Top 7 Taboos For Working From Home

The lawn, laundry and errands all are fair game. If deadlines are met, distraction is OK.

In the SOHO (small or home office), home officers work "normal" hours. High Low Schoolfeest Jurken My "business suit" is a tank top with shorts, surgical scrubs or flannels, on cold mornings - when I might even don socks. I often go unshaven for days on end. My slacks and Polo Oxford are reserved for those times I actually have to leave the home office. Shaving is done en route with the electric razor.

Kids are kept at bay during the day. Certainly, unless I want to play some hoops, toss someone (maybe even myself) in the pool, or take Riley - our Kerry blue terror and fourth child - on a long walk. Our kids know the deal: If Daddy's on the phone, stay away. If he wants to partake in some shenanigans, you'll know about it soon enough.

Desks are cleared at days end. Let's make one thing clear: People with neat desks scare me. Mine gets cleared when big projects end or the weekend comes. Come Monday, the clutter arises anew. Besides, years ago my father had a sign in his office that put that reality into writing: "Please don't straighten out the mess in my office. You'll confuse me and screw up my whole world." Touch茅.

Rules maintain order in the Cocktailjurken 2013 workplace. As Chief Home Officers, we're free to make, amend or bend mandates as we see fit. We know our deadlines and client expectations. Working from home affords us certain liberties we can't get as clock-punchers in the corporate tower. Many times, I've cranked out significant work before the sun has arisen, and been awakened by a client's mid-afternoon call on the portable phone as I take a siesta in our hammock. I carry my Blackberry on vacations, log on from wifi-enabled hotel rooms while the family is asleep, or make biz calls from family events on weekdays. Work is a thing, not a place, and it goes on irrespective Korte Trouwjurk of location - or rules.

All home officers are alike. The reality is home officing is what we entrepreneurs and teleworkers make of it. Take it or leave it, that's today's reality.