I was absolutely a work-from-home advocate pre-pandemic. As it happened, we were actually very close to completing a work-from-home proposal at my office when the pandemic struck! How about that for coincidental timing.
With the matter settled, I said goodbye to my “creative cubicle” and set up my little home workstation. Finally, I could go about my business as I’d always envisioned! I was very fortunate to have a home office space at the time. I was totally committed to lean into this opportunity to prove that if your tech can keep up, you can be just as efficient from home as you are at the office. (Don’t worry, I’ll tell you how below!)
I worked exclusively from home for about two years in total. (It felt like much longer because there was a maternity leave in the middle!) In this post I’ll share my experience in case anyone out there is thinking about making the switch, or has found themselves in that position and is looking for some tips.
This post focuses on the benefits of a work form home arrangement. If you’re looking for the drawbacks, skip ahead a few years to when I happily headed back to the office. It turns out that a lot of the benefits of being in-office are naturally drawbacks of working exclusively from home.
Should I Work From Home? The Benefits
At least before 2020, I think most of us were wondering, why shouldn’t we work from home? I’d be spending less of my life in the car, I wouldn’t have to wear real pants, and I could sneakily get some housework done on my breaks.
(An added bonus for all you homebodies out there: you’d be surrounded by all your stuff, all the time. I see you!)
Yup, these are absolutely true! Let’s expand upon that. Here are the big stand-out benefits I experienced (from your friendly neighbourhood accountant with a penchant for writing and painting).
The Commute
Part of the desire to work from home was to cut out the hour-long commute. That’s two hours per day! That kind of time makes your 9-to-5 feel more like an 8-to-6. Meanwhile, the rest of your daily life is still there, waiting. (And that was before kids! I laugh now at myself back then.)
I did not have time two hours a day in the car navigating that hectic traffic.
Besides, I had art to make!
Personally, what added to the commute frustration was that we “bill our time”. I’m sure many folks in a public practice can relate. When you can’t necessarily “clock in and clock out”, every extra minute in the car seems like it’s eating into your work time.
Which then eats into your personal time.
That made me a little squirrely in traffic. The commute became far more stressful than it needed to be!
So cutting the commute saves you from having to deal with the nutty drivers out there. (They’re the real problem, right?) It also cuts the stress and prevents you from becoming one! Working from home lets you convert those commuting hours into billable working hours, if you need them.
Of course the key phrase here is “if you need them”, because if all you’re doing is working more without a tangible benefit to you, or taking a longer time to do the same work, what’s the point? I highly recommend converting at least some of those hours into hobby hours. You deserve some you-time!
Flexible Working Hours

Similar to the commute, this one may speak for itself, but here’s my angle.
Many of you out there need to be physically present and available during office hours, and you need to accomplish a certain amount of quality work in a day. You’d like your efforts to be effective and efficient (or at least non-distracted) in that timeframe. Otherwise, you’ll need to get in earlier or stay later to complete those hours.
In theory, this doesn’t change if you work from home, but in practice… It might!
You gain more flexibility from being at home, the place where your after-hours life conveniently resides. Yup, your cooking, your cleaning, your hobbies, and so-on. There are little efficiencies to be gained by being in proximity of these things at all times! That’s assuming there’s no negative or otherwise unintended consequences to your work day, of course.
You can also harness your energy levels a bit more effectively to complete deep work. Do your deep work when it’s most effective for you, but remain available during office hours.
I can’t promise it won’t backfire, though! Say you start your deep work at 6am, but you get a work call at 4:30pm. That is a long day! It’s just the risk you take. Could it be worthwhile?
Of course, the caveat to all this: you have to be honest with yourself, and with your employer!
I say this because if you’ve got what I affectionately call the border collie mind, and that energy is bugging you, it’s tempting to just work on your creative project during work hours so that it stops niggling at you, and you can get on with your work day. This too can backfire. It might be worth pursuing during your lunch break, but otherwise, I think displacing too much “office hour time” to things other than work may syphon too much energy away, and then neither will get done as effectively.
As much as we love autonomy over our schedule, we do need to acknowledge that we’re being paid to fill a role and responsibilities, sometimes during specific hours. Just my $0.02.
