Working at home: perks and challenges

The much awaited paperwork from a client has arrived.
Piles and piles of it. The desk is overflowing.
As I start working the phone rings.
It’s a friend from out of state. We haven’t talked in a long time.
So I answer the call.

Done with the phone conversation, I return to my desk. And dive right into work.
Forty-five minutes later the piles start looking more orderly.
About this time Flipper and Sunny start vocalizing.

Walnuts, coffee, and unexpected visitors
Time to get us some treats: walnuts for them, coffee for me.
That’s when I see a truck stopping in front of the house.
I look at my desk, and then I look at the unexpected visitor approaching my front door.

Really?! This is NOT a good time to drop by.
I open the door to let my visitor in. I almost said, “Obviously the phones aren’t working where you are coming from!”
Instead I pull out a chair.
But then I notice Flipper: my social butterfly not being her usual rambunctious self.

Soothing ruffled feathers
I motion to my visitor to step out on the front deck adding, “I’ll join you shortly.”
Then turn to Flipper and try soothing those ruffled feathers. She doesn’t seem to like the visitor.
Or maybe she doesn’t like me working long hours.
Whatever the reason it doesn’t take long for her to get back to normal.
Especially after tickling her feathers several times; and giving her an extra walnut.)

Then I went out on the deck to chat with my visitor.
Thirty minutes later I excused myself and returned back to work.
With no other major interruptions, the day turned out to be fairly productive.

It’s smart to design your day with built-in interruptions
This happened last week.
Reflecting on days like these I’m reminded (again!) of the perks AND challenges of a home office.

We all have urgent demands on our time — home office or not.
Over the years, I learned it’s smart to plan my days with some built-in interruptions.

Life happens. And you can’t always block out everything.
(Feel free to not open the door to unexpected visitors : )

Make the most of your day.
AND make time to do something you really enjoy.

Success is being able to live life your own way.

Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
Big or small, each project she worked on helped define the importance of gaining and sustaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex business environment.

Business know-how, love of teaching and writing – all combined in 2006 to form OBI.
Its mission: to make learning fun! And easy.

Through its training, consulting, and publications OBI builds bridges of knowledge to take you from where you are to
where you want to go. Using a mix of serious, informal, analytical, and optimistic approach, OBI truly makes learning fun.

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