Schendlinger also recommends that when you go into “home-alone work mode,” be sure to have colleagues and friends available to connect with on some level. “We call each other for advice…we drag each other out for lunch,” she says. “We also cross paths (and keep up with the gossip) at quasi-work situations, [like] literary events such as readings, festivals, launches, etc.”

How good are you at saying “no”?
Inquiring minds want to know. And there will be plenty of inquiring minds—roommates, Digit, your mother—they’re all going to think that just because you’re home, you’re available to them. So trust me, it would behoove you to fall in love with Caller ID, and fast!

But staying on task during your workday does not mean that you have to cut off your friends and/or family completely. When James-Enger first started working from home, she quickly learned the secret of keeping potential distracters at arm’s length: “You have to treat it like a business. If you treat [working from home] like a business, eventually the people around you—your family, your neighbors—will, too.”

Set goals, ‘cause you’re only hurting yourself.
How soon you learn to politely scream “no” will depend on how hungry or how socially starved you are. When Friday night rolls around, you can’t go out and play if the work isn’t done. And you will have no one to blame but yourself.

Instead of cranking out those proposals for your newest client, you chose to debate the superiority of the original Laguna Beach cast versus the new cast with your best friend… the best friend who just happens to work on-staff in an office downtown where she gets paid a salary no matter how much of the day she begs off IM’ing your distracted soul. Guess what? She can go out and play Friday night because her workday is over AND she got paid. You, however, well… you wasted the afternoon, ignored your work, and as a result, your bank account remains on life support.