Tales of a Home Office Worker Dad
Guest Post by Joe Magennis.
Just over a year ago we completed a restructuring of the agency that would allow us to eliminate the massive overhead of an office. My biggest hesitation for disbursing to home locations was what to do about the phone system. I did not want to go through the hassle of notifying clients of a bunch of new and unique phone numbers. When our local CLEC service provider informed me that we could have a virtual system that allowed me to have the same number right down to the same extension, I pulled the trigger.
This is the second time that I have worked from home. In the late nineties I converted the upstairs bedroom into an office and established a diligent work routine. I function much better within some structure, so I complete the typical morning rituals, grab a cup of coffee and head upstairs to start the workday. I derive a great sense of productivity from this new work from home operation since it saves me an hours commute on each end of the day. It also means I can get to the daycare to pick up my toddler earlier than ever before.
On November 3rd of this past year things changed drastically. My wife and I decided that due to the enormous cost of placing a second child into daycare, she would head to work while I would keep our three month old daughter Lily with me during the day. This new arrangement was certainly made easier by having a home office work environment, but has greatly extended the length of time that I spend in the office each day.
It’s not realistic to attempt to give work full attention during the typical work day and attend to all of Lily’s needs. Her feeding requirements every three hours with interspersed diaper changes, play time, and prep for the next round of feeding limits my day time functionality to short bursts of tasks while she is napping. When my wife comes home at the end of the day we share dinner time with both of the girls and I retreat to the office to focus on the greater tasks of the day.
However, I still attempt to arrive at the desk by 9:00 am with a coffee in hand and a bottle for Lily. It’s typically a good time to catch some podcasts since my hands are tied up. I still have numerous standing Skype appointments throughout the week and so far there have not been any huge conflicts due to Daddy Daycare. It is a work arrangement that is completely manageable with the right determination, the right technology and the right home office set up …. for how long is the big question.
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Joe Magennis is the founder and principal of Fluid Media Inc. an online marketing and brand development company in Atlanta Ga.
Read MoreSo Much Work, So Little Blog!
I have to admit that I’ve been slacking. Long time readers of my blog will remember this song & dance, as I’ve done it a few times. Yet this time it’s a slightly different reason I’ve unfortunately neglected to deliver any good content for you.
Before, when I worked in an office, it was sometimes a chore to come home, fire up the computer, and write a quality blog post. I’d already been working all day under harsh office lights, listening to random idiotic conversations around me in the adjoining offices, being constantly interrupted with small tasks, etc. I got home and just didn’t want to sit in front of my computer for much more time and needed to relax.
These days, it’s a little different. Now that I work at home, I set the tone of my environment – music or not, lights on or curtains open, breaks on the oh-so-comfy couch with some tv on during lunch, etc. So when I first began working from my “home office”, I thought I’d have much more energy to write blog posts. But something different has reared it’s head – monotony.
I work on a laptop but it’s hooked into the same peripherals as my personal desktop via KVM switch, so even if I’m done working and switch over to my personal computer to do personal stuff, I’m looking at the same screen, sitting in the same room, in the same chair… well you get the picture.
So my question goes out to those of you that work at home but also try to work on personal computer related projects (whatever they may be) – how do you break it up and not go insane?
Read MoreAffiliate Summit West 2009 is Fast Approaching!
Can you believe that there are only 45 days left until Affiliate Summit West 2009?! Depending on your outlook of time, this might seem like it’s a long time from now, but just like a project’s deadline, Affiliate Summit sneaks up on you!
At this point all of the meet market tables are sold out, as are most of the sponsorships. According to co-founder Shawn Collins, there are still about a dozen booths available for any interested merchants or vendors. Conference passes grant attendees access to the expo hall, all break-out sessions, and the courtesy meals and drinks the conference graciously provides. These passes usually sell out about a week or two before the conference, so if you’re even considering going I highly suggest you register for Affiliate Summit West 2009 now.
When looking for a place to stay, I really do recommend staying at the conference hotel in all cases, and especially in this case I can personally vouch for the comfort and convenience of the Rio. Being an “all-suites” hotel is awesome as the rooms are totally comfortable and large, and downstairs if gambling isn’t your thing there’s a bowling ally and plenty of shops. Their Carnival World buffet is also excellent.
Or, you can read the reviews I did on Yelp after my stay there last year:
Sao Paulo Cafe
Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino
Carnival World Buffet
McFadden’s
Harry Reid International Airport
Who would you donate $5000 to?
I’ve been asking this question of myself for a long while tonight, after reading about the contest that John Chow is having, sponsored by tiny url service XR.com. In his contest, he’s giving the winner $6000 – $5000 will be donated to the charity of the winner’s choice and $1000 will be given to the winner directly to do with as they wish.
