I’ve been reminded by a tweet this morning by Heather Bestel that last week when I invited you to share your home working hurrays I called it Thankful Thursday. Well, it’s Thursday again, it’s beautifully sunny, it’s the time of year I enjoy the most, and I’m fortunate to have a day without deadlines. My [...]
Further to my post last week about home working routines on bank holidays, I decided on a kind of half-way course – to do a post today but to make it a lighthearted follow-up to the piece on home workers’ pets. As well as the comments on the post, I received quite a few tweets. [...]
Amongst the recent home workers’ favourite things featured here were a couple of cats and watching birds in the garden. It’s started me thinking what the best pets for home workers are. I’m a cat person by nature, although I’ve been cat-deprived for a long time now since my elderly tabby and tortoiseshell departed this [...]
Ian Dicks is an illustrator and much more who lives in Lyme Regis and, with a partner, has just created Jurassic Coast Visitor, a guide both online and in print to that beautiful stretch of Dorset coastline. ‘I bought this little blighter at a garden centre… it’s a big green and red fly (I suppose). [...]
I wrote recently about 5 reasons to hate working from home and a lot of people seemed to identify with them all. But the best thing about home working is that you’re the one in charge, and so you can plan your life to minimise the pitfalls and make the most of the possibilities. Here [...]
San Sharma is online community manager and web editor at Enterprise Nation, the homeworking website, based at home in London. “Despite all of the Feng Shui advice I share with our readers at Enterprise Nation, I find myself working in the corner of my home office in a dimly-lit basement flat. “I came across this [...]
Isabelle Bano is a personal and professional development coach in London and has provided our first piece of technical home working kit: ‘It’s a great idea to blog about the things that home workers like. There are so many different little helpers that people like. The little soapstone Buddha head is very beautiful and looks [...]
Today’s home worker’s favourite come from Harriet Smart, who lives in Edinburgh and writes ‘historical and contemporary fiction that emphasizes warm and well-drawn characters against a background of world events and compelling settings’. She’s also the co-creator of the Writer’s Café software toolkit. The magnificent Alfie works as her office manager – rather a laid-back [...]
Charlotte Baker of OutThereHQ is ‘building a community and place in Winchester that has a café’s buzz and is full of people working on interesting projects.’ Which means lots of freelancers and self-employed people, I imagine! Charlotte is also going to be starting Jelly there in the autumn. She is obviously fuelled by tea and [...]
1. Hook up with fellow home workers and freelancers on Twitter
July 16, 2010 - 1:47 pm
Thanks for this useful reminder Judy, it’s good to remember to take a break. I’ve been doing [The Pomodoro Technique][1] this week — it gives you 2 mins rest for every 25, then a longer break after 4 Pomodoro’s. It’s brilliant.
In the breaks I’ve been taking up juggling (something I used to do as a teenager). It’s a really good rest, gets the wrists in motion (hopefully helping reduce RSI) and uses different parts of your mind to the more focused ‘screen-mode’. Well recommended.
I keep missing #WaterCoolerMoment… I’ll try it next week, hope to see you there sometime soon!
[1]:http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/managing-your-business/freelance-focus-the-pomodoro-technique/
July 16, 2010 - 1:56 pm
I must check out The Pomodoro Technique, as I always mean to take regular breaks but keep missing them. It really is a case of the law of diminishing returns to just keep bashing on and on!
Hope to catch up with you at #watercoolermoment next week…
July 16, 2010 - 4:41 pm
A quick walk midday does it for me – anything from 25 to 55 minutes depending on weather, time available etc.
July 16, 2010 - 4:43 pm
Ah, just realised I’m supposed to stay at my desk! Oops.
July 16, 2010 - 4:49 pm
Well, I suppose you could walk on the spot, David! Chairwalking? But I don’t think it would be quite as beneficial somehow. Certainly not as good as sleep working anyway. (Sleep working is the name David has cleverly given to the practice of generating great ideas on a topic by thinking about something else entirely, or leaving it till tomorrow).
July 16, 2010 - 5:18 pm
I am going to admit to my secret vice – I play Farmville to give me a break. But ssshhh don’t tell anyone.
July 16, 2010 - 5:25 pm
Your secret is quite safe with me and all my readers, Nicky. The only place it would be safer is on Twitter!
July 19, 2010 - 1:34 pm
I’ve just been having a look at WeeBirdy, (THANK YOU… LOVELY) and I also look at Sartorialist every day, Ian’s finally registered with vouchercodes.co.uk this is brill for cheap stuff and worth looking at every day too. if you’re going into a town where they have Pizza Express or similar etc it’s worth checking out cos you could print out a voucher in advance and get a free pizza etc…now back to the drawing board! xx
July 19, 2010 - 1:47 pm
Thanks, Marg, that’s a great tip, I’ll add it to my bookmarks straightaway! Taking a break & saving money at the same time – brilliant.