Steering Committee member Amy Smith Bell moderated a discussion with local editors Virginia Smith and Audrey Van Buskirk about how to deal with distractions while working at home.

Virginia Smyth is managing editor of ParentMap, a new Seattle-area magazine for parents. Prior to joining ParentMap, she was director of publications for the Washington State Dental Association. She worked as a reporter, writer, and editor for more than 20 years at Seattle’s Child, the Eastside Journal American, and the Mercer Island Reporter, including several years working exclusively from a home office. She has two children, ages 13 and 18.

Audrey Van Buskirk has been an editor at Willamette Week, the Santa Fe Reporter, and Seattle Weekly. Since last fall, she's been a freelance writer and editor for a variety of publications, including Ladies' Home Journal, Complex, ParentMap, and Seattle magazine. She is a single mother; her son, Luke, is 3 years old.

Schedules

Audrey commented on how it’s a common misconception that it’s easier to work at home than in an office. She found that she was “vastly” more distracted and busy by working at home part-time than by working full-time in an office.

Being lonely is often a big part of working at home, so people become easy distractions.

To help stay focused, Audrey makes a plan for the entire week every Sunday night. It’s a day-by-day plan, with estimates for how many hours she will spend on a project per day.

Another challenge of working at home is making sure you don’t do more than you planned to or should do. This is another advantage to scheduling your workload from week to week, as opposed to months ahead of time.

Focusing on more immediate work can help keep you from worrying about and getting anxious about future work.

Set reasonable goals.

Establishing boundaries

Flexibility is a two-edged sword. Working at home can easily feel like you’re working all the time, even if you aren’t.

It’s important to get your family to respect your work hours and work space.  When an “office spouse” is suddenly too busy to do something, it’s easy for him/her to assume that the “at-home spouse” is available to do it.

Being firm with others about your “work time” for the day helps you contain your time and avoid working late into the night unexpectedly.

Having a real workspace helps. If possible, make sure it’s not by the front door or another high-traffic area of the home.

To help signify to others that your space needs to be respected, one member suggested putting a sign up that says “Nap Zone” or “Work Zone.”

Having a separate phone line for your business also helps, so you know when to answer. Many agreed that staying focused on work is so “rare and precious” that you shouldn’t feel guilty about ignoring phone calls.

What to do when friends call? One member suggested that saying “When can I call you back?” is more effective than saying “I can’t talk—I’ve got a deadline.”

What to do when telemarketers call? Ask them to remove you from their list, or let them know that they’ve called a business.

Caller ID works well for screening phone calls.

When it comes to e-mail, some people find that having a separate e-mail account for work helps keep personal and other kinds of e-mails from being a distraction.

To avoid “getting sucked into e-mail,” Audrey checks her e-mail only three times a day (morning, afternoon and night).

Getting support

It can be “scary” when you realize you’re the one who has to solve all your problems.

Consider having a good “freelance buddy” for moral support and advice, especially when you’re dealing with material that’s very personal to the author.

Remember that your editor can help you. Don’t be afraid to call your editor if there’s a problem.

One member gets together with a mixed group of professional friends to bounce ideas around and get a fresh perspective on work.

Another member takes classes for various software tools at a community college, to build her skills and confidence in software troubleshooting. 

Don’t forget about your software’s online help feature, although it can be tricky at times to know what to look for.

E-mail discussion lists, such as those hosted by the Editors Guild and Seattle Writergrrls, can often provide quick, helpful answers.

Phone vs. e-mail

Virginia observed that there’s an enormous difference between working at home in the early 1990s and working at home now, in terms of how e-mail plays a role in work.

It’s a good idea to first decide whether a phone call would be better than an e-mail (or vice-versa). Sometimes, e-mailing back and forth can be a waste of precious time.

It can be easy to be misunderstood via e-mail, but it can be a great way to confirm an oral agreement or follow up on a voice mail.

Phone calls can be a great way to ask important questions and clarify issues, but they may not be enough to confirm important details.

One member finds herself picking up the phone immediately if there’s a chance that an e-mail made a wrong impression.

Brie finds that she is constantly training people she works with to use e-mail because of the technical nature of what needs to be communicated.

Another member found that working with people who refuse to make phone calls caused a lot of misunderstandings.

Amy generally e-mails people who are on the East Coast and phones those who are local.

How obsessive are editors with the quality of their e-mails? “Very obsessive.” “It would never hurt [to be obsessive].” “I always proofread my e-mails.” “I take my cues from the client.”

Taking breaks

Consider taking regular “water cooler” breaks, to break out of the isolation of working at home. Call a friend or go to the neighborhood coffeehouse. One member kind of joked: The people at Starbucks feel like “kind of co-workers.”

Processing is a big part of what we do, so time away from the computer or office can still be productive. “Productive breaks” can be as simple as putting away the laundry, walking the dog, or running a quick errand. 

Running errands is a great excuse to get out, but it’s different if you have to drive to get those errands done. Some members find that walking is an important part of the break from the home office.

Breaks can also be a good time to recognize and reward yourself for accomplishing something.

Other things that members do for a break: practice a yoga pose, go to the gym, take a nap, get ice cream.

Studies show that 3–4 pm is a common downtime, so that may be a good time to schedule a break.

One member agrees it’s important to take a break, even “when you’re hard on a deadline.”

Staying organized

Recognize your primary work area and how you use it.

Some members regularly purge or archive papers, keeping a main work area relatively clutter-free. Amy’s rule is to keep only “working projects” on her desk.

One member uses a Web-based e-mail account for work, so she has the flexibility to access her work e-mail from anywhere. She also sends e-mails to herself to have access to important information from anywhere.

Using the filtering feature of an e-mail program is another way members separate personal e-mails from work ones.

Well before a deadline, one member makes sure she has enough supplies on hand—such as printer ink and paper. That way, there’s no eleventh-hour emergency trip to Kinko’s.

Some members make sure to have a back up of all their work, in print and/or digital format.

One member shared that the “ceremony” of archiving your work can be a big relief.

When designing your office, balance function with design, or make function a definite priority. Several members shared that it was important that their office space was personalized and felt like home, while others preferred a more spare work environment.

—Heidi Wrightsman, notetaker

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