There are no sheep at the moment, they were moved after the ram had done his business, so we’re looking forward to their return with lambs in a couple of months. The chickens are the sole occupants of the field and very straggly some of them are. I keep meaning to find out if they are battery farm retirees. If so it must be a mind-blowing experience to come from a cooped -up existence to all this green freedom.

I have see the occasional fly and ladybird in the house throughout the winter and today there are midges dancing in the sunshine over the mill race. Long may this mild weather last.

A has seen a kingfisher flash past, and enjoys the dippers as they chomp up insects in the wall along the river, but the king of the mill is the heron, pictured here from our kitchen window waiting patiently for fish. It’s used to us now and doesn’t fly away immediately when we leave the house, pausing for a while before flapping languidly away upriver to settle on a treetop and wait for us to leave it in peace. I say king, and we always refer to it as a he for some reason, but it could equally well be a sheron, couldn’t it?

Draughtproofing – last year we were living in a house with Victorian single-glazed windows and it was freezing. I kept some curtains closed all day, but this is too depressing for a room you spend a lot of time in. The house we’re in now has secondary glazing and it makes a noticeable difference.

If you can’t install secondary or double glazing, fill gaps between sashes and cracks in woodwork with draughtproofing foam. A home working friend tells me that the temporary secondary glazing kits you install yourself using tape and plastic film smoothed out with a hairdryer are also very effective.

Fill gaps around doors (not forgetting keyholes!), pipework and electrical fittings. Block up gaps in floorboards where cold air will come whistling through.

Follow the sun – copy the cat, the ultimate comfort-loving animal, and make sure you’re always working in a patch of sunlight. In our current house, my home office faces north and gets no sun at all, whereas A’s is on the opposite side of the house and on clear days is bathed in sun all morning. I sometimes take my laptop in there when he’s out. Not only is it warmer but working in sunshine provides such a psychological lift.

Thanks to wifi I’ve also been working in the sitting room window to take advantage, not only of the sun, but also the woodburner, which we both love. I find that working away from my usual spot also helps productivity, which gives me a warm internal glow!

Localised heating – home workers are often reluctant to keep the heating on all day when the rest of the family is out, and these days the cost is often prohibitive anyway. Once your home office is draught-free, bring in a space heater to keep you warm all day without busting the budget. Oil-filled radiators are highly recommended by a home working friend and apparently cost only pennies a day to run.

I’m hoping this winter will stay mild, but many home workers are guaranteed months of snow and ice – how do you heat your home office as economically and greenly as possible to stay warm over the winter?

I’m getting ready to go, but I’ve just received an email from Triumphant Events, the organisers of the KPI programme, with details of a Key Person Of Influence day event they’re holding in London on Saturday 30 October. So I’m publishing Friday’s blog post early so you have a chance to get a ticket at the special launch price, which is only available for a couple of days and includes a handful of bonuses.

As well as Mike Harris, the speakers are Mindy Gibbins-Klein, known as the Book Midwife for her work in helping people write and publish their books, Peter Thomson, UK expert in creating online information products, Penny Power, founder of Ecademy, Daniel Priestley, social media guru and MD of Triumphant Events, plus others to be announced.

Check out the Key Person of Influence day event if you fancy a taste of the programme I’ll be experiencing over the next 6 months.

That’s all – gotta dash!

‘Breaking off a chunk of work that I think I can achieve in 25 minutes, writing this down, winding up the kitchen timer and working until it rings. Then I have a time 5 min break. It’s a trick borrowed from, or is rather the essence of, the Pomodoro Technique.

‘I’ve recently figured out an enhancement to this trick – as well as writing down what I hope to achieve in the next 25 mins (which I find in an important part of crystalising exactly what needs to be done), I also now write down the very next trivially small thing I need to do in order to get started. So for example if I’m preparing a presentation, it’s “Find the presentation template I was emailed the other day and open it in PowerPoint”. I really find this lowers the barrier for engaging in the task and then I tend to get on a roll and complete the task.

‘I think slicing tasks up is effective because it makes starting on seemingly over-whelming tasks much more possible, giving you a tangible amount of work you can do in manageable amount of time.
Ironically, it’s actually defining work to be done that seems to be 90% of the effort for me. It doesn’t take very long but requires the most mental energy.’

