Posts tagged home offices
Favourite home worker things No 6
Jul 29th
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 the pink teacosy is her favourite home working item – ‘You just don’t get this kind of thing in an office. And all my own work too. As for tea, builders for me.’
Favourite home worker things No 5
Jul 28th
Chrissie Slade creates skincare solutions for pampered guinea pigs and nominates this box as her favourite home working item:
‘Here is one of my inspiration boxes 
Some people collect shoes, I collect Essential Oils and use them every day as part of my “job” creating skincare products for guinea pigs. Working with nice aromas every day is a real pleasure.’
More home workers’ favourites coming up over the week. If you’d like to share your own peculiar pleasure, just email a photo and some words to me at judy@workfromhomewisdom.com. Can’t wait to see ‘em!
Favourite home worker things No 4
Jul 23rd
Emma Windsor is a virtual PA and sent me a picture of her garden as well, but for some reason I can’t make it come out the right way up, so I’ll just show you her cute feline friend for now.
‘If the weather is good I like to go out and sit and be quiet for 5/10 mins. The cat may come and sit for awhile or I’ll watch her running around like a lunatic. If the weather is bad then I can see from office window or watch and stare whilst waiting for kettle to boil.
‘I can also see the school playground in the distance. I can’t make out my daughter but it is lovely to hear them playing.
‘All my clients work from home, many in the middle of nowhere. If I have to pop over I love being with nature and sometimes stroking their pets.
‘Lovely to be around beautiful things rather than sharp edges of office buildings and the heat of the city.’
Thank you to everyone who has sent pictures so far. I’ve more lined up ready to publish and look forward to seeing more of your home worker favourites.
Favourite home worker things No 3
Jul 23rd
Elizabeth Druce is busy organising Chiltern Jelly, which is good news for home workers and freelancers working in the Beds/Bucks/Herts borders area.
‘I couldn’t resist sending you this picture of my little home worker helper. He sits on my desk, in just the right spot for me to easily glance toward his quizzical little face when I’m in need of inspiration, I’m angry, frustrated or sad and ask him “So Chips, what do you think then?” Who could not resist a smile when gazing upon him?’
Favourite home worker things No 2
Jul 22nd
Best to click on the photo for a larger view of this. Tim Osmond has taken its words to heart and says only, ‘It’s an old Government poster from the 60′s by Reginald Mount – I have more, my walls are a bit stern…’
Tim’s wife writes a blog about vintage posters, Quad Royal, which would be a good destination for home workers wanting to take a quick break without leaving their desk. I particularly like these Daphne Padden posters. I would say I might even remember them, but that’s impossible, I’m far too young…
Favourite home worker things No 1
Jul 21st
There’s been a great response to my previous post about the little things that lighten a home worker’s load, so I’m starting to publish them sooner than expected. The first to arrive was from Paul Graves, @cyteen02, who says:
‘Here’s one of my favourite home worker things. This is a picture of the outside of my first floor window. I have a couple of bird feeders, which at the moment are a favourite haunt of a family of 2 adult and 3 recently fledged blue tits. It’s a wonderful reminder of life outside my office.
‘Home working, as an IT specialist, has a load of benefits, especially as I’m a family man and delight to be around them all a bit more. But there are times when I feel I live in my office, so any reminder of life outside is much appreciated.’
Thanks, Paul, I think many of us can identify with that. I’ve got more favourite home worker things lined up ready for publication so please keep ‘em coming!
Home workers’ helpers
Jul 19th
I’m fascinated by the places other home workers work, and I bet you are too, but whenever I ask for a photo of their workspace to put on the home office page of the site, they always reply ‘Not till I’ve tidied up’. Which never seems to happen because we’ve all got more pressing things to do.
So I had the idea to share not a photo of your workspace, which obviously has too much potential for embarrassment, but of an object, picture, view, piece of equipment or furniture etc that helps you in some way as a home worker. I’ll start with my own on the assumption that if I show you mine, maybe you’ll show me yours!
This little Buddha head is made of beautifully carved soapstone and I particularly enjoy the tightly coiled topknot. It has a lovely feeling of serenity about it and that’s why it’s on my desk – I hope it’s catching! Does it work? Well, in much the same way as Rescue Remedy – the time I need it is the time I never think about it! But I do enjoy looking at it and handling it when I’m musing about something.
So I hope someone’s going to be brave enough to email me a photo and a few words to judy@workfromhomewisdom.com and start us off?
Inconspicuous nonconsumption
Jun 28th
20th century success was a highly visible, material affair, consisting of houses, cars, yachts, clothes, jewellery etc. We are now coming to terms with the finite resources left on the planet we have so efficiently depleted, and have to learn to consume less in a more efficient manner.
21st century success is going to be less visible, both in its origins and its results. I know people running profitable businesses with customers or a tribe of followers all over the world and yet even their neighbours have no idea what they’re doing. The contemporary success story might equally be the person living in the modest terraced house, driving the ten year old car. Success is going internal, dependent on how you feel about yourself and your contribution to the world.
What makes you feel fulfilled and successful? Does it have anything to do with your possessions?
A moving experience
Jun 27th
Moving house is supposed to be up there amongst the most stressful events of a lifetime, and if you run a business from home, there’s even more to consider. We’ve moved our home and two businesses several times in recent years and so I’ve distilled my experiences into a short guide ‘How to move house when you work at home’ published by my pals at Enterprise Nation.
What I’ve learnt is that there’s plenty you can’t control about a house move (such as whether your utility suppliers actually provide what they’ve promised, as I described in Moving in more ways than one) but you’ll have less to worry about if you prepare as much as you possibly can and keep track of what others are doing. Often things will happen that you didn’t predict, but I find it helps to bear in mind that it will all work out in the end, even if you can’t sort it out straightaway!
News, news!
Jun 2nd
Those of you who are self-employed will know that there are many milestones when you’re working for yourself – collecting your new business cards, your first meeting, the first client, first invoice (whoo hoo). I’ve just achieved a milestone by sending out my first newsletter. (And you can sign up by clicking on the little green house at the top of the right-hand column).
I’ll be sending it out from time to time to tell subscribers the latest and best news about working from home and to offer special deals on my growing range of products and services. This month – or until 14 June – subscribers can get a 60 minute Work from Home Audit for the price of 30 minutes.
I’ve been amazed and delighted by the leaps made by the people who have done the Audit so far. They’ve confirmed that losing a sense of perspective really is one of the chief dangers of working from home, but that talking to someone who both understands and can be entirely objective can rapidly lead to renewed enthusiasm and surprising progress.
So don’t stay stuck, give me a call and get moving!
