how to work from home » Social media

3 ways to take a break without leaving your desk when you work at home

judy — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:11:55 +0000

1. Hook up with fellow home workers and freelancers on Twitter
At 11 am in the UK the hospitable San Sharma (Charmer?) of Enterprise Nation hosts #watercoolermoment, which has a daily topic for you to chew over. On Fridays you can eyeball each other on the video chat.
I’ve recently also discovered #elevensestime, which I popped into for the first time today and found a very friendly and welcoming bunch of tweeters. @MartinGBEdwards is the main man and there’s also a blog Elevenses Time, which brings me neatly to my next point:

2. Give your brain a rest
and gather some inspiration by reading a blog or two totally unrelated to your work. One of my absolute favourites is The Sartorialist, a photo blog of stylish ‘ordinary’ people in the streets of New York and the cities Sartorialist Scott Schuman visits to record fashion shows. I also like Wee Birdy, a fresh, colourful design blog by an Australian living in London with lots of equally good links.

3. And just for a change
stop looking at that computer screen and give your eyes a rest. We tend to spend far too long for the health of our eyes gazing at computers. Keep your eyes open while cupping your palms gently over them and look into the soft, warm blackness for a couple of minutes…aaaahhh, what a relief!

Excuse me, I’m having a #jellymoment

judy — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:10:52 +0000

Today was Jelly day once again at The Old Church School in Frome, and having discovered Jelly was happening at the same time in both Cardiff and Coalport, I racked my brains for a way of connecting us all.

It was A who came up with the brilliant idea of having a #jellymoment on Twitter like the #watercoolermoment Enterprise Nation run at 11 am every morning. We decided on 12 as the start time, and despite a few grumbling stomachs demanding lunch, got such a good response that we reached 3rd in UK trending, as you can see on the left. Not at all bad for a first attempt!

I’ll be back…w/c 19 April

judy — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:59:25 +0000

It’s unlikely I’ll be posting here until I’ve moved into my new home office, so apologies in advance for the disruption to normal home working service. In the meantime you might like to visit a few of my online friends to fill the gap:

San Sharma is the friendly host of #watercoolermoment every weekday at 11 am. Home workers meet on Twitter for an online coffee break to chew over home business issues of the highest importance, such as if you had a Tardis, where would you go?

Emily Cagle’s blog offers thoughtful, well-written posts on marketing and communications, as well as guest posts from other experts, including, ahem, me in the near future if I’m not mistaken.

David Wike has a dry sense of humour that makes me laugh out loud and his new blog The Watercooler (yes, not entirely unrelated to the above) is a collection of snippets of his (very) random thoughts. Give him a try and please tell him I sent you.

Well, that’s all I’ve got time for before A pulls the plug and packs up the computer, so bye for now and see you soo

Unexpected pleasures

judy — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:55:18 +0000

A and I have noticed before that it’s amazing what can happen when you let go of trying hard, and go off and do something else entirely. I’ve been doing a lot of work lately on content for the site and articles for other websites and blogs. But with the move coming up next week, like it or not, I’ve now got no choice but to spend time on packing and getting organised.

We were busy with this yesterday morning and part of the afternoon, but when I arrived home and looked at my Twitter account, I discovered that in my absence Work from Home had been recommended by Enterprise Nation members and put on their Amazon Wish List! Quite made my day, if not my whole week.

And a welcome reminder right now that good things happen all by themselves without planning, strategising or my direct involvement. Phew, long exhale, shoulders down…

The tweetometer stands at 1000

judy — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:26:04 +0000

My observant coworking friend Lee Cottier pointed out the other day that I have now sent out more than 1000 tweets. I wasn’t keeping count, so the total was a surprise. It would be good if you could attach a tweetometer to the side of your computer and watch the tweets roll up, just like the miles on a car!

Passing 1000 tweets made me think back on all the people and information Twitter has brought me in just over five months. For a start, it was where I found out about Jelly and then met or connected with many interesting people who can see the possibilities in coworking. I now have lots of Jelly information on the site and it’s exciting to know that it’s being read, and recommended, by coworking spaces in the US where Jelly originated.

I find it quite staggering that I can tweet a short message from the West Country here in the UK that is instantly picked up by like-minded people on the west coast of America. This really is the best time in history to be starting and running a business.

Joining the Twitterverse

judy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:54:25 +0000

Work on the website has been on hold for the time being, as recently I attended a Twitter training course and I’ve been practising what I learnt. Our immensely knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher was Mark Shaw and thanks to him I have been able to dip a toe into the world of social media. There is absolutely no chance I would have done it on my own by just signing up for an account and trying to figure it out for myself.

I have to admit that when I first heard about Twitter, I wondered why on earth anyone would bother to write messages of 140 characters or less about what they were doing, and even more why anyone would be sad enough to read them. What I have discovered is that by being discerning about what you write and who you follow, you can pick up the very latest news on any topic and make contact with people who are experts in their field and are willing to share tips.

If you want to embark on Twitter or improve your skills, I highly recommend you follow Mark Shaw, who sends out regular tips and bulletins throughout the day. And of course you can follow me on http://twitter.com/judyheminsley

A glimpse of the future?

judy — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:24:05 +0000

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…)