This sounded so effective that I have attempted the technique, but so far I’ve found that either I’m engrossed when the timer goes off, switch it off and just carry on working oblivious to time, or I’m on a roll and unwilling to stop. I’m going to persevere, though, because I think there are all sorts of reasons this is beneficial – to be more productive, move around more, rest the eyes etc.

As I had a very long day in London on Friday and we left for Cornwall on Saturday morning, I had no blog posts ready and waiting. So I took my laptop with the vague idea I could write something while I was there, using the B&B wifi.

Well, you only have to check this blog to find out how that worked out! I had thought maybe I could throw down some thoughts while A was surfing, but in the event my mind was far too busy relaxing and reviewing previous events to have room to create more posts!

Some people like to take away projects to work on during holidays, but I think it’s better for me to switch off and take a complete break before powering up again. I can always tell when I’m rested because ideas spring up spontaneously.

Thank you for the home working stories, comments and tweets that you’ve sent in since last week. You now know why there’s been a delay in responding. I’m currently doing my best to switch from beach mode to desk mode, but it might take a while!

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 only commitment is meeting Louise Billington, an inspiring coach and much more for small business, for tea this afternoon to catch up with news. Tomorrow I’m off on the early train to London to hear Topher Morrison talk about the practical and performance aspects of becoming a professional speaker.

So this Thursday I have lots to be thankful for and I’m wondering if you’d like to take a moment to share the little things that make you happy and make a positive impact on your home working life?

As well as the comments on the post, I received quite a few tweets. Dog people came out top (or most vocal!) with Melanie Shearn explaining ‘We’re both very playful so have tugs-of-war & charge around house & garden together. When they’re ill – lots of cleaning ‘

Sarah Pettegree‘s cat is well-behaved in winter when he likes to sit at the back of her desk next to the radiator, but in summer it’s a different story – ‘Sadly he not only knows how to sit on keyboards, he can wrench keys off when removing him.’

So maybe smaller animals have something going for them? Melanie also put in a word for hamsters – ‘A good one for 5-9ers is hamsters. They’re so inquisitive and funny. But sleep all day. And ‘caged’ animals not for everyone.’

Julie Mitchell-Mehta lives in Aberdeenshire and prefers her feathered friends – ‘Chickens are good. Don’t interrupt phone calls [like my publisher's dog!] but good excuse to pop out to feed them – and eggs for lunch. Let them out and feed them first thing, collect eggs, lock them in again when it gets dark. Clean out once a week Not many foxes here, worse in cities. Make sure you always lock them in safely as soon as it gets dark.’

Julie would probably not relish a fox in the neighbourhood, unlike David Wike, editor of The Watercooler who loves his wildlife and appreciates the result of his garden being adopted by a fox – ‘Foxes are better than cats. They eat snails not birds.’ Well, I never knew that.

Happy bank holiday, whether you’re working or not, and whichever animal or bird is your home working companion!

‘I bought this little blighter at a garden centre… it’s a big green and red fly (I suppose). Anyway it’s my little friend that sits on my desk, always brings a smile to my face and listens to everything I have to say (unlike my wife).’

Ian has also very kindly sent me one of his illustrations and it’s perfect as the basis for a future post, so you’ll be seeing more of him here soon. In fact you may well recognise his style, as he’s provided the illustrations for some well-known advertising campaigns and bestselling book covers, and been published in many newspapers and magazines.

“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 old Anglepoise lamp at a jumble sale and it gives off this lovely warm glow that I can point anywhere – and it reminds me of Pixar, a company I really admire for its convergence of business and creativity. It’s also really handy when I’m on a video call and need flattering lighting!”

Good tip, San, thanks! We now have a high standard to live up to on Skype, folks!

‘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 very inspiring too.

‘As promised, here is the little router. It is a great piece of kit. It gives me the freedom of being connected to the internet from anywhere in the house. That means that I have the flexibility to run coaching sessions over Skype away from the office, in a more relaxed environment. The router works well with the wi-fi phone and printer. It took me a little while to set it all up but it was really worth it.’

Does anyone else have a favourite piece of technology they really enjoy? Just tweet me a photo and some words to @judyheminsley or email me at judy@workfromhomewisdom.com