A friend of mine is a psychologist who specializes in child and family treatment. I ran into her last month and before I could get out the standard niceties, she was bombarding me with questions.

"How do you do it?" she asked. "How do you work from home? More importantly, how do you work from home with your husband without getting on each other's nerves?"

Since she and her husband don't telecommute, my assumption was that she must have a client who has just started working from home and is having difficulties. I told her that I would forward a list to her that I started about a year ago on this very subject. After I sent her the list, I realized that some readers also might benefit from seeing it. So, if you're considering working from home, here are some tips for making it an easier task. A few of these items are specific to working next to your partner at home, but most of them apply to anyone who is telecommuting.

Must Have/Do:

1. Designated workspace with a door.
You need to be able to shut the door on your work, literally and figuratively. There are times when you just need to put physical and mental space between you and your work. Also, there are times when the creative process takes control and your desk becomes a mess of outlandish proportions. Most importantly, though, you need to find a way to feel that you’re not always at work when you're at home and a door is a good starting point.

2. Separate workspace from your partner.
I’m not advocating that you need two rooms in your house set aside for offices (our desks share the same room), but each person needs a defined "my" space. This means that you need two desks, two computers, and two phones. Experience shows that the minute you need to make a phone call is the minute one of his clients calls with an emergency.

3. Knowledge of your UPS/FedEx/Mail carrier’s first name.
Delivery people are not accustomed to your being home during the day. Make friends with these people so that they will actually ring the doorbell and wait for you to answer the door when they have deliveries.

4. A cleaning service.
Feel like procrastinating from your work? It’s amazing what you’ll clean when you don’t want to write a report. Additionally, it keeps you from being upset about working somewhere that isn’t clean. An office building has a cleaning staff, you need to afford yourself the same luxury. I’m serious about this one, even if it’s just twice a month.

5. Earphones.
Ultimately, there will come a time when you’re in "the zone" and your spouse decides to play music, talk loudly on the phone, or feels compelled to tell you about something funny one of his clients just e-mailed to him. Music playing through the earphones allows you to tune out his conversation or bad music selection. Additionally, if he wants to be chatty and distract you from work, he most often chooses not to do so if you’re wearing earphones — even if you’re not actually listening to music.

6. A dedicated work phone line with a Do Not Disturb button.
Often, clients assume that because you work from home that it's okay to call you at all hours of the night and on the weekends. If you worked in an office building, they would never have the expectation that you would answer your phone at 2:00 a.m. Just because your office is in your home doesn't mean that your home is in your office. When your work day is finished, press the Do Not Disturb button on your work phone and let it ring straight to voice mail.

7. Your desk and television in separate rooms.
You won't be tempted to watch television when you should be working if work and the television are in different rooms.

Good to Have/Do:

1. Single brew coffee maker.
My husband likes dark coffees and I despise the foul nastiness, preferring milder blends. Instead of brewing two pots, we simply brew our own cups. I highly recommend the Nespresso C190. Plus, you order your coffee over the internet and the nice UPS delivery person you’ve befriended delivers them right to your door. Yes, the machine is expensive. However, it’s much cheaper than going to the local coffee shop everyday. We learned that the hard way.

2. Get ready at least a little bit every morning for work.
It’s fun to work in pajamas, but it’s not fun to work next to someone who hasn’t showered in three days. Brush your teeth, it’s good for your teeth and your relationship with your family.

3. Leave the house once a day.
You need to get out into the big blue room at least once a day, if not more.

4. Agree when work will be done for the day.
I usually finish working around 6:00 and my husband typically finishes around 6:30. I will answer e-mails, start a load of laundry, or just play busy quietly until 6:30. Flipping on the tv or doing something to rub in the fact that you're done isn't fair to the other person. The same applies to family members coming home before your work day is complete. They need to know that you're in the office until a set time and respect that boundary.

5. Have breakfast and/or lunch together.
Take turns making meals and spend time together. One of the benefits of working at home together is being able to spend quality time with each other.

Do you telecommute? What must have/do or good to have/do items would you add to this list? I'm interested in hearing your advice.

A good friend of mine currently has a job she hates. The hours are awful, the topic of the work is mind numbing, and a few choice employees are toxic and insist that every situation is an emergency. On the upside, though, the job pays extremely well and is less than a 15 minute commute from her home. Additionally, she knows that she is lucky to have a job at a time when a lot of people can't find work in her industry. She's been at the job for five months, and she's decided that for financial and professional reasons she will wait until January 2009 to start looking for a new gig.

Surprisingly, even though my friend has a job she can't stand, she is one of the happiest people I know.

How does she do it?

