For technophobes

Technology allows more and more of us

to work from home and other locations outside the office.

But that doesn’t mean we all love technology!

In today’s guest post charity fundraising consultant

and writer Liz Proctor

relates how even technophobes can branch out

and use tech more than they thought.

Technology. Does it strike fear into your heart or make it leap for joy?

I’ve always fallen into the technophobes camp and been deeply suspicious of anything computer-related. But, like it or loathe it, it seems we can’t ignore technology when working from home. So I very sensibly married someone who has been playing with computers all his life (it wasn’t the only reason, honest) and since I set up my business he’s been my unpaid but much appreciated IT Support. Recently, though, I took a huge step and did something for myself.

You know what? It wasn’t hard.

I tell you this so you can see that, if I can get over myself and do something more than switch the thing on and check my email, you can too. And if we can do that one thing, surely there’s no limit to what we technophobes can achieve!

Let me explain. I set up my blog on Blogger because it looked like the easiest option. So far so good. But I soon decided I liked WordPress better. With my lack of enthusiasm about the finer points of technology, you can probably see why it took me years to get around to moving the blog. It just seemed too hard.

Then came the day when I decided enough was enough; I was going to switch. Unfortunately the husband was inconveniently out at work, so I took matters into my own hands and turned (of course) to Google. And there, immediately, were several pages of neat instructions telling me exactly how to move a blog from Blogger to WordPress. What was more, I actually understood them.

I had to take several deep breaths in case it all went horribly wrong, but in the end it took me about two and a half minutes and worked perfectly. Why had I put this off for two years?

I won’t tell you how to do it. I can’t remember, and if you’re reading this blog it’s a fair assumption you can use Google too. But my point is that, maddeningly complicated and unfathomable as technology can sometimes be, by now most of the things that ordinary mortals and technophobes like us are going to want to do with it have probably been made easy by those nice techie people who actually understand them.

I won’t be joining the ranks of the initiated any time soon, and I’d still rather use a pen and paper, but from now on I will be taking technology matters into my own hands more often. And if I can do it, so can you!

Liz lives, works and writes at home in Suffolk, endlessly exploring the fine balance between consultancy, child-wrangling and creativity. She is trying to make peace with the term home-maker (even though she works full time) and is currently wondering what to do with the 24 tomato seedlings which are bursting out of her greenhouse. Find out more at her blog Live and work at home.

Liz enjoys working in the garden and her outdoor office is featured in the Outdoor and mobile home offices gallery.