Do I do all my work in that office? Nope. In fact, I'm writing this from my other office...the office where I am the most productive....my couch at home.
With today's laptops, remote desktop connections, and internet, you can work from basically anywhere you want to. I can sit at home and remotely connect to all the kidmin files that are on our church server.
In recent months I've come to this conclusion. Your "office" should be where you can be the most productive. That may mean your office is at church, at home, at Starbucks, or even a park.
Now obviously there are days when I am in my church office. Always on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, because I have meetings on those days. But on Monday and Thursday, if I don't have meetings, then you will usually find me working from home.
Here's some practical steps in deciding where your office or offices will be:
- What season of life are you in? If you have preschoolers, working at home may be a challenge. I like to work at home because my kids are in college and high school so its peaceful and quiet during the day.
- Do you have the freedom to work outside your church office? You will need to get the green light from your direct report or Pastor to work from home. This comes from the next point.
- Have you earned the trust required to work from home? Does your direct report know that you are a hard worker? Do they know working at home will not mean watching tv or playing golf?
- I encourage my staff to work from home whenever they want to. I know them. I trust them. They will get the work done. I don't need to look over their shoulders.
- Stay connected. My staff knows they can reach me at any time by cell phone when I am working from home.
- Plan your time so you can work outside the office if it is more productive for you. Try to schedule the bulk of your meetings on one or two days so you can have the other days to accomplish the tasks that come from the meetings.
Posted by Dale Hudson