Uninterrupted Work
The same caveat applies to this one, okay? Be honest with yourself, and with your employer!
I had to add this one in though because I think this can be beneficial to both parties.
Sometimes you’re elbow-deep in a work project, and you just need to focus on what you’re doing. It’s like surfing a wave to the shore. Historically my office spaces have been cubicles where there’s really little control over the flow of distractions and interruptions.
You have much more control of this when you’re not physically there!
Don’t get me wrong, I love my coworkers and I appreciate all visits. Seeing everyone in person again has been my most favourite part of returning to the office. Not seeing them has been the most challenging part of working exclusively from home.
It did make me feel quite productive though, to be able to turn the tap “on-and-off”. I made myself available whenever practical. I essentially used video calls as a proxy for those in-person visits. But when I was “in flow” on a work project, and especially when I was working under deadline pressure, it was really useful to hit “do not disturb” to help my focus.
Doing this once in a while is helpful to get quality work out the door, but again, you have to be reasonable with it! Especially if you’re normally expected to be available during office hours.
How to Work From Home Effectively and Efficiently
How do you make the best of working from home?
There are three big considerations: the space you’ll work in, the schedule you’ll keep, and the boundaries you’ll set.
Here’s what worked for me.
The Space You’ll Work In
Separation is key. It’s not something easily achievable when you have relatively limited options! Nevertheless, it’s ideal if you can section off a space that is just for your work.
Your environment has a significant impact on your work. Particularly, it’s about how you approach it and how effective and efficient you are in it. Your environment influences you the same way that clothing does (and I’m convinced it does). Slap on a “work” outfit and make a dedicated space to work in! Mentally, you’ll be able to slip into “work mode” much more effectively than if you stayed in your pajamas, using your bed as an office.
Without separation, the work, like the space, becomes something like an afterthought. It feels temporary, and to me, this feels like wasted effort. Sometimes we wish work felt more like an afterthought, but hey! We spend a lot of hours working, so we may as well set ourselves up to do great work!
If you don’t have space for a home office area, a couple other options:
- I have seen small closets turned into offices, which create some cozy separation! Bonus points if you can find a creative way to restructure your existing storage to make room for said closet office.
- Alternatively, you might borrow a page from Marie Kondo and set up your workspace on any flat surface during each morning (say, the kitchen table or an island), and then be sure to pack it all away at the end of the day. It’s extra effort, but it gives your work day a literal “close” and frees your living space up to be lived in after work.
Ergonomics. Yes, that’s the proper chair height and lumbar support and screen height and all that. I am by no means an expert, but some tricks I’ve implemented in a pinch:
- I started using a rollerball mouse and now I can never go back. (Much to the chagrin of anyone who wants to borrow my computer real quick.) These are amazing little space savers, because you don’t have to physically move the mouse. It’s also a bit more ergonomic than the traditional mouse with respect to hand position. They take some getting used to, but once you’re used to it, you’re unstoppable!
- I have a lot of old textbooks lying around, and some of them now have honorary positions as laptop/screen risers. All of my screens are now at ergonomic height.
- I’m short, and if my chair is at the right height in relation to my desk, then my feet don’t touch the ground! I used a box as a footrest for a while. Not recommended long-term – I eventually caved (literally and figuratively) and got a proper footrest.
- To help with posture (and core strength), an exercise ball or balance disk (“wobble cushion”?) can help change things up!
Bonus tip: Try not to make everything so convenient for yourself that you hardly have to move. Or make a point of getting out for a walk. Walking meetings are great if you can swing them.
Manage distraction. My hobby space became my work space. For a while I thought it would be motivating and convenient, but it ended up being very distracting. It was actually quite frustrating because it kept reminding me of all the things I could be doing if I wasn’t working!
When I was at the office, my workspace was full of pictures or trinkets that seemed to inspire creative thinking at work. I don’t think this idea translates to the home office. The problem is that at home, you’re within walking (or grasping) distance of your hobby supplies of choice. So rather than inspiring creative problem-solving, those things inspire you to put the laptop away and come play!
(I eventually reclaimed my creative space… And in turn, reprioritized my life!)
Thus, it’s best not to have too many visual distractions in the work area.
