Tips for working at home

In this installment I will look at the benefits of working at home versus working at the office. For those of you that have been lucky to experience both are encouraged to give their feedback.

It is everyone's dream to be able to work their own hours, arrange the work schedule around their lives and not have to go into the office on a daily basis. For the past 4 years I have worked in various fields as a telecommuter. It has had its benefits but it also has a lot of headaches that are included in the package.

Working at the office entails a lot of experiences. You are in a team environment, dedicated solely to getting the job done while seeing that the company succeeds. You have a reason to leave the house and more reason to work your way through the ranks.

The Benefits of the Office

• Variety of people to interact with
• Resources available to you at little to no cost
• You can ask someone in the matter of seconds if you have a question
• Provides just enough change of routine so that you don't entirely hate your home
  

The Downside of the Office

• Constant interuptions - with more people equals more (and sometimes unwanted) communication
• Time away from friends and family - it can take a toll on you socially
• Staying at the office too much could result in increased stress and fatigue
  

Working from Home is breath of fresh air. You can choose the hours you work, complete other tasks while you work, and more.

For myself - working at home entails modulating my work. I can go to class, come home to knock out an hour of work, go back to class and repeat the process throughout the day. Another upside is if I get too frustrated with what I'm doing - I can release the frustration during a 10 min break. The best part about home - those breaks can include PS2!

The upsides of working at home:

• Save on traveling costs
  
• Work from the comfort of a couch, desk, or recliner
• Choose when you finish your work
• Complete work with less distractions
  

The downsides of working at home:

• You have to make sure your resources are up to speed
• You have to be an even greater master of time management
• You must steer clear of distractions at home when you finally decide to work
• Communication between coworkers and employees can become difficult
  

Midway through the week

The new schedule is a breath of fresh air. In a way it reminds me of how young I am and has in other ways awakened my zest again. I really want to get submerged in web development again. Time will only tell how this will all pan out.

Class so far is fairly easy. I wish I knew how much I had it made during my undergrad years. Easy days, easy work - no real responsibility.

Well, I'm now off to kill a pile of work which includes:

• Development of a web report/database interaction
• RU School of Communication Web Site
• Covers for a few guides for RU Athletics
• Mailing list program for RU Athletics
• and more!
  

Setting up the home office

Radford University resumes its fall schedule on August 20th (this upcoming Monday). With that coming around the corner, it means that I will be adjusting my work schedule, with part of my hours coming at home.

To assure that I have a comfortable working environment, I went out and purchased a few essential items (desk, comfy chair, office supplies, etc.). I hope it works out well, because at home I can finish more of my work with less distractions. Granted, it may put a snag into my IT job, but I can always run to the office if something major happens right?

I will be in class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I will be reporting to the office on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and maybe some Sundays and other various times depending on the workload/time of month, etc.

Wish me luck, it's gonna sure be a test of my time management skills.

Abundance of projects

I don't know how I let so many projects sneak up on me. Currently I have been working/have worked on:

• New Alpha Kappa Psi: Omicron Sigma CMS driven site
• Results - Galax/XM advertisement web site
• 3 web reports for ResultsTel Inc
• Covers for RU Athletic Media Guides
• New Phi Beta Lambda CMS Web Site
• Launch of HMediaWeb.com

Each project has their own flavor, ranging from graphic design to dynamic programming and even into static placement. I will post links to all of these in the upcoming weeks.