วันจันทร์ที่ 9 กุมภาพันธ์ พ.ศ. 2552

Designing Your Home Office For Success

By R. Landis

In order to ensure the maximum in personal productivity you must carefully plan and design your home office workspace. Do your best not give in to the temptation of making a corner in your bedroom or living room into your office space. The ideal setup involves a separate room with a door to keep family out and business activities in. If you have no other choice, you will need to find a way to convert the room with a partition or either do the bulk of your work while everyone else is away from home.

Your office space should include a comfortable and spacious workstation, a dedicated telephone line, your computer, printer and any other type of technology that your require. You will also need a place to keep all your files and other paperwork as well as any relevant books and magazines.

You also want to feel good while you are working. Therefore, if you have some reminders of things you enjoy in life, such as a photo of your family, put it up on one of the shelves. Remember: one of the best things about working at home is that you can keep the other areas of your life nearby so that you never lose focus on why you are doing all of this hard work... for a better life for yourself and your family.

Some people will tell you to eliminate any clutter and have a clean desk. However, if you need to keep some papers out and around to be most efficient, then do so. There is no one-size-fits-all manner in which to work and the benefit of a home business is that as long as you are efficient. The end result should be business success; if that means working in a rebuilt walk-in closet, so be it. Set up your workspace in a manner that allows you to be most efficient.

Ensure that your office and workspace are ergonomically designed for maximum productivity. Ergonomic experts agree that a good design can increase productivity by as much as 20 percent. Invest in books that explain ergonomics, such as chair size, sitting position, lighting, body position and placement of monitor and keyboard. Proper ergonomic office design and layout will create a productive work environment.

Having the systems in place so you can take care of things and manage your business is the key to staying organized, not which filing system you choose to use. For this reason, you want to establish your routine in order to accomplish as much as possible on any given workday. It is the little things, such as making a to-do list at the end of your business day that increases your efficiency. You can complete your scheduled jobs by making an individual work calendar. It is also essential that you include your personal and family activities in your work calendar.

Carefully planning out-of-office client meetings in blocks, such as an entire morning, afternoon or day, may reduce the travel time if the clients are in one area. However, taking a large block of time to drive all over the place may leave you unavailable to other customers for too long. Therefore, you might schedule two short trips out of the office to two specific areas in which to meet clients.

Your to-do list should include both low-priority and high-priority items. Do not forget to invest some time in returning telephone calls and answering emails. You will also need to become familiar with the schedules of vendors or other individuals with whom you interact with regularly. Make a note if your vendor is only available in the mornings. You may also learn how to integrate your schedule with others when it is necessary while allowing for the differences in time zones.

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