Over at CommercialAppeal.com, there’s another interesting take on the home office that I find quite interesting. Rather than a separate room for a home office, they recommend the “command center” be a small, dedicated space somewhere in the home where the “family manager” can handle the countless tasks, responsibilities and decisions that need to be made every day. From the article:

Basic equipment for the best home office or command center should include a laptop or desktop computer, printer, scanner, copier, fax machine and telephone. It’s OK if you don’t have a computer. The most important thing is to have a designated place (other than the kitchen counter/coffee table/dinning room table) to take care of the day-to-day activities.

The article goes on to say that by using some simple office supplies such as a plastic storage box for supplies, a Rolodex and/or cork board for organizing information, and baskets and boxes for storing documents, you can create a small, dedicated hub for all your home office (or just home-business; even if you don’t work from your house, just being there can accumulate a lot of paperwork these days.)

This article is interesting to me because it flies in the face of a lot of other home-office planners that say the best way to conduct business from home is to have a private, shut-away space that is “office” without being too much “home.” This approach instead has your command center seated as an island in the sea of daily life; a place where anyone can stop off to replenish supplies, coordinate tasks, and generally make sense of day-to-day home management.

It’s an interesting concept, and I imagine it would work much better for some people than trying to wall off their home office from the rest of the house.

Do you have a home office plan or tips that have worked for you in the past? Let us know in the comments.