Work from home

TIME management is said to be the key to success. But in any metropolitan city, it is subject to indefinite traffic delays, extremely demanding schedules and multiple, overlapping deadlines to be met in a short time. “All of this turns your meticulously charted schedules topsy-turvy. Hence, a rather serene thought would be imagining a life without commute. This would obviously mean working from home,” says Abhimanyu Gupta, director, Actis Technologies.

For women with an entrepreneurial streak, working from home is now a reality with the advent of broadband Internet. Shubhomoy Biswas, country manager, SonicWall, maintains, since more than one person in a household accesses the Internet these days and perhaps from different rooms for work, education and entertainment purposes, a secure wireless connection is absolutely critical. However, women need to brace themselves for a crash course in technology to understand the latest tools and techniques from a DIY (do it yourself) perspective in times of crisis, adds entrepreneur Ranu Iyer.

Werner Fernandes, who has worked from his home for almost two years as a consultant, advises, “It is best to have your own room. Evolve a mechanism that lets your family members know when it is okay to interrupt and when not. A simple way to do it is keep your door closed when you do not want to be disturbed altogether and keep it ajar when you are open to handling minor domestic issues.”

If you’re building a home office from scratch, wire smartly. Consider wiring the walls with the new hybrid telephone cable that mixes traditional copper lines, coaxial cable and fiberoptic technology. If and when your telecommunications and electrical needs expand, you won’t have to break through the walls to upgrade. But forget about this if your TV, PC and phone system go wireless.


A well-appointed home office can go a long way towards saving your time and money — whether you own a business, freelance or simply round out your workweek at home.

THE DESK COMES FIRST I Ideally, your desk should get enough natural light for reading without creating glare on the PC screen or in your peripheral vision. DESK CHAIR I Think ergonomically. A chair, where you can adjust its height, the tilt of the seat and the lumbar support, is ideal. Use the walls around your desk to keep your work surface relatively clear. Racks can be used for files or magazines; drawer dividers are useful for paper clips, pens, and glue sticks.

COMPUTER I An ultra-wide band laptop to connect wirelessly to peripherals as far as 30 feet away. With an 80GB hard drive and an Intel Core Duo processor, a PC can handle your business needs.

MONITOR I A multipanelled display that allows you to expand information — documents, spreadsheets, graphic designs, — without much effort. Adobe and Flash are useful to enhance reports and presentations.

MOUSE I A cordless mouse with a scroll wheel can spin through thousands of pages of spreadsheet lines. KEYBOARD I When your laptop keyboard gets frustrating, turn to a wireless keyboard.

ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER I A high-speed laser printer and copier, with a fax machine and colour scanner built in.

VOIP PHONE I Skype, a tool for global connectivity, enhances productivity and helps reduce costs dramatically.

AUDIO AND VIDEOCONFERENCING I can help in conducting meetings/giving presentations amongst people geographically dispersed.

LIGHTING CONTROL SYSTEM I is done with the use of the presets available in the system. At the press of a button, you can recall a lighting preset to suit the mood and activity derived.