BY KARIN ROZELL
My first office was in my bedroom. I used
a Japanese Shoji screen to separate my personal
life from my emerging business life. (It
didn’t work so well. And it didn’t help that this
bedroom belonged to my parents).
My second office was in my apartment
kitchen. That worked fine as long as I didn’t
have a relationship with another human being
(that might want to eat or drink at some
point).
These days I have two: one in my home that
has served as the foundation to my 15-year
consulting practice. And one near my son’s
school that saves my husband and I a trip
each day, which we take turns working from.
Over the years, I’ve realized that home office
life is its own beast. How do you separate
the personal and business? How do you deal
with distractions? And how do organize it all?
Here are some rules to live by that will help
make your solopreneur office feel peaceful,
productive and set up for profit in your small
business.
• Never say “I have a home office.”
Always say, “I have an office in my home.”
The latter sounds like something a pro would
say. The former sounds like you’re a working
in a dingy basement. Which you could be, but
let’s not flaunt that.
• You need at least one door between you
and the rest of the household.
This door needs a lock, or they will find you.
Kids, cats, the lawn mower guy with a bill who
thinks you’re just hanging out, the cleaning lady, the mail carrier, your spouse who wants
to connect, your childcare.
Oh yes, they will find a way to get into your
space and lure you away from your focus.
They’ll innocently walk by and talk to you in
passing. It’s all so cute. Until Friday comes
and you realize your progress was minimal.
You. Need. A. Door.
Having said that, you know where I started
with my office, so don’t let it stop you if you
have to use your bedroom (or some other
multi-use room in your home) as your office during the day. Which leads me to my next
rule.
• You need boundaries around when you
work and when you don’t.
When I first started my coaching practice,
I worked all the time. As a result, my hours
were erratic, I felt always “on” and my relationships
suffered. (I scoffed when two serious
boyfriends in a row complained that I worked
too much. “Come on. Don’t you know I’m working
on the American Dream here”). I naively
assumed that’s how you get any business off
the ground.
This style of working seems to be fine for
people with out obligations beyond the office.
Not so much for the rest of us who desire success
and a love life, energy beyond the office,
kids without an abandonment complex, and
to simply enjoy the journey of creating for a
living.
Of course all solopreneurs know the importance
of healthy work hours, but few do
anything about it. The secret to succeeding
with this lies in your everyday habits, routines
and rituals. Because in business, as in life,
your routines determine your results.
• You need opening and closing the shop
rituals.
Imagine your business as if it were favorite
boutique or shop around the corner. They have
recurring activities that allow them to open
their doors each day and welcome new business
and ones they repeat every evening before
they close for the day. You need these too.
Consider creating a few daily routines and
rituals to bookend your day. This makes all
the difference in your ability to honor when
you work and when you don’t. For example,
at the end of my workday, I block off the last
20 minutes (set a reminder to do this) to tidy
up, put files away that I used, and generally
restore order to my office environment.
I admit, it can be challenging not to work
until “times up,” but this one strategy alone makes me feel so much more together and
ready for what’s next. When I don’t do this,
I tend to experience a rough transition from
worker bee to mommy and wife. However
when I do, I find I’m less stressed, anxious and
all around much more pleasant to be around.
I even go so far as to turn down the heat
in my office as it deters me from going back
to work after hours. I have a desktop in my
office so I can’t carry my work into the living
room; and I use a tablet in my living space
for going online during my off hours, which
create a nice sense of separation between
work and play.
A client, also a mompreneur, has her office
in her Chicago bedroom while her kids are in
school and her husband is at work. She realized
she felt always “on” and it was zapping
her energy and motivation to continue taking
the steps to grow her practice.
She began with a few closing the shop
rituals like draping beautiful cloth fabrics
over her desk at the end of her day, giving
her a visual reminder that work was done.
She then experimented with turning off email
notifications on weekends and cut back her
“work on the biz” evening hours to twice per
week versus every night.
Now she’s back to feeling happy about her
practice, and is experiencing an influx of
focus, energy and ability to see the hidden
opportunities that an over scheduled life
prevents you from seeing.
These four rules are simple yet powerful.
And in my 15 years of coaching solopreneurs,
they are rarely in place before we start coaching.
If you desire a greater sense of peace, productivity
and profit in your practice, without
burning the candle at both ends, try these on
and see if they help you be your best, in and
out of the office. (Your spouse can thank me
later for the new and improved you).
Rozell, of Granville, is an author, mentor
and speaker on the solopreneur life.
Photo Courtesy Karin Rozell