The formula that works for me, a 10-year telecommuter: Make people aware of your office hours, and always keep them. This means always starting on-time, taking

The formula that works for me, a 10-year telecommuter: Make people aware of your office hours, and always keep them. This means always starting on-time, taking lunch on-time, and hopefully ending on-time. Anytime in between is fair game for phone calls and Skypes, although of course we want to not distract someone who is getting something done. Any deviations from the agreed-upon schedule are no different from a commuter being AWOL. Don't do it without prior notice. Skypes get acknowledged and replied to within 0-10 minutes, depending on whether I'm getting something out of my head and into the editor and therefore cannot answer you (or getting something out of somewhere else in the bathroom). But they do get answered promptly. E-Mail gets checked hourly or less (personal preference for me, but I don't permit e-mail to interrupt my workflow). Also it's nobody's damn business where I'm working from, and unless I'm very comfortable with you, as far as you know I'm working in a quiet home office. Not very many clients ever know I'm using LTE from (sailboat, beach, back of a moving Honda), and they don't need to, because it can be important to maintain the illusion that I too am rotting in a cubicle, not having more fun than they are.