Those of you that work from home, at least some of the time, how do you make sure you stay focused?

Huckleberry wrote:

Klayfish wrote: Not sure I'd want to work full time from home again, it's pretty isolating...I felt like a contractor rather than part of a company.

I have been working from home every day (except for lots of travel to clients) for the past few years. I really don't like it - but, I also could never stand to be in a fluorescent lit cube farm with all the politics and personalities and bullE36 M3 either. So, I consider it the lesser of two evils in my given profession. When I go to clients I see them in their bleak little habitats slightly decorated within the confines of corporate rule, whispering into old tethered phones so as not to be overheard, scribbling on dry erase boards in red because all the other pens disappeared or dried up, see the little instructions taped on the company fridge reminding people to clean up after themselves and not dump coffee grounds in the sink... fighting over a conference room to host whatever meeting I'm there for. Every one in a different city, all the same. It reminds me I can never, ever go back to that.

There are pros and cons to both sides for sure, but I don't quite see the office environment the way you outlined it. Are there rules around what I can decorate my cubical with? Sure...I don't think HR would like my decorating it with Penthouse calendars. Are there signs on our fridges reminding people to clean up? Yep. And no, I don't particularly enjoy those aspects of things that you mention. Those are the cons. But working in an office environment allows you to be much more "plugged in" to what is going on with the business. Face to face meetings allow much better flow of ideas and better overall interaction. There's something to be said for a corporate culture, which is very, very hard to foster when you work in your home office all alone.

Truthfully, I'd be very happy with a mix of 3 days in the office and 2 days at home. Kind of the best of both worlds.

I worked from home for three years. The main thing you need is work to do. Sounds obvious, but when I was on deadline and working on something that I was really into, I got a lot done. When I was slow and doing busy work, I spent my days on the interwebz or walking the dog or whatever.

I recommend scheduling trips to the internet, it can suck you in for hours. I would check e-mails, boards and such once in the AM and once in the PM for no more than 20 minutes. Anything that interested me would get clipped or bookmarked for after 5pm. I usually never went back to it, proving that I was just trying to avoid work.

I would also take advantage of the fact that I was home by going right to work in my pajamas an hour earlier than I would if I was going to an office, but then taking the dog for a walk in the afternoon and get my daughter from the bus stop. I would often knock off at 4 to make dinner, then work 8-9pm after the kid was in bed. I always put in my 8 hours, but why work 9-5 from home? Get some benefit from it.

Gotta be honest. Working from home today. It's the day before the Christmas holiday...many of the businesses that we served are already closed, half of the staff is on vacation. My wife and kids are home on Christmas break. I intentionally scheduled my workload for today to be lighter than normal (busted butt Mon-Thur at the office to get things done). Not finding it easy to concentrate on working today...

Kinda reminds me of way "back in the day" when I started in the auto insurance business. I was a field adjuster. A few days a week was in the office doing office work, a few days a week were in the field inspecting cars at body shops or peoples' houses. During the summer, my boss would always say...with a wink "If it's Friday and you're either in the office after 2pm or still on the road looking at cars at 2pm, you're doing your job wrong".