Here are the notes I took duing our open space discussion on designing work/learning spaces in your home.
- when working at home have to constantly battle self interruptions - trips to the fridge, surfing media, ...
- it can be hard to concentrate at home. Don't fight it, try moving around to different locations in the home
- find a local cafe that has Internet and do occaisional field trips to work there
- some have an emergency took kit for online visibility to make yourself quickly presentable if you get an unexpected Skype call
- drink lots of water and pee often
- have natural light, consider glass doors
- setup with outdoor sight lines that show people walking by and other signs of life
- make sure your work/learning space is aesthetically beautiful. You have to want to go there.
- get lockable drawers (for those with young children and/or to protect work related data and other materials that require security or privacy)
- focus on ensuring ergonomics are great. Consider a standup desk arrangement not just sitting down all the time
- have a separate office, separate work from the rest of the home
- buy whiteboard paint (or blackboard paint) and paint one of your walls as a whiteboard
- do jumping jacks while waiting for printing or other processing intensive computer work
- set timer for breaks - some people are using apps such as Timey Interval Timer and TimeOut
- you are your own IT dept so remember to do backups
- get an all-in-one printer, copier, scanner (camscanner app also works as a copier/scanner)
- organize meetings outside the home and maintain your networks
- share your work schedule with housemates so activities can be coordinated to minimally impact others
- get something like Magic Jack for business phone use
- get a good wireless bluetooth headset with directional microphone. Blue Snowball recommended as a USB mic
- use Dropbox
- laptops can cause stiff neck. Try hooking laptop to a larger separate monitor or event to big screen TV
- move around a lot
- have ambient music but also have fast on/off within arms reach. Control your home audio system with AirTunes
- schedule working out and showers - get fit, do workouts outside the home. Exercise first thing in the morning.
- Go for walks - get a dog (or a kid). If you're stuck or can't think something through - go for a walk.
- Have healthy snacks at hand and eat every 3 hours or so
- Have rituals - regular tea time, end day with some song, ...
- Flow work/home together - do house chores - laundry is good, baking something in an oven not good as it requires monitoring time, get a whistling kettle, ...
- Make sure your phone has a soothing ring tone - consider using headset with white noise
- Consider using Kanban as method for managing your projects - try Kanbanpad project management tool or Pivotal Tracker
Thanks everyone for such great suggestions. I'll get to apply them to my own context soon.
Paul