How do you dress for work when you’re working at home?

Back in 2010, I reformatted my retail operation into a custom clothing business.

I worked out of my apartment. I would get up, throw on a pair of khakis (yep, the same kind Jake from the State Farm Commercials wears), put on a polo shirt and the most comfortable shoes in the closest.

I went to work calling my customers and suppliers and began to build a custom clothing business.

Occasionally I would go out on the street and run into customers and potential customers.

So here is the question, if I had dressed in a more business-like fashion would I have been more productive?

 Certainly, I would have felt better about my appearance when I ran into customers, and yes a more productive “in-home” day is a reasonable conclusion. Here are some thoughts on the matter;

As Robert Armstrong, the men’s style writer for the Financial Times writes-

“There is something about order”. You get up, wash up, and put on work clothes so that a transition can be made from home to work mentality.  Armstrong writes about Lyndon Johnson biographer   Robert Caro. Caro would always wear a shirt and tie to work even though he worked from home.    His position was that he worked this way to always remind himself that when he was writing he was working at his job.   

As an aside, yesterday Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay was on television telling us that his day consisted of cooking three meals a day and conducting business from home. The point here is that we are not suggesting that Bobby Flay put on his chefs’ whites, but he shouldn’t be walking around his house in pajamas.          

Yesterday evening I spoke with a good friend who happens to be a c-suite advertising executive.

We spoke about his daily routine which was to get up and get dressed in a business-like fashion.

When his longtime girlfriend asked him “Why are you so dressed up”, he replied, “Because I’m working.”

In conclusion, the goal is to take whatever steps are necessary steps to help you transition from the “at home” mentality to the “at work” mentality.    Order, sequence, and yes, dressing the part all come into play.