I’ve just gone solo, after working in-house for 14 years; so it’s important to me that my home office feel as “official” as possible–that’s the only way I can get into a ‘work’ mindset.

Also, I can be a very scattered, unfocused person at times; and various distractions during the workday–in the form of loved-ones–does not help! Even so, it’s very hard to turn down Amanda when she asks for my help, or wants to come over, or in some other way needs my time. Time that I would/should otherwise be spending in front of my computer…

(I’m sure you understand what kind of uncomfortable frustration that can bring on. Especially for someone like me, who’s brand-new to the “solo” life.)

Anyhow, thanks for the great post, and I wish you both continued success in your business…

Same here! In a village of not quite 4000, we are (almost) always home, and drop in the shop across the street for our veggies, wine/beer and puppy snacks at the oddest hours. Because I sometimes prefer to work late into the night, our shades may not go up the next day till around noon. You better believe that gets noticed around here – as well as when there is a taxi at our door at 5.30 am to get me to the airport/train station in Duesseldorf on time for an early trip.

I find that I have to do (a lot) more to generate less income than my partner, because I am still starting out. While he’s taking a leisurely break to fiddle with Google Earth or wants to read me the latest news off one of his feeds, I’m busy multitasking to transform a blog entry into an article, recording a podcast for a cooperation partner, or prepping for my next client session. That’s when I miss having my own office and a nice assistant who’ll bring me a coffee (though my sweety does that sometimes, too)!

Though I know there are still some adjustments to be made to my/our time management, I wouldn’t turn back the clock for anything!

Our situation is the same as yours. My partner’s been at this a lot longer and has his workflow down. Plus he sticks pretty much to translation/localization, while I have a lot of different things going on. So I’m a bit more scattered at times!

And yes to saying no to face time!

I also liked what you said about The Bubble. I think I need it more (and need to spend more time in it) than my partner. As a coach and trainer, I spend more time doing all the peripheral things that need doing to build my business like preparing/debriefing my sessions with clients, blogging, writing newsletters and articles, doing podcasts, etc. He’s been working independently longer and – as a TQM consultant – has long-standing clients and processes that he can basically oversee in his sleep. So – though things have gotten a lot better – there still is some residual resentment when our schedules don’t overlap as much (or as little) as one or the other of us would like.

On the other hand, we both like the idea of not having to put in face time somewhere anymore. We get the work out on schedule and the rest of our lives belongs to us. Playing (i.e. weeding the garden or walking/playing with our doxies) just revs up our engines and keeps it running smoothly.

Respect for the bubble is indeed the key:

http://geeksinlove.free.fr/?p=48