Day 2

Subject: Where is the most important place in your home, [firstname]?

Hi [firstname],

When it comes to working from home, the most important place in the house (or apartment) is your home office. Ideally, this should be somewhere you can use for just work – like a spare bedroom or outbuilding.  At a pinch, your bedroom can also be used as an office, but you should avoid areas used by other people in your household like the kitchen.  Even if you live alone, don't turn your living room into an office because, subconsciously, you associate this space with relaxing and this can make it hard to avoid distractions during working hours.

Make a note of the necessary equipment you're going to need.  Obviously, you're going to need a computer.  It's best to get a desktop computer rather than a laptop as it will have a bigger monitor and if the keyboard breaks you can simply get another one and plug it in instead of having to send the whole thing away for repairs.

You'll need a desk to work at and a nice, comfy chair to sit on.  If you decide to use a standing desk, make sure you can raise your monitor to a sufficient height so you're not having to stoop over to look at it.

It's also very important to get a separate phone line.  When clients know you use your home line for work, some will have no qualms about phoning you at ten o'clock at night to discuss a project.  You can get the phone company to install a separate landline, get a separate cellphone for business calls, or use a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) like Skype.  In fact, using Skype-In is a perfect solution because your clients can dial a landline number and have the call routed over the Internet to your computer or cellphone.  Regardless of how you do it, be sure to divert all calls to voicemail when you're out of hours.  I'll talk more about that tomorrow.

Warmly,

[Your Name]

PS. I go into more detail in my working from home productivity manual.  Find out more here [link to sales page].
