack up my "toolbox" and take work with me wherever I go. I have a handy leather bag with subtly installed wheels for this purpose (save the shoulder from dislocating). Nonetheless, the docking station and multiple monitors have always lived at the corporate office, not at home.
thighs, conference calls being joined by screaming 3 year olds, and animals walking on my keyboard. Basically home is home, and not suited for work. The only way I could get real work done at home was after everyone was konked out for the night. So I'd be up from 10:30P till who knows what crazy hour I'd finish up. That translates into a rough morning the next day.
Good news is, I solve problems. And this is a problem like any other. I didn't have a space that was conducive to getting real work done. When I say "real work", I mean the kind of work where your brain is actually working, thinking, creating, innovating. The kind that requires you slip into that mode where you've completely immersed in the subject. For me, as a confessed single tasker, this is the only way I can really get stuff done. My most genius work comes out of this mode. And I could never do it at home. Now I can.
To be honest, I couldn't really do my best work in a corporate office that often either, even when I used the shut the door type of techniques. When I'd be working on a big design for a client or creating some badness diagram or seminar presentation, I would have to disappear into a place where no one could reach me. That meant either I had to be in a seat at 36,000 feet or hiding in a library cubicle in an undisclosed location with my phone off and no email or IM.
As a public service, I decided to share some tips I've discovered for making a spot in my home into a place where I could be effective in my work, whatever that would be.
As I've thought about this posting, there is a lot more too it than I originally thought. So I'm breaking this train of thought into two posts. This first post will deal with the physical side of a home office experience. The second will deal with the virtual side, some ideas and technologies that make working from home as good, or sometimes better, than working from an office.
Without further ado, here it goes, the how I created a paradisiacal office space within my home.
Here's a quick list of categories that I needed to address to make House of Payne into Home Office of Payne:
- Private Space
- Workable Desk
- Place to store paper stuff
- How to get rid of paper stuff
- Printing
- Whiteboard
- Technology
- Light
- Place to chill
- And my favorite invention, "The Anti-Distraction Device" - Interruptions low, thinking high
Private Space
First of all, I have an advantage that many people don't, and that is a room I could dedicate to an office. And it's a room with doors that shut off access to everyone else in the house. This is a big step that leads to privacy pretty quick, and I realize others don't have the luxury. If you need something like that I can recommend a good home remodeler.
Ultimately I think the way to achieve a good office space at home has to create privacy for you. This is somewhat obvious, but really important. As I stated earlier, the best work comes from a mind that is able to deeply concentrate. I read an incredibly insightful book on this topic from /\ndy Hunt, the pragmatic programmer. His latest book as of this posting is "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware". He speaks as a software developer, who of all people have a job that is nothing but a thinking based activity. However I believe the content is universally application to any person that wants to use the blob of flesh in their skull for something greater than filling the space between your ears. Andy Hunt talks a lot about how to create the right environment to tap into your own cognitive abilities. This is the book that got me into doing mindmaps for organizing thought. If anyone has enjoyed a seminar, presentation or most any other complete work I've produced in the last couple of years, thank Andy for arming me with some extra thinking tools.
My buddy Jeremy Pries recently did some actual remodeling in his home office space to create the privacy he needed to get work done. I know he put an extra wall in his loft and some other goodies, including some funky yellow paint or something. Maybe he'll post a writeup on that and show some pics.
Workable Desk
2nd issue to deal with is a good desk. I happened to run a company that moved offices a couple of times. In our last move, we shed much of our furniture, so I was able to take a desk and move it to the home office. In the past, I built a similar U shaped wrap around desk with inexpensive materials from the Homer D. Pot. I like lots of space on my desk. I want to be able to spread out materials so I can see everything I'm working on. And I need room to throw a server on the desk and tear it apart or fix Mom's busted PC or something. So I like the U shape wrap around desks where I sit in the middle in a swivel chair. Maybe its just that I idolize Captain James Tiberius Kirk and have always wanted to sit at the helm of the Enterprise in his awesome swivel throne. I am the Captain of my home office..."Sulu, Warp factor 7, engage".
The executive office chair is nice. But I like to work with my feet up on something. Not necessarily up on the desk, but just elevated above the ground. I had various things under my desk for a while that I'd rest my feet on. But one day I had enough and decided to get serious about a foot rest! So out to the garage I went. I rounded up some wood, carpet, glue, screws, staples and 20 minutes later I had myself the perfect footrest.
Place to store paper stuff
How to get rid of paper stuff
The other thing I started doing was scanning documents and storing them digitally. I use an Epson Artisan 800 scanner/printer for this work. Pretty slick autofeeder system that scans to PDF over a network. I'm not a paperless office fanatic, nothing against paper, I use the right tool for the job. But if I can scan and store I do.
