My Home Office: how I work from home

I've really loved being able to work from home since school let out in June. I've been able to focus on writing, which has been wonderful, and I've been able to make my own schedule, which has also been wonderful.

At first I was nervous about having a home office--I was afraid one of two things would happen. Either I would find it too easy to walk away from my office space and I wouldn't get any work done, or I'd find it too easy to stay in the office and every waking moment would be spent working and my personal life would suffer. So far, it's been something in between those extremes. There have been days I've found things that just had to get done before I could sit down and write. And there have been days I've been on such a roll that when I finally stopped to take a break, it was a good three hours later than my scheduled stopping time.

To be honest, I don't think there's anything wrong with how things have been going for me. I'm getting the work done that I need to, and despite my cats' mentality that I'm home to play with them rather than work, I've had overall productive days since June 13th. I was afraid having all day to write would cause more problems than give benefits, but it's been working well for me. I decided early on to have set work hours. I haven't always stuck to those hours the way I did when I was in my first job out of college, but having them has given me the ability to mentally separate my home life from my work-at-home life. Those hours help me think of this more as a career and less a hobby.

I've also been working to improve the efficiency of my work space. I have a printer on my desk for small printing jobs (the big printer is across the room on Hubby's desk). The shelves next to my desk have some of my reference books on them, and the set of drawers next to the shelves keep various office supplies at hand. Time I save by having everything close by is time I'm spending writing.

This freelance gig has given me a glimpse into what my life is going to be like as a freelance writer, and while I may change a few things next time, I think it's going to be a good career.