Year: 2013

For the past five years, I have worked in a traditional office. A few weeks ago, I moved a thousand miles across the country and became a telecommuter. Several months before the move, I started gathering material to try to help me prepare for the new work situation. Here are a few I found useful.

• Home Work is an excellent podcast examines the ins and outs of telecommuting and freelancing. I’m not a freelancer, so I cherry picked the episodes that seemed most relevant to me. If you’re currently an office worker but think you might like to try working from home, check out Episode 27 – Telecommuting Basics and Episode 55 – Telecommuting.
• The Beginner’s Guide to Working from Home is a recent article that has several good tips for a new home worker.
• Working From Home covers many of the pitfalls and challenges associated with working from home, and offers several tips on how to make it work.

Here’s my core advice to anyone about to start telecommuting for the first time. Give some proactive thought and planning to your home office setup, your work/life schedule and boundaries, and your effectiveness as a communicator. Also, try to be aware of what distractions are most problematic for you and take steps to minimize them.