Printing
Whiteboard
I love using whiteboards. Rarely can I have a technical conversation and resist the urge to jump on the whiteboard and draw my ideas. I think this is because my whole technical world is largely abstract in nature. Pictures really do speak thousands of words. Drawing out concepts helps me communicate not only to others but myself what it is I'm thinking about.
Last step to whiteboard bliss is markers. Requirement:
- Out of reach of kids hands.
- Permanent home so they don't get lost.
Done.
Technology
I live in the world if IT. For those of you that just had nightmare visions of a demon like clown stalking children rural towns, I'm not talking about the world of that evil clown Pennywise from Stephen King's book, I'm talking about IT as in Information Technology. Tangent alert: that movie terrified me as a kid. shook me to my bones. Clowns are just evil. I read another book that solidified my anti-clownness, Life Expentancy by Dean Koontz. Great read, clever story, love Koontz, hate clowns.
Back on track. Much of my professional life revolves around all types of IT stuff, servers, storage, PCs, network gear, software, virtualization etc, etc, etc. All the stuff we use to automate and accelerate the mundane and repeatable in our lives. Naturally I need some room in the home office to interact with this junk. The common element amongst most ever modern day piece of technology is...you guessed it, electricity. Need lots of it and it needs to be accessible. When I designed the house, I made sure the contractors put extra power in every room including sockets in the floor. Beyond that, I've got extra power strips hidden in the underside of my desk and around the office so I've always got a plug available when needed. A little battery backup/UPS supplements when I not only need power, but clean power to protect expensive junk from getting hurt by jumpy power. Point is, I've got power within 3 feet of anywhere I'm likely to need it in the office. You should see my garage, tons of power sockets. Like a dose of good luck, you can never have too much access to power.
A have various actual technology devices in the office as well of course. I think I'll cover those in the follow up post to this. More to come on that topic.
Light
If you can't see, you can't use your eyes. If you try to use your eyes without the right light, you'll break them and now you're in bad shape. So get light, lots of it and good light at that. I have a halogen light above incorporated into the ceiling fan. Another stand up lamp that projects extra light fairly evenly throughout the room. Then a desk lamp that spotlights the working area right in front of me. This reminds me that I need to get another LED flashlight that plugs into the wall with a rechargeable battery in it. Those are great devices, they always stay charged. When the power goes out, they turn on automatically. Avoids the problem of no power and dead batteries in the flashlight. That is the last piece of my lighting needs in the home office, I'll stick that under the desk in the out of the way power socket. Easy access to a bright light to highlight when I'm looking for a jumper I've dropped on the carpet or digging into a motherboard.
Place to chill
Sometimes I need to get out of the desk chair and kick up the feet, read, or just take a nap. Gotta have a couch in the office for this purpose.
"The Anti-Distraction Device"
-- Interruptions low, thinking high
This is my favorite feature in the home office. I love this idea the most because it is a great example of systems based thinking, and underscores the point that a system doesn't have to be a complicated technology.
My problem was that I couldn't be in my office without being interrupted by someone barging into the room with some distraction. Coaxing, yelling, asking, persuading, screaming, cajoling...I tried them all and for some reason my 2 year old wouldn't listen. A shut door may as well be invisible in my house. And while tranquilizer guns are effective, the ammunition is expensive. So I had to come up with something else.
A simple lock on the door would prevent people from coming in, but they would just bang on the door till I relented or popped a fuse. I don't have a lock anyway on these doors. It dawned on me that the medieval castle architects had it right. If I created a slab that would link the doorknobs together, no one could come in. Further, they can see through the glass doors so they would know the lock is on.
I went a little further with this idea. I knew that my lady would object to anything that didn't look professionally made, (my office sits next to the entrance to our home, so she has some veto power over how crazy I get). So I had to make it look nice, while still being effective. So I designed a simple bar that I sanded, painted and attached a handle to that matches the other hardware in the house.
What am I still missing?
- I don't have a mini refrigerator in the office, that would be nice. Keep in on super cold so drinks are just above the freezing point, and get slushy when you open them.
- Exercise equipment? Pull up/push up bar. A little something to get the blood pumping, but nothing as obnoxious as a stationary bike. Although, it would be nice to have a treadmill in the office. I like to pace while I talk on the phone, this would do the trick. Plus there are some clever thinkers that have created walking office environments. My friend John Folkestad, CEO of Salo, LLC participated in a study with the Mayo clinic where they had stand up desks made from treadmills. Everyone lost weight and seemed to enjoy the extra exercise. That group went on to found Muve, where another friend, Tom Hudson, is now the CEO.
- A urinal. Call me crazy, but I've always thought that it would be really awesome to have a urinal in my office. Maybe a bit unsanitary at first glance, but really handy.
- How about a projector and 100" drop down screen as a "secondary" monitor? Makes spreadsheets much easier to see, among other things.
What else my dear reader? Any tips on making my office more paradisiacal? What have you done to make working from home less...work?
Stay tuned for a follow up on some sweet tech I use to make my home office functionally equivalent, even superior, to a corporate office.
-dave
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