Working from home as a graphic designer or copywriter can be a great way to find balance between your work and personal life. While there are no commutes, cubicles or pesky co-workers to deal with, the self-employed do face a unique set of challenges. For example, it's hard to be productive while wearing pajamas, with constant interruptions from your personal and family life, and the need to run to Kinko's to print out materials.
Setting up a successful work space and routine can improve productivity at home. For inspiring ideas to improve your work-from-home space and mindset, check out these online resources: Apartment Therapy Searching for "home office" on apartmenttherapy.com will produce an archive of posts tagged with "home office." Apartment Therapy focuses on apartment living and maximizing the potential of small spaces. The posts about home offices include inspiring photographs and stories about how real people have transformed their spaces. You will find a lot of great product suggestions, quick-fixes and do-it-yourself ideas on this site. Zen Habits for Simple Productivity There are two great posts on zenhabits.net about how to stay focused and productive while working at home. The first is called, "Ask the Readers: Best Tips for Working From Home", and features more than 200 comments from readers sharing their experiences and tips about working at home. The second post, "Top 30 Tips for Staying Productive and Sane While Working From Home", lists tips for maintaining a healthy routine for your workday at home and also features great reader input in the comments section. Unclutterer Unclutterer.com has a feature called "Workspace of the Week", which includes inspiring images and text about real workspaces. You can find a lot of great ideas, and there's always information about the materials and products in the pictures and how to make them yourself or find them in stores. Also check out a guest post on Unclutterer.com by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, in which he shares tips for "Creating a Minimalist Workspace". Do IT Yourself.com doityourself.com takes a really thorough approach in its article, "How to Design a Home Office". The article considers all of the high-level factors of working from home, including where in your home you'd like to set up shop, whether you'll be receiving clients or visitors and the legality of running a business out of your home. There are also many detailed and helpful suggestions for storage, lighting, desks, supplies and electronics for a home office.
When I needed a custom solution for my cluttered home office, I went to theshelvingstore.com. They have a unique design service, they will create a custom unit for any room in your home for free, all you have to do is pay for the products! It worked great, and I get so much more work done at home now.
[...] you work from a home office or out of a cubicle or office in a shared commercial space, thoughtful filing, appointment setting [...]