Ragan.com by remote: 5 days, 5 lessons from a veteran telecommuter

I worked for Ragan from home for about 10 years, so this telecommuting “experiment” felt more like “Old Home Week” than “Work at Home Week.”

My wife loved having me around to do her bidding, but didn’t actually interfere very much—she’s used to the routine.

The most pleasant surprise was how much I could get done when “working at home” wasn’t a euphemism for “trying to get stuff done around an appointment with the doctor/dentist/psychic.” A full day really working at home turned out to be pretty productive, even with the distractions and occasional interruptions.

On a day-to-day basis, here’s what I encountered:

Monday. Set the alarm for 6:45 a.m., the time I usually get up to go to the office. I was fully prepared to get a head start on the day. Instead I hit the snooze button and slept until 8:20. But I was working by 9 a.m. OK, 9:15. Maybe 9:20. Worked on compiling Leading for Results (LFR), one of our eight-page, monthly management newsletters. My computer runs a little faster at home than at work. In the office it tends to slow down—I blame it on the network, but I really don’t know what the problem is.