fter working in an office all my life, it has taken some time to get used to working from home. At first I struggled a lot with filtering out distractions (dishes, two cats who constantly want to sit on my lap at the same time, Facebook), but recently I have gotten better at minimizing distractions and getting down to it.

The first trick was getting a good coffee maker at home (caffeine is essential) and the second is keeping good task lists. I am an obsessive list maker and respond really well to checking off outstanding items. I also got in the habit of buying myself some flowers every week. I pick them up from Trader Joe’s on Monday and spend some time figuring out what kind of arrangement I want to make. For some reason, it has become a ritual I really look forward to — a sort of creative kick start that I get to enjoy all week.

Happy Friday!
Nicci