By Guest Author Maria Marsala

Related Resources • Home Office Resources • Life Balance Resources

From Other Guides • Staying on Schedule Working at Home (Small Business Canada) • Making Your Home Office Work (Telecommuting) • 10 Steps to Help Reduce Clutter in Your House (ADD/ADHD)

Elsewhere on the Web • Home Office Management for Parents: 7 Tips for Managing Your Time • Home Office Survival • How Do You Separate the Home from the Office? • Juggling a Home Office & Kids • The Big Hole in Your Day

Recommended Reading • The Home Office Solution : How to Work at Home and Have a Personal Life Too • Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity • Time Management from the Inside Out

Whether you work from your home's living room, a closet-turned-office, or an office in an apartment, you can minimize interruptions. How? Below are some boundaries to set with others. Don't forget to raise your standards, too!

• Keep your office and house as separate as possible. Create an office that you really enjoy walking into and that has everything you want in one area. Organization books call it a "zone" - an area of the house having one purpose.
• Schedule your work hours and publicize the schedule on your web site or in your newsletter. Stick to your schedule no matter what!
• Do not answer the door when you're on the phone (unless you know someone is coming to the office, of course).
• Hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your office door and set boundaries with family and friends.
• Outside your front door place a special small box (or personal mailbox) for people to leave you messages. Or leave a notepad and pencil on or near your door.
• If you have only one phone consider screening your calls using your answering machine. A management class I attended at the American Management Association, NYC, suggested that phone messages be taken and calls returned at your convenience. As a home business owner, you can do the same thing by using your answering machine to screen your calls.
• These online programs or hardware devices will help you decide whether to pick up your phone and call someone who is trying to get to you while you're on the computer. Costs vary depending on the services you're looking for plus your local phone company will charge you for extra services such as call forwarding and/or caller ID (all of the products listed below require at least one of those extra services). Also consider that many online companies will reduce your fees if you pay for one year's worth of services at once. Most services offer a free 30 day trial. AOL, Mac and Linx users check the system requirements before purchasing. Visit these sites for more information.
  • Callwave - Their free service includes revolving ads.
  • Pagoo - No ads, $4.95/month. Lots of features at this price.
  • Internet Call Manager - Full service package for $5.95.
  • BuzMe - Low-end product does not allow you to take a call while on the computer. Yearly package mid-range at $5.55/month is a value.
  • Spirit One - Free low-feature service.
  • Internet Caller ID - One-time hardware costs $46-109 depending on the system you choose. You purchase call waiting for the lower priced system and Caller ID on Call Waiting, or Call Waiting ID for the higher priced system. Works for AOL users.
  • Catch-a-Call - One time hardware costs $49-89 depending on the system you choose. You must have call waiting on your phone system. Does not let you know WHO is calling, just that you have a call which maybe all you require. Allows you to receive quick faxes, too.
• Purchase a second phone or cell phone for work. Or consider adding a custom ring number to your phone line. This will give you two numbers for about $5 more a month. The new number will ring differently than the main number - usually two short rings compared with one long one - so you can tell when a call is business or personal. Let your personal calls wait until after your scheduled work hours!
• Bring water or something to drink into your office when you start work, and maybe a small snack as well. If you enjoy tea or coffee, make sure you have it close by.
• Do not allow others to walk on your business boundaries. Learn to say no without feeling guilty or giving long-winded explanations. Ask someone who is calling about business to call you back on a day you work if they call you on a leisure day.

Follow these simple steps and watch your productivity soar!