Archive for September, 2008

How Laptops Changed a Home Officer’s Life

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

OK, it’s a sad admission. But in our connected home, having an equally connected — and portable — home office makes for a productive and organized entrepreneur, and family.
If I want to work while watching TV in the evening, I just power up the HP tablet PC, hoist it on my lap, and multitask — [...]

Silly Home Office Emails Beg My Response - and Thwart My Productivity…

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

I’m sitting in my home office, trying to get some work done, when this email comes across. I should be organizing my office, looking for ways to increase my productivity or boost efficiency.
Instead, I’m reading emails — and getting rather frustrated with my Fellow Americans. One email in particular offers a “solution” to our current [...]

Improving (or Improvising) Home Office Schedules & Organization

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Why do my home office Sunday’s always resemble a week day? What, do I work in Israel, where the workweek begins on Sunday, and ends Friday afternoon?
No, but staying organized in my home office sometimes means balancing family and work — and that can mean my weekdays get cut short. Monday, I’ll leave at 5p [...]

A New Outlook on Home Office Organization…

Friday, September 19th, 2008

When it comes to Outlook and organization, I’ve been a fan (well, a subordinate user) for the better part of five years. But when a virus recently killed my system (thankfully all the data was backed up safely), I started toying with new ways to organize my life and work.
I found myself using Gmail, Google’s [...]

It’s Saturday Night in the Home Office…

Saturday, September 13th, 2008

… and I’m watching three football games via satellite on our plasma-screen TV, surfing the Web on my laptop — and wife, Robbie, is at my side, watching and surfing on a laptop of her own.
Only in America? Maybe. And quite possibly only in Coral Springs, Florida?
We recently “upgraded” our home viewing situation with a [...]

Goin’ (even more) Digital in the Home Office

Friday, September 12th, 2008

Know those TV commercials about the baby, or Mr. Change, who buy their stocks online.
I kind of felt that way tonight (or this morning, actually. It was 3am when I encountered the emotion). What so moved me? I paid my monthly federal payroll deposits using the government’s EFTPS (or Electronic Federal Tax Payment System). Sure, [...]

Laundry, the Yard & Errands in the Home Office

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Home Office organization is an ongoing to-do list of events. It’s not enough to have the right office furniture, tools and devices to make a home for your stuff. You have to put your stuff there.
Today.
Tomorrow.
Next week and next year. The mail arrives. It must be ditched or filed. Email arrives. Ditto. Office organization is [...]

Dodging a Runaway Train in the Sub-Tropical Home Office

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Hurricane Gustav. A near-miss. Tropical Storm Hanna. A nuisance. Ike. A freight train that seemingly is taking the southwestern line, and sparing those along the northbound tracks.
Life in the home office during hurricane season is part adrenalin rush, part roller-coaster, and part sheer fear.
It’s not enough that home officers have a family to worry about. [...]