Space Quest

Before you commit to your home office space, ask yourself these 20 questions:

1. Do you want clients or visitors traipsing through your home to get to your office?

2. Do you want your family trooping through--or even past--your office?

3. Are you doing mostly desk work?

4. Do you need space to sort, store and ship stuff?

5. Are you producing and assembling a product?

6. Do you want--or need--to keep your work-in-progress on-hand and available for tweaking at a moment's notice?

7. Does noise or activity easily distract you?

8. How much and what kind of sound can you tolerate while working?

9. Do you work more efficiently when you can see and touch reference materials?

10. Do you wilt in the absence of natural light?

11. Do you need a desktop computer or would a notebook do just as well?

12. Are you left- or right-handed?

13. Do you need a separate entrance to maintain clients' privacy or your own sanity?

14. Is your work life completely separate from or fairly integrated with the rest of your life?

15. Do you need help maintaining healthy boundaries around your work?

16. Is your work something in which your family can participate?

17. Will you be adding more equipment in the near future?

18. Does listening to music boost your creativity?

19. Do you need space to hold meetings?

20. Does your town or city have special zoning requirements for homebased businesses?

Meredith Gould has worked from a home office for more than a decade. Additional tips for working happily and healthily at home can be found in her book, Working at Home: Making It Work for You.