1. She doesn't let her job define her. She thinks about her job the way a teenager might think about his after-school stocking job at the grocery store.
2. She has a rich, active life outside the office. When she isn't at work, she fills every minute doing things she loves. She doesn't sit at home on her couch thinking about how awful her job is.
3. She views the position as a temporary state. She attends networking events and keeps the channels open so that when she goes back on the market, the transition will hopefully be a simple one into a new job.
4. She throws herself into her work when she is at work so that she never has to take anything home. In short, she does her work every minute she's at work, even though she dislikes it.
5. She organizes her day by doing the tasks she loathes the most first thing in the morning.
6. She tries to be a psychic and prepare for every possible, wacky situation her colleagues might put her into next. Even if she isn't successful at predicting their ridiculous demands, at least she is prepared for things not to go the way she would have done them.
7. When she's at work, she acts as if she loves her job. It's the ol' "fake it, until you make it" mentality.

My advice to her months ago was to quit the job. I've always been of the opinion that life is too short to have a job you hate. I have come to understand her reasons for keeping the job, and am even more impressed by how she is handling the situation. So, if you find yourself in a job you can't stand and leaving it isn't an option, try following her lead. Your home life will be more enjoyable for it.

Does your office look like a cave filled with stalagmites? If you find yourself surrounded by paper stacks of doom, here are some suggestions for unearthing your office:

1. Start by identifying why you have so many piles of paper. Are you someone who has to see what you're working on to keep it at the front of your mind? If this is you, then find an alternative object to make this association—stick a bandage on your bulletin board representing your Johnson and Johnson account or change your desktop image to include your client's logo. Maybe you don't have a filing cabinet large enough to hold the papers you need? Only you know why you have so many piles, and identifying their cause will help you find a solution.

2. Block off a Saturday morning(s) to come into your office when no one is around and dedicate yourself to solving the problem. Taking care of the stacks is a good use of your time, but doing it while everyone else is in the office will just hamper your productivity. Trust me, they'll notice and want to stop by to see what you're doing.

3. Invest in a bulk document scanner. Use it in your office, and then take it home to tackle your papers there. My favorite, above and beyond all the others, is the Fujitsu ScanSnap (they have PC and Mac models).

4. Know your filing style. I file based on the system David Allen outlines in his book Getting Things Done, which is a single, alphabetically organized filing system. Others file by client code numbers used in their billing systems. Whatever system you end up choosing needs to be one that makes sense to you, allows you to quickly retrieve documents, and focuses on topics related to your job. You should have a solid understanding of the system you want to use before you begin sorting through your papers.

5. Ask yourself the following question about every paper in your office: Do I need to keep this paper in its physical form? If your answer is:
a) No. Then shred it or recycle it.
b) No, but I need a digital copy of it. Then scan it, file the scan appropriately on your computer, and shred or recycle the physical copy.
c) Yes. Then file the paper in your filing cabinet.
d) Oh no! I have to take care of this right now or I will be fired. Then, by all means, save your job.

6. For papers that move on and off of your desk on a regular basis like invoices or circulated memos, consider labeling a binder clip for this purpose and hanging it from a bulletin board. If you don't have a lablemaker, silver sharpies write well on black binder clips. See this post on Unclutterer for more information.

7. Stockholm Project Cases, which are available online through the Container Store, are perfect for current projects. You can put all of your files, research, and notepads for a single project in one box that can be closed up at the end of the work day. They also look nice if you're walking into a meeting with a client.

8. Be sure to utilize services like del.icio.us when you're doing research or looking for inspiration online. If you tag a file through del.icio.us, you don't have to print anything because you'll be able to easily retrieve the webpage again. The less you print, the less you have to file.

Good luck on your paper project, and enjoy the benefits of your organized space!

Don't know where to start with organizing your desk? Try tackling one or more of these desk organization activities right now:

1. Test all of the pens and sharpen all of the pencils in your desk drawer. If a pen is out of ink or if a pencil is too short to sharpen, get rid of it. Pens and pencils you can't use are clutter.
2. Remove any outdated memos, fliers, or post-it notes from bulletin boards and flat surfaces. Cards you received for Christmas/Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day/etc. also qualify. If the item doesn't need to be filed, shred it or toss it into the recycling bin.
3. File a handful of papers. You don't need to file an entire stack if it would take you multiple hours, but you can peel off a chunk and tackle that chunk. A little at a time is sure to help.
4. Schedule on your calendar the last 10 minutes of your work day to clear your desk, return cups to the kitchen, and get everything set for tomorrow. Want to learn more about this preparation technique? Check out this post on Unclutterer.com for more information.
5. Archive and/or delete old e-mails and voicemails that are cluttering up your inboxes. Try to have only the messages relevant to the projects you're working on now in sight.