successful home working
Archive for May, 2009
Work from Home Essential No. 3: A Favourite Coffee Shop
02 years ago
I love coffee shops and I find that having one close by is a great advantage when you’re working from home. It provides a venue for all sorts of occasions – somewhere to go just for a change of scene, for a treat when you’ve completed something difficult, for a different environment in which to get your creative juices flowing, and to meet people either to discuss work or have a good old chat.
My favourite here in Frome is Divas, which is in the same building at the bottom end of town as Black Swan Arts, a gallery and shop, and some artists’ workshops. The counter display of colourful and healthy food makes you want to start at one side and work your way across to the other, ditto the cakes ranged across the top. You can sit outside in the pretty courtyard if the weather’s good, and browse the local and national papers while slurping the excellent coffee. Its only disadvantage is that it’s next to the library, where as you know I’m a regular visitor, so maybe we drop in more than we should – ‘Fancy a coffee?’ ‘Oh, go on then.’
Pet hates
4
Yet another advantage of working from home is that it’s easier to have people to stay – as long as they understand you do actually work, that is, and aren’t there purely to act as their host and guide.
This week we have had a very easy guest for a couple of nights. My cousin has been judging cheese at the Bath and West Show and over supper one night our conversation somehow turned to the subject of pet hates, a very satisfying way to spend time. In fact I’d recommend it as a great way to get conversation and hilarity flowing, as long as everybody present understands that pet hates are so violently irrational and personal that something you loathe may be passionately loved, or never even noticed, by other people.
I’ve collected a few to give you the idea -
Boys’ jeans worn with the waistband below non-existent buttocks
Wallpaper
Builder’s tea
DIY stores
Marzipan and icing
Talk radio DJs
Honda Goldwing motorbikes
White walls
‘Going forward’
Weak tea
Moulded plastic garden furniture
Fruit cake
Once you get started, you might find it hard to stop!
A glimpse of the future?
32 years ago
I must confess that until now the idea of Web 2.0 has left me cold. (If Web 2.0 is an alien concept to you, as it was to me, you might like to know that according to Wikipedia ‘Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities…such as social-networking sites, videosharing sites, wikis, blogs…’). Blogs I can see the point of – you choose to read the ones that mean something to you and comment if you feel you have something to add.
But my experiences just of book and film reviews on Amazon had led me to believe that the type of people with the time and inclination to share their opinions were precisely the type of people whose views I didn’t want to hear! My response to those choosing to answer the Twitter question ‘What are you doing?’ is ‘So what and who cares?’ Unless you’re a celebrity with a devoted following, does anybody really want to know?
But I’ve just seen an inspiring film at www.usnowfilm.com about the possibilities created by sites where people who were previously strangers share information. The examples I particularly liked were couchsurfing.com where travellers can find someone willing to put them up on the sofa for the night, and mumsnet.com where parents share the kind of information they apparently used to pick up from relatives and neighbours. Now that bankers and MPs have shown themselves to be greedy and not particularly clever, could this kind of openness of information enable a more truly democratic society?
This is the key question debated in the film, which lasts for an hour and is the most heartening message I’ve heard in a long time. (Although I’m no more enthusiastic about going on Facebook…)
‘Life’s a Pitch…’ Part 2
02 years ago
I’ve now read Stephen Bayley’s part of Life’s a Pitch
There’s useful and thought-provoking stuff in here for homeworkers, such as making first impressions (which this blog has already proved to be a minefield), the perils of the business lunch, the nature of charisma and how to make an impact with a letter. Unfortunately many readers might be put off digging through the verbiage to find them by Bayley’s obvious cleverness and numerous quotes and classical references.
The final section is an appendix of interviews with ‘our panel of experts’, historical figures whose actual or attributed words have been woven into a Q&A format. I feel this bit could be dispensed with, but overall A and I are so impressed that we’ve bought a copy so we’ve always got it for reference, albeit the cheaper, smaller (blue) paperback. The red book (Amazon link on previous post on the book) was published first in a large paperback format and has colour pics and lots of white space, which definitely add to the reading experience. But it’s more expensive – you pays your money etc.
Happy Work from Home Day!
0Yes, folks, today is officially our day, although there doesn’t seem to be a card for the occasion yet. It can’t be long though, as on the Hallmark website you can already get cards for National Boss Day and Admin Professionals Day. Maybe next year.
I haven’t seen any mention of the occasion in the press, which is a bit disappointing, but again, maybe by next year we can do something astounding. Even if it’s gone unmarked, I hope you’ve all had an especially joyful and productive day.
‘Life’s a Pitch…’
02 years ago
Following on from yesterday’s eulogy to libraries, this brilliantly titled book is one of my latest finds from the non-fiction shelves. So far I’ve read Book (ie Part) 1, by Roger Mavity, ex-ad man and Chief Executive of Conran Holdings (love the shop, Rog!) His argument is that life is all about presenting, or pitching, yourself in the best possible light, whether to a prospective lover or boss, your spouse or acquaintances.
The writing is just like the title – straightforward, witty and succinct. My usual response to a book, no matter how much I like it, is ‘could have been cut by a third and not lost anything’. Not Life’s a Pitch
There’s masses of inspiring stuff in here for homeworkers, including ways of getting into the right frame of mind to start an important piece of work – don’t sit at your desk staring at your computer screen. Naturally I love this because it fits in with the advice I give in Work from Home to get away from your usual routine as soon as you begin to feel a bit jaded. I just wish I could afford the most glamorous hotel in Marrakesh, where the creator of the famous Heineken ‘refreshes the parts other beers can’t reach’ campaign apparently went!
Book 2, by Stephen Bayley, cultural commentator and once described as ‘the second most intelligent man in Britain’ (who’s the most, then?), looks very different. I’ll let you know how I get on.
