The mobile office! (Photo credit: Wesley Fryer)
The building next door is under construction. Your office gets flooded due to a leaky roof. You are suddenly hosting your family member or friend for a few weeks while they get back on their feet. As a home office dweller, you will at some point find yourself displaced from your ideal environment, forced to work from a temporary base. If you are lucky, that temporary base is somewhere you can leave your computer and files for the duration of the interruption. If you are unlucky, you have a period of time where you can loiter before you are asked to move on. Here are a few tips to keep you organized during this upheaval.
1. Only bring what is absolutely necessary.
Unless you are a photographer or a sound mixer who needs quite a bit of equipment to do your job, you don’t need much besides your computer, a few office supplies, your phone, and a few action files to get work done. Remember that this displacement is not permanent. If you can keep stuff in your original office (because it doesn’t need to be remodeled), then by all means only take what you need. If you are required to pack up your entire office, fill one box with your absolute necessities and label the other boxes really well on multiple sides. Try working in your new temporary office space before you put the other boxes in storage. It is kind of hard going through storage space to dig out the few things you find you can’t live without.
2. Make everything mobile for quick clean-up or change of scenery.
Your temporary office space might be the dining room table and your partner is asking you to clear it off because dinner is ready. How can you do this quickly? Create a mobile office in a box: Take a box (with handles!) and put in a desktop file, along with a pencil cup and a few smaller open containers to hold your different supplies. You could also use a file tote that was created for the car.
Either way, you have a carryall to put all of your office materials into for those times when your office needs to move… again.
3. There will be distractions. Be ready for them.
No place will be as ideal as your office to work in. You’ll have to deal with construction, people, and TV noise. I suggest either investing in some noise cancelling head phones (see this review by Cnet – http://reviews.cnet.com/best-noise-cancelling-headphones/) or obtaining some great ear plugs. Of course, if you can listen to music while working, just make sure your headphones are of good quality.
4. Explore new work spaces.
Okay, sometimes the distractions are too much. My friend and fellow professional organizer Elizabeth Goodsell of That’s Neat! Organizing talked about what it was like working in her home while the kitchen was getting remodeled:
Don’t work at home on demo day if you are having a major renovation. My office [was] above the kitchen and it was so loud I couldn’t concentrate. And of course I was wondering what they’d find during the demo.
She suggested getting to know your local coffee shop. You might want to find your local public library as well (talk about a place that is going to be really quiet). Another option would be to find someone you know who has unused office space (i.e. they work away from home or are on vacation). If you have the funds, look into renting temporary office space. Try searching Google for “shared office space” or “coworking office space.”
5. Be aware of your surroundings.
So you’ve set up your temporary work space. Did you make sure to check that there is nothing there that will put your equipment or productivity in danger? You might not want to work in the living room if the TV is going to distract you. Also, Elizabeth warns that:
If your office area is very near the work area, ensure that the proper sheeting and other protection are up. You don’t want 100 year old plaster dust on your laptop. Trust me.
6. Take this time to evaluate the specific tools and settings you need to get work done, and consider everything left at the office might be clutter.
You’ve been working pretty efficiently in your temporary space. Start thinking about all the stuff you left behind at the office and if you really need to keep it. Are you storing office supplies, magazines, or books because you bought them, someone gave them to you, or you might need it someday? Think about hosting a supply swap with your friends or finding a non-profit nearby that could use the supplies now.
Whether you are currently displaced or have a move in the future, keep in mind these tips so that your temporary office experience doesn’t impact your productivity.
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