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Since I am working at home I needed to find the office tools, from the word processor to the telephone, but luckily I am not really bound by any corporate policies, so I can pick whatever works best for me – both in usability and price – without any problem.

First of all, documents and spreadsheets are really a must for every office job now, so I first had to tackle this. As I work on more than one computer – a desktop PC, an MSI laptop and an Acer netbook – I needed a solution that allows me to reach the same documents from each PC – not to mention from other people’s pc’s if needed. For this reason I checked out two online office solutions, Google and Zoho. Of course, you can’t have internet all the time, so I have OpenOffice installed too – mainly for the price, MS Office is way better, but way more expensive too – for that case.

For the online solution I have picked Zoho, mainly because Zoho Business offers much more than google, including a desktop where you can add any web application you want to, and have a starting point when you work.

The whole suite is completely free, except for a few applications (like the CRM, Project and Invoice) where it is free up until an amount of data, then it switches into paying mode. But not too expensive even then.

For timetracking purposes I use timeXchange right now – Zoho Project has a timesheet, timetrack feature that you should use if you use Zoho Project – but I still did not decide if I go with timeXchange or Easy Time Tracking – the latter is an offline desktop application.

To follow my projects, contacts, companies, tasks and such I use Norada’s Jobblogs solution, which is also free except for more advanced group and e-mail features.

For the presentations I am experimenting with Prezi, the new “you must see this one” web app – not sold on it yet, but it looks interesting.

And then of course Skype for the telephone – a separate phone number for work, voicemail, and free call to landlines all over the world for 10EUR is too good an offer.

So this is it so far. If you have some other ideas, or a pet website, or any other comment, please let me know. I like to try new things.

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The dream. We make it one way or other, and we don’t have to go to the office on the other side of the city 9 to 6. We become sort of independent and we work at home. Comfortable, no commute, a chance to eat good, homemade food if one likes that, flexible schedule – you actually have a chance to take that after lunch nap – no ringing phones, noise, sudden but in fact pointless meetings.

Of course there is the downside, you get immersed in the work and suddenly it’s 9PM – and you missed the movie on TV you wanted to see for ages -, or you realize at 3PM that you actually did not work at all so far.

A completely new way to work, where everything is your responsibility, including the discipline – nobody will stand behind your back to see if you are working or surfing the net, nobody will push you to work when you should instead of playing on your XBox or Playstation.

I always thought that it is all about self discipline, that all you need is willpower and then it is all peachy, you just want it really, really hard and then you are good to go, but I found out that it is not exactly that simple.

Sure it is pure willpower and self-discipline when you get down to the basics but there are small, subtle ways to make it extremely difficult – or a easier.

For example, currently I have exactly one room – unemployed people have a hard time to find a rent, especially if they were planning to move abroad – which means I watch movies, read, sleep and work in the same room. It’s all ok, right, I got a good desk, a big one, a PC with big screen, laptop, papers, pens and everything I need for a home office. Only problem is that the room in itself is full of distraction. It is deeply associated with sleep and fun. Too many non work related stuff – it is a pain when I turn my head and I spot a really, really interesting book that I want to read, or even worse, that I am already reading, now, let me tell you it takes an effort not to stand up and check it out.

So what have I done? I moved over to the guest room – I am planning to turn it into an office with a desk and a chair, but there is some resistance on the part of the family, so for now it is a rather makeshift thing. But the important thing is that I only work here. Nothing else. And my concentration and discipline increased a lot.

And almost empty room, no distraction, I put on my headset, turn on my iPod and work. My desk is a board put on two big speakers, pen, papers and my laptop.

So if you ever plan to work at home, and you reach that goal, do yourself a favour and create a separate office space. It will save you a lot of effort, headache and guilty feelings. And have a separate work computer or laptop. Without any of the funny, interesting games, and apps that you love to play with.

Make your life easier, not more difficult.

If you work at home, or you are a freelancer, what have you learned that can make it easier to avoid distraction, and what pitfalls have you found that made it hard for you? I am curious.

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