Being one of the lucky people in the world that gets to work from a home office, and in recognition of International ‘Work in Your Bathrobe Day’ (which celebrates work at home professionals) I thought I’d post a couple of tips that help me to improve my efficiency. I would love to hear what works for other ‘30-second commuters’!

First of all, having two children under the age of three means that I simply can’t be tied to a desktop computer every day. I purchased a notebook computer when I started my business and it has served me well. Where my office is ’stationed’ isn’t necessarily where I get to steal some time to work, so having my computer portable is a must. I can take my work to wherever the children are playing.

It’s time for an upgrade, actually, and I’m thinking of going with a MAC next time…anyway…that’s neither here nor there!

My filing cabinet is nowhere that little fingers can reach it. It’s better that way. But I found it very inconvenient to have files stacking up on my desk and having to go to a different room when I needed something quickly.

I purchased a cheap black plastic file box that I can carry around with me. It has tons of letter-size hanging files and I have one set up for each of my clients, my own business and personal items. It makes it much easier to reach down into this tote for the files I need, rather than making a trip to another part of the house.

I’ve recently read about a new product in the February issue of ‘Entrepreneur’ magazine. It’s called CloudPrint, and it’s an HP product, in beta. CloudPrint downloads and installs a virtual printer driver to your computer. Then you can print from your word processing program or email it to CloudPrint to retrieve later. Sounds like a bit of a fancy PDF converter to me, but they have more sophisticated plans for CloudPrint in the future. Might be worth checking out.

I truly love being able to work from home. As I sit here in comfortable, casual clothes (no bathrobe even though it’s the holiday for it - I’d never get anything done!) watching the snow accumulate outside my living room window, watching my daughter play and listening to Etta James, it’s hard to imagine working a traditional 9-5 job again. If it weren’t for this huge pile of work staring at me and my 30 item to do list for today…this is almost relaxing

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