Every
year, I am given ten work from home days to use as I see fit. However, even though
I have been given the option to do so I have rarely used more than a couple out
of necessity. I have never been a fan of working from home. This has not been a
secret and there are a multitude of reasons for my dislike of this arrangement.
What it really comes down to is the simple fact that I am not as productive at
home as I am at the office. And that is all about the focus that I lack when
there are so many distractions around the house.
However,
in the few weeks that we have been in our new home, that stance is beginning to
waver and, with the office arrangement that I have, I seem to be maintaining my
focus better than I have been in the past. On some days it is even better than
at the office. While I don’t believe it is one specific thing that has helped
me I do know that it is a much more comfortable arrangement.
In the
past, my office has either been upstairs or in the basement far removed from
anything else in the house. Theoretically, this seems like a good arrangement
but in reality it created, over time, an atmosphere that wasn’t conducive to
getting work done. Over time I would use these spaces less and less until they
eventually remained relatively unused and my laptop and work documents overtook
the kitchen table. It proved to be quite the vicious cycle.
The only
time that I had an office on the main floor was in our apartment in Bala
Cynwyd. It actually worked well for a little while but because of the odd hours
I kept, the close proximity to the bedroom which prevented me from typing too
loud, and the maintenance issues that proceeded to drip all over the carpet,
this too was a short lived arrangement. Of course, it also didn’t help that my
wife and I shared the office space and we have completely different ways of
working.
Now
we have separate spaces on the main floor of the house. While there is still
some work that needs to be done so that I can use the space on a more regular
basis (i.e. doors put in so the sound doesn’t travel up the stairs at night and
wake up our son), it is already proving to be an excellent place to get things
done. I think I have completed more projects in this office over the past month
than I did sitting in the basement in our last rental. So, now working from
home might not be so bad which is a good thing because the roads might not be
as friendly in our current location.
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