What's your action plan for telecommuting?

Today was my first day back in the office after — cue the dramatic music — the Blizzard of 2010. I spent eight days without going anywhere. The only driving I did was to back the car up so I could clear more snow out of the driveway.

But I still worked every day, and I was productive, too. Over the last two years, I’ve worked sporadically from home and I’ve liked the flexibility, even though I've never thought of myself as the telecommuting type. I like being in the office.

After eight days at home, I’ve decided that I want to become a more regular telecommuter, but I’ve learned a few things that I need to do to make that a reality.

        1.  I need a dedicated space at home. For eight days, I was sprawled in the dining room. Not a good long-term solution.
        2.  I need a better system for checking voice mail at the office. We are not on a voice-over-IP system, so I can’t set up the office phone to e-mail me when I get voice mail. A simple solution might be to set up Outlook alerts to remind me to phone in for messages.
        3.  Get a hardwired phone for whatever spot becomes my office. I need a phone I can cradle against my shoulder and neck and a cordless phone is too dainty.
        4.  Set up the wireless printer, something I’ve been meaning to do for a year.
        5.  Explore greater use of Skype for video calls with co-workers. I’ll admit, sometimes my mind wanders on conference calls, but if I’m looking someone in the eye, it’ll be harder to click over to my e-mail or dash off a quick instant message.

So those are my five action items before the next blizzard.

I know a lot of you were either stuck working from home or are already dedicated teleworkers. So what the five things you recommend before the next blizzard hits?