How I work from home

Without going out of my mind

The home office, such as it is

For many, many years—from the time I was 21 to the age of 46—I worked in offices. And aside from the daily commute to and from midtown (because it was always midtown) I liked working that way. I enjoyed the ritual of getting dressed every morning, the camaraderie with my co-workers, the lengthy expense-account “work lunches,” the pleasant, productive buzz of a lively workplace.

Then, after I was fired from Lucky, I had a moment to catch my breath and make some decisions about what the rest of my working life would look like. I didn’t want another magazine job—not that there were too many available in 2010—and wasn’t quite sure where I did fit in, in light of that. I preferred to be around other people, but did not know that that would be an option. And part of me liked the idea of having my time to myself anyway.

Eventually, I started writing again, and then introduced the blog that would eventually become this newsletter. When it became clear that this was something I could make a living doing, I just started doing it, without much thought as to how. My hours were all over the place: sometimes I worked in the mornings, sometimes very, very late at night. Afternoons, which should have been productive, were a dead zone.

I’d alternate between working at my kitchen table, in bed, on the living room sofa, at the cafe around the corner. The freedom to work as I wished was fantastic, but I was aware I needed to institute some kind of regimen, and I’m not exactly a regimen person. Eventually, I fell into one, though. Here are the rules got me there.