Good home workplaces are well-organized. Working at home demands an even greater degree of organization than working in an office. Generally, space in the home is at a pre-mium. This puts a crunch on available real estate for things like work surfaces, equipment, and storage. If your work stuff starts drifting outside your work zone, things will get out of balance. Moreover, an organized workplace is the backbone of efficiency and productivity, which yield more time for work or for pleasure - your choice, when you work at home.

Good home workplaces have a personal spirit about them. When you work in a traditional office, someone else usually makes all the decisions about your workplace, including which chair you sit in. When you work at home, the decision-making is all yours. You can make it as you want it, not only in function but style.

You should create an environment that you feel good about, that's a personal reflection of you. You'll spend a lot of time there earning the money that pays for everything else. You should not only be comfortable, but you should enjoy being there.

It's easy to rattle off these three basic features, but now, you're probably asking yourself, "Where do I start?" To help you answer that question, I've identified five basic steps anyone can take to create a home workplace that really delivers.

Know your needs. Without this knowledge, you can't take any further steps seriously. Knowing your needs requires that you sit down and methodically make a list of everything you use in your work, from computers to paper clips. I suggest you start by determining the size and number of workstations you'll require. If all the work you do at home is on a computer, then perhaps you'll need only one station. On the other hand, if your work involves handling special hard documents such as legal briefs, photographs, or art, you'll probably need a project station, too. If you're operating a personal business from home, you'll most likely need an administrative station for paying bills and the like. And last, if you expect any business visitors, you'll also need a meeting station. To help you remember these four types, think of the acronym "C-A-M-P", for computer, administrative, meeting, and project stations. Sometimes one station, properly designed, can serve more than one function.