XR.com is a great service that allows you to shorten a URL and create a custom extension. For example, if I wanted to shorten the URL of this post I can enter it in at XR.com and create http://xr.com/donate5000. The beauty of signing up for a free account with XR is that you can keep track of all these redirected tiny URLS so you can use them repeatedly. That URL went from 62 characters to 17! It’s perfect when you’re not allowed a lot of characters to work with, like on Twitter.
The $1000 isn’t that easy either. My gut immediately says that I want to buy Guitar Hero World Tour & use the rest of the money for the Bahamian cruise I’m taking with friends in February. But then there are bills that could be paid off. Hand-me-down furniture that could be replaced. But since I’ve already committed to this trip, I believe I’ll use it for the cruise bills. That way I don’t have to put too much on my credit card.
Back to the donation to charity. A few worthy causes come to mind immediately – The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Fund, American Diabetes Association, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Make a Wish, the list goes on. These are charities that I believe in and believe that they could do a lot of good things with $5000. But, maybe I should stick with something closer to home? Make my community a better place, eh? So I did some Googlin’ for local charities, and I wasn’t overly impressed by anything. It also occurred to me that deciding to donate to charity based on a quick read of a mission statement isn’t very responsible.
So I’ve decided to donate the money as a way to give back to a non-profit organization that did so much for me in my youth – Girl Scouts of Northern California. Specifically, I will donate the money to a fund that helped me continue my membership for 12 years, go to summer camp in the sierras of California, and attend many other trips and activities that provided vast opportunities for me to learn new things and grow into a confident young woman.
The Opportunity Fund provides financial assistance that helps girls go to camp, covers their Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. membership, and allows them to participate in Girl Scout activities regardless of their families’ financial resources.
I can’t think of a better way to give back to an organization that gave me so much. This donation will give young girls the opportunities to expand their horizons, built their internal strength, and learn how to be better citizens in this global community.
That’s what I’d do… so I’m hoping that I win so I can fulfill that desire to give back.
Who would you donate $5000 to?
Read MoreMayor Cory Booker on Real Time with Bill Maher
I’m sure I’m not the only person that’s really taken note of Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker since his moving keynote at Affiliate Summit East 2008. Last week, Booker appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher and gave a great interview on what an Obama presidency means to him and to America. It was very reminiscent of the keynote speech – inspiring and motivating – so I felt it best to share. Remember that his words can inspire you on a number of levels – which can boost your motivation to chase your own American dream and work harder to reach your goals in both business and pleasure.
I’m a Bill Maher fan from way back in his Politically Incorrect days, and I was glad that he seemed to really appreciate what Mayor Booker had to say and, apart from the occasional jabs about not having to ask a question before Booker spit out an answer, he was a really gracious interviewer. Among some of the inspiring things he had to say, here’s one of the better nuggets:
We, as Americans, drink deeply from wells that we did not dig. This generation that I live in had so many sacrifices of those who’ve come before us, and the best thing we can do is show some measure of sacrifice to honor those people who bled on beaches from Normandy to Midway for us, or who stood on line to register people to vote back in the day that you could get killed for doing that. So, I’m not about a position. I’m really about a purpose, and I think we are a purpose-driven country. And I think it’s time that we exalt all of the spaces of our nation, that we honor the sacred nature of human dignity and human life, and try to make the idea of democracy more emboldened and more inclusive, so that all of us enjoy the fruits of this great nation.
You can listen to the entire episode (140) as a podcast through iTunes. Here’s the video clip of the segment with Mayor Booker via satellite on Real Time with Bill Maher:
Read MoreCribbed Content for November 7th
Welcome to November! I can hardly believe we’re in November already… it seems like it was September just yesterday! Do me a favor and remember that there’s Thanksgiving to think about before Christmas and stall on decking everything out in red and green for a month, will ya?
- Recently I wrote an article for the New Edge Media blog, Top 14 Tips for Affiliate Success. Check it out and be sure to follow New Edge Media on Twitter!
- Scott Jangro wrote a good post on Affiliate Marketing Network Blog Scorecards. The comments are interesting as well, so be sure to read the whole thing.
- Affiliate Summit now has a Fan Page on Facebook. Join up for updates.
- 37Signals now offers an affiliate program for their super awesome products, one of which is Basecamp, a great project management system that we proudly use at New Edge Media. Sign up for their affiliate program at http://affiliate.37signals.com.
- An interesting note about branding and your personal brand, Jim Kukral is going to re-brand himself next week. I’m very interested to see what he does and how this is executed, so stay tuned.