How about sounds? Everyone says “headphones”, which I absolutely agree with. They’re useful when you’re sharing your work space, but I also like them when working alone! If it’s too quiet I find it’s hard to focus, so I use ambient music to get back in flow. They can also shut out the figurative “noise”: the personal to-do list, the mark on the wall that’s been driving you nuts for months, the chores…
Which brings me to the last tip on managing distraction: deal with the household chores early and often. Getting everything done the night before (or early in the morning) reduces the number of tasks vying for your attention all day. while you’re trying to work. Even if you’re committed to dealing with them after your work day is done, they’ll still be there, beckoning you!
The Schedule You’ll Keep

While flexible time is a perk of working from home, I still implore you to make a schedule and stick to it! To work from home successfully, you must have:
A start time.
A lunch/break time.
A finish time.
It’s when you don’t take these seriously that your work life and home life start to bleed into each other, and the next thing you know, it feels like you’re working all the time. You probably are.
I know, it’s tricky. It’s easy to start late because you wanted a sleep in (nobody will know). Or to keep working until the work is done (better than stopping for the day and starting again tomorrow). Why not work through lunch, or skip it altogether? And if you sprinkle household chores throughout your work day, it’ll magically expand to fill the entire day and evening!
Consider this: Work-life balance is a matter of perspective. Perspective requires points of reference. If you don’t have any, you probably won’t feel very balanced! You need to see your calendar (or at least visualize your work hours) in order to compartmentalize that part of your life, and to make space for the rest of it after the work day is done.
Another issue with not scheduling your work day is Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fill the time you give it. If you’re not capping the hours you’ll work that day, you may not be aware of how long you’re taking, and your work balloons. This is the thing: I could spend hours – no, days perfecting a report or looking to reconcile pennies, but I know I don’t have that kind of time (and our clients don’t want to pay for that kind of service anyways). I’ve got to end it somewhere of value.
If you don’t have a set amount of time set out in the day, then it’s hard to prioritize, to cut things off, and to schedule things into the future. That makes it hard to know when to say “yes” to things and when to say “no” to things, and we tend to do the former until we’re completely burned out and we’re feeling out of control.
So, get on top of that schedule!
The Boundaries You’ll Set
Once you have your space set, it’s set. If you’re going to do some sketching at lunch, I would highly recommend trying to find another spot to sketch in. I do think it’s important to compartmentalize the work part of your day to separate it from the rest of your home life. We’re most effective when we’re doing deep work and deep rest, meaning when you’re working, that’s all you’re doing. When you’re resting, you are not working.
That’s a boundary you need to maintain with yourself. What other boundaries do you need to keep with yourself?
- Honour your end time. You’re done! Stop ruminating over that project – it’ll be there waiting for you tomorrow morning.
- If your body hurts (because a lot of us move less at home than we do at an office), you need to move it. Stand up, walk around, stretch, go outside if you can.
- Take a true break on your break time – we schedule those for a reason. You will simply not be as effective if you’re not taking breaks.
And of course, the boundaries with others:
- There are usually quiet hours on your email and other communication apps, and I encourage you to use them if you find yourself feeling your work life bleeding into your personal life after-hours.
- Following that, just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean you’re available 24/7 (unless that’s in your job description). Typically when your boss sends you a request at 8pm (or even more astoundingly, 2am), they just happen to be working at that time – their decision! Address it at the start of your business hours.
- A home work day is still a work day, and I think it’s perfectly acceptable to request any other bodies in your home office be mindful of that. (Otherwise, headphones. Maybe a “do not disturb” sign.)
Parting Words
There’s quite a bit to enjoy about working from home if you can swing it! I was really grateful for the opportunity to continue working from home full-time myself, even after many of my colleagues had returned to our office. It gave me the flexibility to be physically around when my oldest daughter was very young and my family was looking after her in my home while I worked.
Of course, there are difficulties that come with working from home as well, even with a dedicated office space. I hadn’t noticed them nearly as much until I actually went back to the office. Admittedly, I still work from home about half the time now (thanks to my kids being young and frequently ill this cold and flu season), but I’ve really changed my tune since my days of home-office advocacy. These days, a regular in-office day is pretty exciting!
Anyone still far prefer working from home? I’d love to hear your best tips!
Back to the beginning of the series: Making Space