Take a break - for the sake of your health and your profits

I'm grateful to LearnStuff for sending me this infographic.

Although it turns the stats into an easy read, there's a lot to think about here, and I feel that us home workers may be even more prone to these problems.

A five-minute break can improve your accuracy and reduce wrist and eye problems and fatigue. Taking a walk at lunchtime can improve your sleep, energy and mood.

This is just an extract, visit http://www.learnstuff.com/take-a-break/  to see loads more important stats and advice.

More productive or less productive when working from home?

I've seen bosses and colleagues cynically equate working from home with a paid day off, and the title of my blog is a direct reference to this attitude.

But a survey says that we are more productive when away from the office because there are fewer distractions.

This item on the NY Times says that reading using a handheld device provides many distractions. I would apply this to working from home too - if I'm bored with what I'm supposed to be doing, the open tabs along the top of my browser or the apps in my dock become way too tempting.

I'm sure that distractions at home (household tasks, social networking, receiving a delivery...) balance the distractions at work cited in the survey (chatting with colleagues or walking to someone's office to make a request) and I would say that working unsupervised gives you more freedom to give in to the distractions than when working with others.

However, there are other benefits too. The article makes the point that for the employer (or the self-employed) there's a huge financial saving to be had from working from home, and for the worker the lack of a commute is a huge saving in time, stress and money. These things make working from home cheaper and more enjoyable, and I have no doubt outweigh a difference in productivity.

Don't feel bad about taking a break

When you're busy, it's difficult to take a break and spend a little time doing something apparently unproductive, but I've just read this report which justifies it.

I've often said that I do my best thinking when I go out walking. I've treated a break for knitting or a little surfing as a treat or a rest, but maybe these things also have real productive value.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/how-do-we-identifiy-good-ideas/

More on prioritising tasks

I'm sure I'm not the only one who looks at the to do list and can't be bothered to do any of it.

And then picks up my knitting or picks the thing from the list that is most appealing. I've said in previous posts 'why not?'

How about this trick; write beside each task a monetary value and how soon that value could be realised. Then think about the next big goal - the next new car or holiday.

Suddenly the list looks quite different and it's more obvious which one to do first!